From crafting captivating campaigns that embody the holiday spirit to treating your customers to the gift of discounts and freebies, there are many things you can do to ensure your brand shines as bright as Rudolph’s nose.
’Tis the season for elevating your email marketing game, so sit down, wrap up tight, grab a cuppa (or mulled wine), and check out our top tips to help grow your eCommerce brand this Christmas season.
Build a Festive Email Campaign
Designing eye-catching emails that align with the Christmas theme is a great way to entice customers and encourage them to engage.
Use holiday colours, images, and graphics in the design and Christmas-themed ad copy in the email body and subject lines to capture your audience’s attention and make them instantly realise that it’s a Christmas-themed campaign.
Create Limited-Time Offers
There aren’t many things more desirable and click-worthy than a big, limited-time offer that makes the customer believe they’ll be missing out on if they don’t follow through.
This doesn’t have to be as extensive as “99% off everything,” but treat your email subscribers to a decent discount to make them believe it’s exclusive to them. The main aim here is to create FOMO.
A “limited-time, 24-hour sale” is perfect. Not only does it entice customers into shopping, but it also gives them enough time to shop if they’re unable to read their emails as quickly. Don’t put people off with 30-minute discounts, as a lot of your customers may not be in the position to purchase then and there.
Highlight Bestselling Products
Highlighting your bestselling products is a great way to showcase the best of the best you have to offer. There’s a reason why your customers shop your products (and why they shop some more than others), so help your other customers down a similar path by encouraging them to purchase those very same items.
Make sure you load this email (or emails) with FOMO-inducing copy, subject lines, and design work. Using phrases such as “our bestsellers are going FAST” will make customers want to be a part of the action and join those who’ve already purchased.
Implement Abandoned Cart/Checkout Emails
Don’t miss out on marketing towards your customers who are showing the intent to purchase but are dropping out at the last minute. Curate specialised abandoned cart or abandoned checkout emails that offer another incentive to purchase.
You could go as far as giving a 20% discount to users who fall into this category to encourage them to go back on-site to continue shopping. Let the customer know that you care about their service, and they may be more inclined to shop with you at that moment and also in the future.
Utilise User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is such a valuable arrow to have in your quiver of marketing tools.
Utilising UGC has a number of benefits for your brand, including building authenticity and trust, establishing brand loyalty, being more cost-effective than influencer marketing, versatility, and much more.
If you showcase your products within an email alongside UGC, it won’t just do all the above, but it can help the customer to see and picture how your product is used, worn, applied, etc.
There are many creators out there who resonate with different brands and industries, so have a search around and find the person best suited to your business.
Create a 12 Days of Christmas Countdown
No matter how old you are, we all love opening a door on an advent calendar each day and discovering what’s inside. Get customers excited to open their emails by offering them 12 days of Christmas-inspired offers or discounts.
If you promise your customers a brand-new promotion every day, they’ll be likely to come back and open their email to discover what it is you’re offering them.
Many brands already make use of this offer, so don’t fall behind the curve!
Provide Gift Guides
Have you ever struggled to find that perfect present for that friend or family member and wish you could have found a curated gift-giving guide to help you? Well, why not offer that to your customers?
There are bound to be people on your mailing list who have no clue as to what to give to the closest people in their lives. So give them a hand and create a specialised gift guide to help them at every turn.
If you need a bit of advice on how to create a Christmas gift guide, check out our blog here.
Offer Exclusive Deals to Subscribers
Reward your email subscribers with exclusive discounts or early access to Christmas promotions and product launches.
By doing this, you can foster a sense of loyalty amongst your subscribers and make them feel valued and appreciated. In turn, this loyalty could translate into increased engagement and a higher likelihood of converting email subscribers into paying customers.
Your subscribers will also see you as a company that appreciates its customers and may be more likely to stay as repeat customers or even encourage their friends and family to sign up for your mailing list and purchase from you.
At the end of the day, customers remember generosity and value it highly when considering who to shop from.
Leveraging email marketing during the festive season can bring plenty of benefits to your eCommerce business; there are many techniques to increase customer satisfaction and ultimately drive sales.
