Email marketing is one of the oldest digital marketing medium and without a doubt, still very relevant to this day. During the festive season, many retailers and businesses jump onto the opportunity to start pushing products and offers using various channels.
One of these many channels is email marketing, we all receive around 2 to 3 emails a day with companies advertising different products and services, therefore, standing out is harder, but with our 8 tips it will be easier and the return on investment will be higher than other mediums.
These are questions that we certainly can’t answer on your behalf but at JUNi Marketing we have experts which can help you guide your business in the right direction. We’ve compiled three key points that will help you prepare your business for post-COVID, some will also help you even during!
1. Don't wait too long, start before
We’ve worked on many email marketing campaigns and done plenty of testing, when you start seeing Christmas decor all around you it might be a bit too late, not useless but less return on investment.
We’ve found that mid-October is optimal to not lose subscribers and to sell the most. If you’re sending emails or starting other campaigns when you start seeing Christmas decor or other business advertising it will be too late.
2. Time-limited offers are the best!
When a potential client opens your email, it’s only a start, the finish line is when they purchase! The best way to sell via email marketing is through the clients’ impulsiveness, to do this you have to promote flash sales and discounts with a limited time frame.
The more limited the better, because they will feel that if they don’t buy now they’ll lose the chance to be able to get that discount again.
3. Don’t get too Christmasy, stick with your brand
This highly depends on the type of brand you have of course, but whatever you do, don’t get caught up in Christmas, make sure you stick to your brand throughout the year. Don’t fill your email marketing with Santas, wreaths, gifts, and snow, work according to your brand.
If you keep to your brand, you’re making sure your clients remember your business but if you change the graphics completely, you’ll do more harm than good, as they’ll end up unsubscribing.
4. Monitor engagement and segment accordingly
If you don’t have a long list of emails, this might be more difficult but very effective for the long term. When you segment your audience you’ll be able to send specific emails to certain audiences and other emails to different audiences. This way you’re not bombarding one audience with various emails that most probably 1/4 of them won’t even open.
For example, if you have a Samsung smartphone it would be useless to get an email on a 25% off on Apple cases. What you should do is send an email related to Apple cases discount to people with an iPhone and another email to Samsung users about 25% discount on Samsung cases.
5. Don't focus only on selling
Everyone in the world knows that retails are always looking forward to Christmas as they sell a ton of stock, and we as consumers love it too! Just like sticking to your brand, make sure that you keep your usual marketing pattern. If you usually send emails to showcase new blogs, tips, tricks, or anything which won’t directly sell, make sure to keep sending those emails even around the Christmas season.
This is very essential as, after all, that is why most of your subscribers are subscribed, so give them a treat not only promotional material.
6. Use other marketing mediums
There is no such thing as Facebook, or Google being the best advertising tools, even during traditional marketing only it was always best to use a combination. If a potential client sees your advert on Facebook, on websites, on their email, on YouTube, on the radio, and possibly even as an SMS, it will surely get their attention.
Considering that you have something interesting to offer, the potential client will definitely check out what you are offering and possibly even buy it, if not today maybe at the beginning of the month. (Special tip; try to do flash sales in the beginning of the month, everyone feels richer when they get paid, so impulsiveness of spending is higher).
7. Record, measure, analyse and implement
These are the stages that each and every business should be doing, not only during the festive season but throughout. Many small businesses with the owner being in-charge, will be doing this process in their mind but there’s a limit of what a mind can do.
Make sure you record each and every sale, what are you selling? when are you selling it? how much are they spending?, all these questions can be answered in the measuring stage, so make sure you record all transactions in a POS system. If you don’t have one get one, it’s 2020. With all info in place you’ll be able to advertise according to the buying behavior and also be able to predict new buying behavior your competitors might be missing out on.
8. Don't create a campaign to say you've created it
This goes for everything, you’re either going to do something well or do nothing. When you’re receiving an email and getting potential clients to open it that’s a big deal, it would be a shame if it wasn’t designed properly or the content was lacking. Make sure it’s perfect so plan in advance not create the email a day before sending it.
We know marketing isn’t an easy task for most of our clients, because if it was we wouldn’t be here, do seek professional advice. If you’re interested in creating an email marketing campaign for this Christmas season make sure to contact us so we can start working, as time is ticking!