How do you use email marketing to boost e-commerce sales for holidays?

We place a high emphasis on rewarding our most loyal customers through targeted email campaigns, offering exclusive promotions or early access to holiday sales. For new buyers, our focus shifts to genuine upsells and cross-sells, adding value to their initial purchases with relevant product recommendations. What makes our email marketing particularly effective is the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence. AI algorithms assist us in identifying consumer behavior patterns and forecasting trends, enabling us to tailor our emails for maximum impact. This allows us to send the right message to the right person at the right time, significantly improving our email campaign performance.

Here are some tip to boost sales during the holiday season: - Sort your email list based on customer behavior, demographics, or purchase history. - Create holiday-themed campaigns with attractive emails that showcase holiday-specific items or gift ideas. - Offer holiday-themed discounts, coupons, or free shipping to incentivize sales. - Send timely reminders counting down to the end of a sale or the holiday itself. - Optimize and personalize your flows. - Make sure your campaign communication is aligned with your flows. - Reward loyal customers with special deals or early access to sales. - Share informative content, tips, or gift guides to showcase products that are likely to interest the recipient and provide value.

Know Your Shoppers: Think of your audience as friends. What would make them happy this holiday? Customize your emails based on what they've bought before, or what they've looked at but haven't pulled the trigger on. Personal touches can go a long way.

Plan, But Don't Spam: It's the holidays, and your customers are bombarded with emails. Create a calendar, and stick to it. Nobody likes a friend who’s always in their face; it’s the same with emails. Make sure when you do reach out, you have something valuable to say.

Include a handful of pre-created "backup" emails as part of your email calendar in the event products go out of stock or there are unforseen issues with the supply chain.

Make It Look Good: The holiday season is all about sparkle and charm, right? Add that holiday spirit to your emails. But remember, many folks will be using their phones to check emails while on the go. So, make sure your festive designs look great on mobile too.

Plan and design your holiday email templates, which include BFCM. You can always send a preview of the email on your mobile. Check the following: - Text is readable on mobile - Visible in dark mode (Text, CTAs, and graphics) - Your email isn't clipped. - If you are putting a timer, make sure it is not too big on mobile.

The Power of Words: Your email's subject line is like the first impression at a holiday party; make it memorable. Make it snappy, to the point, and something that makes them want to know more. “Last day to get 50% off” often works better than “Our Holiday Sale is Ending."

As I always recommend, make your subject line on point and keep it short! I recommend 30-40 characters so it is mobile-friendly. Your CTA should also resonate with your content. Make it straightforward. Before the BIG Sale events, you should have done and finished A/B testing of subject lines and CTAs so you can apply what works best for your audience during the major sale.

Did it Work?: After the holidays are over, it's easy to move on to the next thing. But take a minute to see how you did. Which emails worked? Where did people click? Learning from this year can set you up for an even more successful holiday next year.

I add three things: 1/ Acquire emails early: Hint at your holiday offers early as a way to acquire emails before holiday shopping kicks in. ie. Sign up for early access to our offers / exclusive email only offers. 2/ Go to your VIPs before BFCM: Release a high threshold offer to your best customers (highest LTV, order frequency, dollars) early. This takes the heat off all the money needing to come in when it's most chaotic. 3/ Have a plan B: Smaller brands can adapt offers & creative based on real-time sales performance. Have this baked beforehand. This said, make sure people who buy on Black Friday, aren't disappointed because they deal gets way better on Cyber Monday.