Christmas is finally here.
The days are getting shorter, the air colder, and everyday awash with a new holiday sale offers. The celebration season opens the floodgates for brands to bombard their customers with multiple holiday marketing campaigns. The merry theme is everywhere, smoldering you on billboards, television, social media and every other platform one can think of.
While every other business (including your competitors) is a part of this noise, how can you make sure that your brand will sing its gratitude carol the loudest?
Email Marketing – That’s the way to nail this holiday season right!
Emails have proven to be a powerful weapon when you need to stuff your marketing turkey with personalization. According to Yesmail, the holiday season of 2013-2014 saw more consumers opening emails sent by brands. Moreover, MailChimp has found that more customized and segmented email campaigns see nearly 60% more clicks than the non-segmented ones.
All in all, email marketing is THE workhouse that brings out the best in your holiday season marketing.
If you are thinking of pulling out all the stops to capitalize on this annual festivity of traffic and purchases, here are four remarkably creative holiday email marketing campaigns to give you some excellent inspiration.
#1. Send Holiday Gift Guides
Sometimes you bring the gift everyone wants to steal and sometimes you bring some presents that elicit from not-so-positive reactions upon reveal.
For its 2016 holiday campaign, Brit & Co. wanted to help its subscribers fall into that first category of gifters.
They sent their subscribers a hilarious and sassy white elephant gift guide that got everyone hooked on the mail. The email is light on text and heavy on colorful images, and the headline, “It’s time for the absurd, the unexpected and the totally delightful” immediately captures the attention of readers.
Not only is the content engaging and entertaining, its decision to deviate from standard holidays emails and focus on white elephant parties is an idea you can consider using in your own campaigns.
#2. Harness the Holiday Spirit
This holiday season, what are you thankful for?
Back in November of 2016, dating app Hinge sent around an email posing the same question to its members, using the opportunity to talk about its recent rebrand and subsequent growth — something for which Hinge itself has enormous gratitude, according to the email.
The timing for this sort of marketing is impeccable. The holidays are notorious for the sentimentality they invoke among the masses, and the desire to spend them with “someone special.” (In fact, ads that capitalize on sentimentality have been shown to score 50% higher in emotional appeal, no matter what the season might be.)
Hinge used this email to harness the holiday spirit, build emotional affinity and redirect attention to an app that helps people find meaningful relationships, instead of, well, shorter-term alternatives.
#3. Make way for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales
Black Friday and Cyber Mondays are considered as the Super Bowl for the marketers. These two are the few of the most profitable days for online retailers. As per the National Retail Federation, 30% of a retailer’s annual sales come from the holiday season and Black Friday alone.
30 freaky percent!
So why not use this holiday season as a chance to send your subscribers some exciting sale offers when they are most willing to buy.
This extended Cyber Monday sale email by Quirky uses creative typography, attractive color, and quirky animation to make their simple offer look appealing. The offer is followed by a no fuss CTA to guide the shoppers directly to their website.
When the subscribers get the offer details right in the first line, they are more likely to open and click-through the email.
#4. Try the Coupon Coup
What’s better than one holiday sale promotion? 😎 Twelve promotions 😎
That’s why we loved J.Crew’s Holiday Email Marketing Campaign as it brought the subscribers 12 days of different Christmas offers straight to their inboxes. Just imagine – if the first day is so blastic, what would the 12th deal day be like?
Moreover, the artwork is simple and doesn’t draw attention away from the message, which is loud and clear in bold black text. The overall campaign is festive but remains faithful to the modern and edgy J.Crew brand style.
The call-to-action buttons support online and in-store shopping. If subscribers choose to capitalize on even a couple of the 12 days of deals offered in this campaign, J.Crew has a great shot at converting customers into brand loyalists.
Wrapping it up
If done correctly, email marketing campaigns can produce fantastic results for your business, especially during the holiday season. So take the needed inspiration from these campaigns and be as creative as possible to stand out in your subscribers’ over-crowded inbox.
Need help with getting your emails designed? 42Works is always here to help.
