I remember the first time I heard the acronym “OND” I was like, “Come again? Did you say omg?”

OND stands for “October, November, December” – AKA, the holiday season, AKA the most retailtastical time of the year.

According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales in November and December 2017 alone totaled nearly $700 billion (that’s billion with a B!), with over $100 billion of that total happening online. Research by Adobe reports that email marketing drove over 20% of website traffic during this period. In 2018, eMarketer is forecasting an ecommerce increase of over 15% during the holiday season.

I’m telling you all of this because I don’t want you to miss out on your piece of this high dollar pie. I’m also guessing that you probably haven’t thought a ton yet about your email marketing strategy for the holiday season, because, IDK, it’s AUGUST. But never fear – you have two months (and really, October is just the warm-up) to close the gap to an exceptional holiday. Let’s talk about your holiday email marketing strategy for OND, shall we?

Three things you can start doing NOW to make sure your holiday email marketing campaigns are a smokin’ success

1. Test key success elements BEFORE O-N-D to lock in a winning strategy

During the holiday season, customers are receiving roughly 50% more email [1] than other times of the year. How are you going to stand out? Lock in your winning email formula before the holidays to improve your results when the rubber hits the road.

Do you know the best time of day or day of the week to send email that generates results? If you haven’t already tested these elements, make testing a priority for your email campaigns in the next few months, so that you’re already executing an optimal sending cadence once the heavy hitting campaigns roll around.

HOT TIP:

If you’re selling online, take a look at Google Analytics to see what days of the week have the highest sales. If this lines up to when you send email campaigns, that’s a nice validator. If not, it could represent an opportunity to double down on top performing days by timing email offers then as well.

Not sure whether letter-style email drives more revenue than a simple postcard? Run an a/b test on one of your late-summer offerings to identify the winning layout before the holiday stakes get raised.

Still unsure of what to OFFER come the major retail holidays like Cyber Monday? Get creative in the summer months and test it! You can test a % discount against a shipping offer, or a BOGO coupon vs. $ off.

I love what Chubbies Shorts did back in July: they celebrated JULYBER MONDAY. Throughout the day, they offered different free gifts with purchase to drive online traffic and sales. This did two beautiful things. First of all, it made me eagerly look at my inbox for MULTIPLE emails in one day from this hilarious retailer.

More importantly, (I assume, because I don’t work for Chubbies and I didn’t ask, but I figure this is how I would use the info) it gave Chubbies bigtime intel on what kinds of offers drove traffic and sales so that they can capitalize on the winners and NIX the losers when holiday sales stakes are highest. Booya.

2. Get more data now that you can use to be more relevant (and therefore more effective) later

Relevance matters. Relevant emails have the potential to drive a 18X increase in revenue [2], and the best way to send more relevant email is to have more data on your subscribers.

Invest the time now to segment your customers in advance of the holidays based on demographic information you already have, and identify data holes you might want to fill.

Consider sending a dedicated email capturing additional subscriber preferences before OND so that you can bump up the engagement and personalization throughout this busy time. Not quite sure you want to send a dedicated campaign? Create a banner that can ride along with your other scheduled programming, or add a link in your email footer to a simple preference form that allows you to capture additional customer data like date of birth, types of products or emails they’re most interested in, and other more business-specific information pertaining to your unique marketing mix.

HOT TIP:

Quite frankly, it never hurts to double down your efforts on list acquisition leading up to the holidays as well. If somebody has a terrific experience with you during the summer and fall, and you have permission to stay in touch, they’ll most likely be thrilled to hear about ways they can share that amazing experience with their friends and family on The Nice List come the holidays.

3. Create a holiday-specific welcome campaign

According to research by Optimove, retailers experience 50% more transactions from first-time customers during the holiday season compared to the rest of the year. It’s likely that these first-time customers aren’t shopping for themselves; they’re buying a gift for a loved one, or for their boss, or for their pet-sitter… you get the picture. Sending them a welcome campaign that doesn’t take into consideration the season of giving leaves you little opportunity to win the customer over as one of your own…

• Consider switching up your welcome strategy from late-September through January: send new subscribers and first-time purchasers a welcome campaign or series that is holiday and gift-season specific. You might have your first email to new subscribers include a holiday-themed banner: “the holidays are coming. Watch your inbox for our gift-guide November 1st.”
• You could send order confirmation emails to customers who have clearly marked the purchase as a gift that invites them back to your online store to shop for themselves as well.
• Even simply tagging new subscribers and customers from late September into January as holiday opt-ins can help you adjust your long-term strategy and track their engagement with you over their lifecycle.

Some advanced planning for how you want to treat new customers and subscribers during this important shopping season in advance will set you apart from the competition. Create the programs and systems you need NOW while the days are long and your to-do list is (comparably) short.

BONUS: Up the ante and spruce up all your triggered messages with a thematic element that aligns to the season. Even including more seasonally appropriate imagery can positively impact your customer’s mindset, get them in the mood for gifting (themselves or others!) and adds a touch that might just make them pay a little more attention to your message.

Summin’ it up

It isn’t too late (and it certainly isn’t too early) to take these three simple actions to set your business up for holiday email marketing success. First, add some simple (or complex!) A/B testing to your campaigns in August and September to identify winning strategies. Then, segment your subscribers and take action to fill in gaps in your customer data now. Finally, plan your onboarding programs to better nurture customers based on the busy gift-giving season ahead.

Want more holiday email marketing tips? I’m planning my FIRST live webinar on “Gearing up for OND” and I’d love to know how I can jam that baby full of value for you. Tell me what you’re dying to know in the comments below, and stay tuned for the official date/time of the live webinar… like a kid on Christmas morning, I kind of can’t wait.

SOURCES: [1] Return Path [2] Jupiter Research