Team meeting on whiteboard

‘Tis the Season to be… Social?

As Autumn gives way to Winter, there’s one thought on everyone’s mind – Christmas. That’s right, we said it! We have actually been planning our Christmas Social Media content for several weeks already and have many exciting plans. But those Christmas Email Campaigns are starting to be constructed as we speak.

Christmas is a time to be with the ones you love – be it your friends, your family or your beloved post-GDPR depleted email contacts. It is a time for warmth and giving, but that doesn’t mean you need to push your customer’s bank accounts to the limit. There’s a fine line between generating positive sentiment for your brand and going cap-in-hand asking them to invest in you. That’s why email marketing is so tough – even more so at this time of year.

So what are the best practices of well planned and implemented Christmas Email Campaigns? Let’s look at the top tips and tricks coming out of Big Gun Towers this month:

Get in touch today about YOUR next Email Campaign – see what we can do for you!

Timing is REALLY Important

As with any digital campaign, the timing of the whole thing will ultimately define its success or failure. You can showcase your products or services via email at any time of year so you want to nurture these relationships at this time. Campaigns at this time should be well-timed requests for your readers hard-earned time. You are competing with a LOT of people so time it well.

If you are selling a product that you hope will boom over the Christmas period, avoid the times around the black Friday sales – your customer’s inboxes are full to a bursting point already! Cut through this noise by waiting slightly closer to the event. This is doubly important if you are advertising a service under the ‘New Year, New You’ banner.

As it is a game of sentiment, don’t forget to take advantage of #GivingTuesday traditionally at the beginning of December, although is 27th November this year! This is the biggest day for Charities in Britain and raises millions for good causes. If your company is aligned with a charity doing this simple altruistic act is great for them, and also your customer’s feelings towards you!

Plot your campaigns out carefully around certain days and events. Although viewing rates may be traditionally lower, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are days where your audience will be more in the festive spirit so email Campaigns on these days will be very well received and appreciated, especially from a charity they are volunteering for, following and/or supporting.

Make Christmas Content Extra Special!

Although this sounds really obvious, it’s no secret that Christmas can a stressful time. Find a balance of promoting your company and it’s products and taking a humorous, silly approach to your communications.

Be creative and imaginative with the content you produce. Try to include information, revelations, reflections and personal stories, using a short, snappy narrative. Make your customers feel they can relate to what you are saying. Maybe include a video – a video is proven to increase open rates!

Other seasonal ideas include sharing your organisation’s or your staff’s resolutions and your companies objectives for next year, which can be a fun way to highlight your human side to your email audience. Add social share buttons to the content to allow new supporters to share your serious social responsibilities and values.

Be light-hearted during the Christmas period and experiment. Did you know, for instance, that emails about cocktails have an 85% click-through rate on average during the last two weeks of December? How about including a few in your charity Christmas Email Campaigns and tracking the results? Even if your company has nothing to do with cocktails, include them. Trust us!

Be Clever with Automated Journeys and Episodic Content

Advent Calendars – a quintessentially British way to celebrate the runup to Christmas. And there are so many cool ones out there! So why not digitise them? Advent Calendar Email Campaigns can be particularly helpful throughout December and can be a clever and fun way to lead people through automated email journeys. With this kind of content, you can encourage your email readers to engage with you and open up every email for their daily dose.

Creating a survey or online quiz in your advent calendar can be a fun and being interactive can engage and stimulate your readers, with a question a day. It can also create a feeling of anticipation to see what awesome idea you are going to come out with next!

Are you using Pinterest properly at this time of Year? Check out our Blog to see our Tips!

Be Inclusive and Target Appropriately

Christmas is one of the busiest time of the year. This goes for you, your clients, your customers, and for anyone you are going to be emailing. There’s no point sending content in this time to people who you know are not interested. Therefore, target the Email Campaigns content properly.

Effective targeting could give a real advantage over less well-thought-out and mass mailing. Be sure that you’re not excluding any of your audience at Christmas time, no matter how many data lists you may have.

Sharing is Caring!

Be sociable at Christmas. As mentioned earlier, connecting your Christmas email campaign to your companies Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even Linkedin accounts is essential to help boost your social presence at this busy time. Use share links in your Email Campaigns to really get your Christmas spirit out there! Being super Christmassy is a great way to boost your social followers!

Not taking advantage of this drives us nuts! Click here to see our take on what drove Digital Marketers nuts in 2018!

Always be thinking about Mobile-First Content!

This is something that is really becoming second nature to anyone that works in digital marketing in 2018 and beyond. Statistics vary on the issue, but it is estimated by some sources (like here at Statista, the Statistics Portal) that 53% of all website traffic is now consumed on a mobile device. This includes websites, social media channels and, of course, your Email Campaigns!

Google made it clear at around this time last year that ‘Mobile-First’ was an initiative they would be encouraging, and updated it’s algorithms to essentially punish websites that were not mobile-friendly.

It’s really important that your emails display well on mobile devices and this is more important than ever during the holiday season. Mobile open rates increase and computer opens decrease as people become on holiday and busier during November and December.

Don’t get Trapped in the Web of Spam Filters

Fact is you can create the best and most creative Christmas Email Campaigns ever seen, but it doesn’t mean a thing if no one sees it! Therefore, probably the most important piece of advice that we can offer is this: Christmas email campaigns can be blocked by spam filters and are on high alert over the festive period when inboxes are flooded with promotions.

Here are some things to avoid if you want to avoid falling foul of spam filters:

+ Have a 50/50 text/image ratio, so don’t opt for full image Christmas Email Campaigns.

+ Avoid using spammy language in the subject title, especially the word FREE.

+ Avoid using exclamations marks and all caps in the subject title as these are simply gold dust for spam catchers.

+ Following on from GDPR, only send to the people who have given their consent to receive your Email Campaigns.

Get in touch today about YOUR next Email Campaign – see what we can do for you!

Have a great Christmas!

Just remember that an effective Christmas email campaign is much like that Christmas dinner you have to cook. You can leave it all to the last minute, rush through it and put something on the table. You might get lucky! But the smart move is to prepare what you can in advance meaning that you can sit back, relax and reap the benefits.

We love Christmas and Christmas email campaigns here at Big Gun Digital. If you want a hand getting that oh so important campaign together, it’s not too late and we’re brimming with ideas! Get in touch today on (01494) 629 007, or email letschat@biggundigital.co.uk We’re also good at content throughout the year if you’re planning!

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