Remember me talking about my love for the holiday guide email in my November roundup post?

ICYMI:

The holiday gift guide is more than a single email. It’s an entire email ecosystem.

The Holiday Guide email ecosystem = Your December workhorse

Today, I’m going to teach you how to leverage your Holiday Guide email through the entire month of December. You’ll get tested strategies to help you deliver value to your customers, see some examples of what to do (and what not to do!), and maybe even become inspired to produce your own holiday guide email campaign if you haven’t started one already.

But first, eye candy:

Now that you’re thirsty, let’s do this…

In case it isn’t obvious, I love a well-executed holiday guide, and it isn’t too late to put one together for your business (if you’re reading this in October, that is). The goal of your holiday guide is to inform your customers of all the wonderful ways your business can make their lives better throughout the holiday season. Whether it be simplified gift-giving or elevated entertaining, tell the story of your business’s festive offerings through your holiday guide.

December holiday guide email success strategies:

#1. Make sure your order deadlines are clearly communicated.

If your product takes some lead time to create and/or ship, you want to be super straightforward about that in your holiday guide. Having worked in the wine industry, where shipping alcohol across the country not only takes time but can also potentially damage the product if it is too cold, this was a huge consideration. Even if you’re not shipping a regulated substance that can freeze in transit, you’ll want to be sure that you give your customers a clear idea of when they need to order by for their order to arrive by December 24.

Beyond stating order deadlines very clearly, you also want to time your email sends around those deadlines. If December 15 is the last day for ground delivery before Christmas, then send a campaign on December 14 or 15. Giving your customers too much time to sit on an offer will reduce the likelihood that they’ll act. If I can wait to order until next week, I’m probably not going to order today.

Don’t take a SPAM-tastic voyage…

I’ll admit it: there are some very effective tactics that don’t necessarily come across very human-centric. “Last Chance!” “This. Is. It.” and “Don’t miss…” are all great ways to capture attention with your subject line and increase that sense of urgency with your subscribers, but use with caution.

In scrolling through my December archive for holiday guide email examples to share here, I found FOUR emails sent on the same day with the “This is it…” subject lead in. FOUR. From different companies. EWW.

Think of on-brand, customer-focused ways to position that same message for your company, or test a few to find what resonates with your audience.

#2. Mix it up!

Reposition offerings and categories as the month goes on. For instance, most holiday parties take place earlier in the month, so share entertaining tips & holiday party etiquette, signature cocktail recipes, or hostess gifts and serving essentials early in December.

Shift to broader gift categories towards the middle of December. Make sure your Holiday Guide includes information about how you simplify your customers’ gift-giving. Do you offer gifts at a variety of price points? Put your Gift Guide together with simple navigation to “Gifts under $35” “Gifts under $60” etc. Do you include a personal message with gifts, or offer festive wrapping? Don’t be shy, tell your customers! And include images of the card or wrapping so they can feel confident that the gift won’t arrive in an off-putting blue velvet bag a la Amazon gift-wrapping a few years back.

As Christmas draws closer, you can position any last-minute selections (e.g. gift cards or experiences). You could also share content about ways your customers can treat themselves during the season of giving. Or, if it fits for your business and brand, consider starting to talk about New Year’s Eve celebrations and starting the 2019 right.

All of this content is relevant throughout the month, but is more timely in certain phases. Create long form and short form content snippets for each featured topic in your holiday guide email, making it easy for you to move things around in your template as the month goes by.

HOT TIP:

This strategy can also double as awesome social media support for you! Each short form content snippet can be designed to 1:1 image ratio, making posting to Instagram a breeze.

#3. Get smart about segmentation.

During the holiday season, you are fighting for the attention of your subscribers against hundreds of other marketing messages every single day. The more relevant your message, the better chance that your email will stand out in your customer’s inbox. One of the best ways to be relevant is to target messages based on your subscriber’s journey with your business. Here are a few simple ways to do this!

• Give your not-yet-customers entry-level offerings to consider.

For customers who are still on the fence about your product or service, focus on positioning “starter” type offers to introduce them to you. Someone how has never bought from you is less likely to buy your premium package or jump at your highest-ticket item, so omit non-purchasers from guide email sends where these are the focus.

HOT TIP:

Consider putting together a simple “holiday gift” for first-time purchasers that can ride along with your holiday guide email sends, whether they be promotional or informational/educational.

• Give your best customers/subscribers special treatment!

Identify top buyers, loyalty members, or long-time subscribers, and if you haven’t already segmented them out in your email marketing system, be sure to do so ASAP. Give these folks access to a special members-only holiday gift offering, a concierge service, or exclusive content that rewards their loyalty. And talk to these folks as if you know them (you do, after all). When you make your Advocates feel acknowledged and rewarded, they’ll be that more eager to share your values with the people on their own “Nice List.”

• Don’t shout and don’t beg.

Once a customer has purchased from your holiday guide email campaign, remove them from subsequent resends.

I repeat: Pull a list of buyer email addresses out of your shopping cart system and REMOVE them from any resends of your holiday guide email throughout the month.

This is so important. Don’t burn your buyers by continuing to ask for their investment long after it has already been made. Respect their attention and their contribution to your bottom line!

BONUS:

By paying attention to who is buying, you can easily send those buyers a special, holiday-themed thank you email to let them know how much their support means to you and your business.

What to do next:

• Create a simple to read “shipping deadline” table or graphic to include in your holiday guide email. Consider different ways to communicate urgency in a relevant and on-brand way throughout the month.
• Take a look at your holiday guide email content strategy and make sure you have long and short-form content prepared for each topic. This simplifies your resend strategy and doubles as social media content if you wish!
• Plan your segmentation strategy, and ensure that the necessary customer journey segments are easy to identify and manage throughout the hectic month of December.

Next, I’ll be sharing some ideas for taking care of the last-minute shoppers out there.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below: What is your most actionable takeaway from today’s post?