Editorial Articles

ExactTarget releases top tips for email marketing success in the festive period

The Christmas shopping season is now in full swing and the January sales are just around the corner. As online retail sales are expected to increase by 16% on last year , it’s essential that companies are prepared with an effective email marketing strategy to capture the most engagement – and revenue – from email subscribers – those valuable consumers that ‘tick the box for marketing’.

We know your seasonal email marketing plan has probably already been signed off, and now is not the time to revamp your entire seasonal programme. So we've come up with a list of quick wins that marketers can implement today to make a big impact without having to make huge time or resource investments. See it as an early Christmas gift...

1) Make simple design changes to increase conversion: Christmas seems to come earlier each year, and the real challenge is standing out from the crowd. By optimising your emails, Christmas shopping will seem more relevant to your subscribers, resulting in increased engagement and revenue. Consider some of these tricks: 

• Engaging subject lines: the subject line is often the only opportunity you have to influence a subscriber before they decide to open or delete your email. Create interesting subject lines, and give readers a brief summary of what’s inside, to optimise click through rates, engagement and (ultimately) profitability. Try an engaging, enticing subject line like ‘Name, we Left a Gift in Your Stocking....’? Personalisation makes subscribers feel that they have a better connection to the company, and the edgier copy will leave them curious
• Christmas motif: help subscribers get into the Christmas shopping spirit by creating winter and Christmas graphics and headers, or enhance your colour scheme by adding festive colours or your own brand colours in a seasonal light
• Christmas email countdown: excite your subscribers, and remind them that their time to shop is running out. It doesn’t have to refer to the ‘days until Christmas’, it could track the days until your free shipping offer runs out, or until they can order items to ensure delivery before the big day. Either way countdowns create a sense of urgency, and help you to capture revenue sooner

2) Include clear calls-to-action: Now you’ve got their interest, maximise subscriber engagement with a clear call to action. What is it that you want readers to do? Visit your website? Check out today’s deals? Subscribers won’t do what you want unless it’s clear what the objective of the message is. Messages in the upper left quadrant of the email are seen first and, therefore, perform well. Attention-grabbing colours and graphics, and relevant copy will enhance an email by drawing the reader’s eye to a particular spot you want them to see. Try to encourage buyers to ‘shop now’ rather than ‘buy now’ – but remember simply changing copy without reason won’t produce results for your campaigns.

3) Enable subscribers to share your emails with friends: Research shows that consumers are more inclined to open an email from a friend than from a company. Let subscribers take control of the content you send them by making it easy for them to pass along to their friends on Facebook, Twitter, and more than 20 other social sites. Give your customers control and extend the reach of your marketing messages, drive deeper engagement with customers and their online communities, and build your subscriber list.

4) Implement a welcome email strategy: As new shoppers come across your site this Christmas, they may be interested in signing up to your email club. How will you engage them and ensure that they won’t opt-out later? Implementing a welcome email strategy, makes your customers feel appreciated and personally connected to your company while encouraging them to continue shopping on your site. Use welcome emails as an opportunity to provide product recommendations, friends and family discounts, and additional coupons – driving traffic back to your site. Consider capturing user preferences with your welcome emails to help build a database of subscriber information to keep them engaged all year round.

5) Extend personalisation from email to landing page: Rather than leaving subscribers to delete your email or act on their own accord, provide a personalised path to a Landing page where you can keep them oriented, accentuate your call to action, and capture a greater conversion rate.

Nigel Arthur, UK Managing Director, ExactTarget says: “Cutting through the clutter and delivering great customer engagement over the festive period is a tough ask for marketers. Especially when so many brands are still adopting the volume approach to email marketing. Effective marketers understand that the best way to drive success with email is to offer unique and relevant content. Taking the time to make your emails stand out is best practice not only for Christmas but also the whole year round.”

For further information, and to download a full free guide on Christmas marketing tips from ExactTarget, click here.