Christmas is almost here, and now is the perfect time for marketing emails because everyone is looking for gifts to buy. But that high demand and activity make holiday email marketing even harder because you’re not the only email marketer who’ll send email campaigns to their subscribers.

To ensure that your recipients open your email and complete a purchase, you need to stand out from the get-go with an intriguing subject line while suggesting products to buy and offering gift-buying conveniences. Keep on reading for more tips.

1. Write Holiday-Themed Subject Lines with a Sense of Urgency

Some words are more attention-grabbing than your usual subject lines. For a happy holidays email, subject lines that create a sense of urgency with the holiday’s theme are more powerful. A good example would be “Limited-Offer Christmas Gifts.” You can also ask a question like, “Haven’t bought a gift yet?”

If you don’t want to use holiday-themed words that make your subject lines longer, you can also use emojis. They are as effective as holiday-themed words and would give your recipient’s an idea of what’s inside your email. Just remember not to overuse emojis and exclamation points to avoid making your emails look spammy and desperate.

2. Send a Holiday Gift Guide

Many holiday shoppers make decisions at the last minute because they have no idea what to buy for their loved ones. Some end up looking for gifts in multiple shops, while others fail to purchase due to many options to choose from. You must inspire them as early as possible.

In your holiday gift guide, make a guide of gifts for males, females, and those of various ages. Explain what the products are about, why what you’re selling is better, why they should buy from you, and why the gifts are perfect for the demographics of whoever the buyer intends to give the gift to.

Holiday gift guides are effective tools to funnel your customers from awareness into action. Then can be made either as a first step in your smart holiday email plan or an email with a “Buy Now” call-to-action.

3. Give Gifts for Referrals

Encouraging referrals in exchange for gifts is one of the best ways to increase your customer list during the holidays. For example, send your existing customers a holiday email with a 50%-off voucher if they can get 20 of their friends to subscribe to your mailing list.

Give your existing customers their personal link that their friends can click on to subscribe to your mailing list. Set your email automation system to send your current customers the 50%-off voucher once 20 other people have subscribed to your mailing list using their code.

You didn’t only encourage your existing customers to purchase by giving them a discount voucher, but you also increased your mailing list, bringing more sales in the future.

4. Send Last-Minute Deals at Inactive Hours

As mentioned, there are a lot of shoppers who wait until the last minute to make decisions. Some even fail to make any decisions at all. Last-minute deals sent at inactive hours are the best times in influencing your customers’ buying decisions because you aren’t competing for attention with other email marketers, and the users aren’t stressed.

Here’s an example of a last-minute email campaign’s subject line that stands out: “12 Last-Minute Deals of Christmas!”

Healthy inactive hours for receiving marketing emails are early morning, midday, and after-dinner. You must also offer a good deal that would really make your customers click the “Buy Now” button. Offer convenience like free delivery on the day before Christmas with their purchase already gift-wrapped.

5. Use Holiday-Themed Email Content With Proven Templates

When designing your email campaigns, always use colors and elements that represent the holidays. Since Christmas is near, use snowman, snowflake, candy cane, bells, Christmas balls, pine trees, etc., with color themes of white, red, and green.

Color themes are significant because it sets the mood and emotion of your buyer for the holidays. Since Christmas’s traditional colors are red and green and the yuletide season is about generosity, self-sacrifice, and charity, using the color schemes sets your customers’ mood to be charitable, thus influencing them to buy your products as a gift.

More important points to remember:

●        Always write your campaigns’ opening lines with a holiday greeting to make your customer open up to your suggestions.

●        Don’t be afraid to use jokes or puns. It helps your customers remember your brand.

●        Provide a secondary offer so your customer can explore more options from you while staying in your sales funnel.

●        Write a clear call-to-action at the end.

●        Lastly, include social media icons with links so that your customer can easily reach out to you for help or questions.

Wrapping Up

Make sure your customers think about your brand first when thinking about buying goods for gifts. Start early by introducing gift ideas for inspiration and guide them into the “Buy Now” button. The earlier you are, the quicker your customers can settle on the products you suggest for gift-giving.

Set their mood to match the season of generosity, charity, and self-sacrifice first by designing your email campaigns with yuletide elements. Then send your email campaigns at times when your recipients will have their full attention on you. Write a subject line that captures a customer’s attention by standing out in their mail inbox.

Source: Efrat Vulfsons is a data-driven writer and freelance publicist, parallel to her soprano opera singing career. Efrat holds a B.F.A from the Jerusalem Music Academy in Opera Performance