Relevant, Well-​Timed Email Marketing Campaigns Drive Holiday Sales

BY Rachel Cagle
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We may be experiencing record-​breaking heat around the country, but your client should be thinking ahead to the upcoming holiday season. Every year, jack-​o-​lantern and turkey displays seem to be replaced with trees and snowmen even earlier than the one before. And more and more people tend to start their gift shopping before Black Friday. How can you let them know that your client has the products and deals they’re looking for? With relevant, well-​timed email marketing campaigns, of course.

Relevant, Well-​Timed Email Marketing Campaigns Drive Holiday Sales

Email > All

According to optimove’s 2023 Holiday Shopping Survey, 55% of consumers say that they prefer receiving holiday email ads over other ad types. The runner-​up formats that brands can use to reach out to consumers don’t even come close:

  • Email: 55%
  • Text: 13%
  • Social Media: 11%
  • Mobile App Notifications: 6%
  • Direct Mail: 4%

Even though consumers prefer brands to contact them via email, that doesn’t mean they’ll open just any message they receive. In fact, most consumers only open 1%-50% of the ads in their inboxes. To make sure that consumers enjoy receiving your client’s holiday email ads, you need to prioritize a few things.

Relevancy

The holiday season is peak email ad time, so consumers’ inboxes are full to bursting. To get their attention (and to keep them from unsubscribing from your client’s email list to clear some space), your client needs to ensure that their email marketing campaigns only contain messages relevant to recipients. According to optimove, 37% of consumers say that timely, relevant content makes them engage with email ads. What makes email ads relevant?

You can get all the information your client needs for personalized emails and offers from each consumer’s shopping and browsing history, as well as what’s been abandoned in their carts.

Frequency

One of the most important parts of crafting effective email marketing campaigns is well-​planned message frequency. Remember, consumer inboxes are overflowing during the holiday shopping season, so it’s no wonder that optimove says that 37% of consumers would prefer to receive fewer emails from businesses. 12% go as far as to say that they’re overwhelmed with the amount businesses currently send out. So, look up how many holiday-​related emails your client sent out last year and slash the number.

Continuing to add what consumers consider an overwhelming number of messages to your client’s email marketing campaigns can end up making consumers unsubscribe. Optimove says that 81% of consumers unsubscribe from brands that send excessive emails while they’re shopping online. Also, during a typical holiday season, consumers tend to unsubscribe from:

  • 1–3 brands' email lists: 49%
  • 4–10: 34%
  • 11+: 7%

Seriously. Get your client to slash their holiday email frequency.

Timing

Holiday email marketing campaigns tend to start so early that consumers are already tired of them by November. No, really. Optimove says that the highest levels of holiday email ad fatigue are in December and November. The month with the lowest fatigue is August. So, it’s time to get your client’s holiday email messages rolling! Send them out more regularly for the next few months and then slow down in November and December for the best results.

Perfecting Email Ads

Want to know how to craft the perfect holiday message for your client’s upcoming email marketing campaigns? Check out their target audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you’ll be able to look up the audience’s opinions of different ad media types, as well as what types of messages they’re the most receptive to and products/​services they intend to pay for within the next year.

Photo by noelle

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