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Six Holiday E-Mail Marketing Tips
By Vangie Beal
November 27, 2007

4: Campaign Content With a Holiday Focus
Once you have nailed down your contact list and have worked on the e-mail subject header, it's time to get busy with composing the message and deciding which holiday-inspired incentives you will offer to your subscribers, and how to word it. Merchants would do well to keep their messages toned down to a simple 'holiday or season's greeting' or even focus on the New Year.

This time of year you can expect consumers to be specifically looking for really good deals, so consider adding a time limited e-coupon code in your e-mail that offers your subscribers a discount on a specific product. To provide a direct call-to-action, you can include a countdown within the e-mail where you inform your subscribers of exactly how many days are left for guaranteed holiday delivery. This will encourage consumers to take action because of time constraints and should boost conversions.

Other ideas, for those who want to include a mix of sales and some original content based on their area of expertise or passion, include offering tips on how a sale item can be used for the holidays, or suggesting the types of people that would enjoy a particular gift. Doing this helps your subscriber remember the product and why they should buy it from you, rather than from your competitors.

For those using an online service for their mailing lists, this is where your automatically generated reports will come in handy. As you try different offers, like free shipping or e-coupons, you can track click-throughs and the number of "forward to a friend" actions that were performed to help you determine which special offers are most attractive to your subscribers.

5: Step It Up As the Holiday Approaches
As the holiday approaches and the number of days in which consumers can order and expect to have their items shipped on time decreases, Attia said merchants should start stepping up their holiday campaign with more frequent mailings. In your initial holiday campaign e-mail it's a good idea to ask your subscribers if they want to opt-in to receive these special messages from you. This means you might have to break your list into separate mailings; those who opted for more infrequent mailings and those who want to receive all your holiday messages.

As we get closer to the holiday, merchants can get more aggressive with product price drops, shipping specials and other deals. Combining these specials with a guaranteed shipping countdown reminder will further encourage subscribers to act when they receive your e-mail.

6: Remember - A Simple Thank You Works Too
For merchants new to e-mail marketing, don't forget that you can kick off a holiday e-mail campaign with a simple note of gratitude. Attia suggests starting — and ending — with a thank-you note. She said, "One thing we often don't think about is thanking our customers. You can e-mail your current customer contact list with a simple holiday greeting that is centered around thanking them for being your customer."

Take the thank you message and add in a deeply discounted offer or coupon code and even small online merchants can kick-start a great holiday e-mail marketing campaign.

Vangie Beal is a seasoned eBay seller, frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and managing editor of Webopedia.com.

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