10 Email Marketing Tips to Boost Your Business this Christmas

Christmas is nearly here! As purse strings start to loosen, and the festive cheer starts to spread, marketers should be thinking about executing the perfect emailing marketing campaign. A range of opportunities can be found within B2B and B2C, from brand awareness and heightened engagement to retaining clients and generating sales. While emailing marketing is hard to ignore at this time of the year, not everyone makes the most of the time. Use these ten tips to end Q4 in style.

Time Management

The first rule of Christmas email marketing is to always start spreading the festive cheer sooner rather than later. Schedule adequate time to prepare your material before sending messages to your target audience. Creating a content calendar is a great way to manage this time frame effectively before it slips through your fingers.

Get Creative

Grab this opportunity to showcase those design skills by ditching the black and white in favour of red and green. Set aside time to discuss the layout of your material and what to put in it. Personality and character through festive goodwill should really connect you to your audience.

Market Knowledge

According to a survey published in January 2014 by the British Retail Consortium, more people bought online in December 2013 than ever before, with one in five non-food items purchased online. Findings such as these illustrate the importance of marketing to your target audience effectively. In order to reach the right people, thorough research is needed. Keep Christmas in mind when monitoring social activity across numerous channels. Who responds well to your whitepapers? Which product posts gained the most activity? Implement this information when assigning your audience into different segments to maximise interest.

Connect with Your Audience

Christmas is the perfect time to bestow your followers with more emails than usual as we have all come to expect a slight influx. Keep your messages simple and friendly rather than desperate and pushy. A simple ‘Merry Christmas’ can go a long way to increase engagement, while addressing each person by name will create a personable feel.

Re-engagement

Customer re-engagement is an important aspect of email marketing as connecting with past clients and customers can grow your customer base for the following year. However, reaching out to inactive customers could take up valuable time and space without proper preparation. Clear out misspelt addresses, unsubscribed emails and bounces. Once these actions have been taken, emails can sent to the right people, rather than a blanket email approach.

Go Responsive

Responsive design is now a must for any business online. In June 2014, it was reported that 51% of emails are opened on a mobile device, and that 70% of mobile activity results in website searches within one hour. These statistics highlight the importance of mobile in today’s ecommerce figures. Want to be part of the trend? Go responsive.

Offers and Promotions

This window of opportunity should be utilised efficiently to maximise click through rates (CLRs) and generate sales. Limited-time offers are often used as a quick promotional strategy to prompt sales. Remember to show the original RRP price followed by the discount price to tempt purchases. B2C emails should link to offers that will come in handy for the season, while B2B businesses should simply focus on hard-to-resist deals with some Christmas design thrown in.

Pro Bono

Now is the opportunity to show to your customer base that you go that extra mile by adding extra touches to your emails that aren’t connected to any financial gain. Great ideas include seasonal recipe ideas, DIY how-to’s or a free delivery service. Find ways to stand out from the crowd as your competitors will be increasing their marketing efforts too.

Business as Usual

While many aspects of email marketing can be utilised effectively in B2C, B2B professionals should also be taking notes. Although B2C and B2B can both send out newsletters and product information, B2B buying behaviour is often more complex than a B2C customer looking for a new winter coat. B2B purchases are all about longevity and (with any luck) bulk. Rather than hitting clients with one loud email, nurture your leads through several emails that outline your products, services and why they are needed. B2B professionals should use this time to remind new and existing clients that they are still there and are busy working behind the scenes to keep the numbers ticking over the holidays.

Looking forward

Finally, businesses should think ahead to the future rather than resting on their laurels in the present. Now is the time to focus on sustainable growth by retaining those fresh, new Christmas customers into the New Year and beyond. Why not send out a New Year’s email to mark the start of a new client or customer relationship? You could then follow this with a few more cheeky offers to refresh people of your great customer service levels and products.

Here at Cobb Digital, we help businesses to retain, re-engage and refresh their customers and clients through email marketing. Call our team on 01273 208913 to find out how we can help you.