In This Christmas Guide We Uncover The Most Effective Strategies That You Can Put To Use In Your Email Program. How To Increase Email Volume Without Losing Subscribers? What'S The Best Inspiration For Christmas Newsletters Design? Should You Stop Your Promotional Emails On December 25th, Or Continue Into January?

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2. How to make the most of your
Christmas newsletters?
Christmas season is a time of the year when companies scale up the volume of their newsletters
and maximize sales. Only in 2012, online retailers increased number of sent emails by 19% in
comparison to 2011.
In practice, this means that each company sent an average of 210 promotional emails during
the holiday season! Making your newsletters stand out in the holiday inbox clutter might be quite
a challenge, especially knowing that your competitors are probably already thinking about their
special offers for Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving or Free Shipping Day.
In this Christmas guide we uncover the most effective strategies that you can put to use in
best inspiration for Christmas newsletters design? Should you stop your promotional emails on
December 25th, or continue into January?
GetResponse 2013 Christmas Guide will provide you with practical answers to all these questions.
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3. Christmas Email Marketing
Recipes 2013
It is timing.
earned in the year.
accumulated holiday savings.
Businesses spend months preparing for this special time of the year, to be ready to act when
the time is right. All departments work together to grab as much of the Christmas revenue pie as
possible.
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4. Pre-Holiday
Preparation Time
1. Objectives and
strategies
Before you prepare and roll out your Christmas campaign,
start by planning what you want to achieve and how to
2. Key dates
Identify relevant holidays to focus
on and create a timetable of
activities. Although this handbook
focuses mainly on the Christmas
holiday season of November and
December, you should analyze
seasonal peaks. There may be
special holidays that are relevant
marketing campaign.
reached your goals.
These could include
Day,
or even
It
holiday. As long as it generates
in your marketing campaign plan.
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5. 10/14/2013
Thanksgiving (Canada)
10/31/2013
Halloween
11/03/2013
Daylight Saving Time Ends
11/11/2013
Veterans Day
11/27/2013 – 12/05/2013
Hanukkah
11/28/2013
Thanksgiving (USA)
11/29/2013
Black Friday
12/02/2013
Cyber Monday
12/09/2013
Green Monday
12/21/2013
First Day of Winter
12/25/2013
Christmas Day
12/26/2013
Boxing Day
12/31/2013
New Year’s Eve
01/01/2014
New Year’s Day
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6. Another important element in preparing Christmas holiday campaigns is to examine your current
and past email marketing practices.
Take a look at old reports to identify the strong and weak elements of previous campaigns. Think
results.
, as well as those that need improvement.
situation. Take note of what the key players in your market did in the past and assess the viability of
those strategies in current market conditions.
Create
lines that increase open rates, and effective content that leads to amazing conversions. Make a list
so you can keep them in mind when forming and assessing your holiday campaigns strategy.
Ideally, you should be carrying out list hygiene
the
is a great time to get back
on track. The processes below will help you maximize the
performance and effectiveness of your holiday campaigns.
remove those that no longer support your business. The
holiday season is a time to distribute promotional offers
more frequently, so you need to cull the bad apples that
and build desire and expectation among those who are
likely to order from you before Christmas.
codes, or surveys asking your
customers whether they are still
interested in your offer or their
preferences have changed. If you
provide value and your offer is
campaign should increase your
reach during this important season.
Everyone hates to see customers
unsubscribe. But in reality, the
quality of the database is far more
engage them for a few weeks. If you
get no response, consider moving
center of your holiday campaigns.
this the end?” or
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7. the season, especially since it may affect the deliverability
of crucial emailings.
Through these processes, you focus only on customers
that may respond to your messages and generate
sales.
their needs,
. As a side note, list hygiene
management should also improve your email deliverability.
Since the world is going mobile,
make sure your existing acquisition
channels account for this
phenomenon. Customers now
search and shop while on the go.
They access your website and
Use this to your advantage so
you can communicate with your
audience effectively. Surely you
their interest and potential sales
opportunity.
data and monitored subscriber behavior from clicks
and opens, this is the time to update your segmentation
strategy based on these insights.
To learn how to design emails for
mobile devices, download our free
Responsive Email Guide.
interested in. Recommend complementing products
or services based on the past behavior and reviews of
acquire new subscribers using
methods such as
codes,
, or
and preferences before you launch your new campaigns.
This reassures your customers that you care about them,
account for their individual needs, and only target them
with relevant offers that provide value. This has a positive
effect on campaign success and reduces complaints and
unsubscribe caused by irrelevant offers that can irritate
them.
. And reach out
to your existing customers to offer
something of value for referring their
friends. Subscribers tend to be most
sales may skyrocket!
important to increase your reach and attract new potential
customers. So analyze your existing customer acquisition
them for seasonal campaigns.
. The additional subscribers you capture before
the holidays may make the extra investment worthwhile!
Finally, consider partnering with
other organizations to increase the
reach of your campaigns. Search
for brands that offer products
or services that you believe
complement yours and would be a
ask them to promote your brand
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8. to their audience. Done right, you
should quickly see new customers
searching your site and signing up to
your newsletter.
To learn more, download our free
21 Ways To Build Your List.
Having analyzed automated messages, take a look at
promotional emails that persuade subscribers to make a
holiday purchase. Compare planned emails to those you
and your competitors have sent in the past to see if you
Take a look at standardized emails,
product purchase summaries, or
cart abandonment alerts. See if they
could use a fresh design, fresh copy
and whether they display well on
mobile devices.
Are they in line with your other
communications? Do they reinforce
your value to customers? Make
is especially true in email marketing. Part of preparing
a successful strategy and carrying out an effective
campaign is preparing a contingency plan. If your
and hyperlinks in automated emails
become obsolete, be ready to
and
season.
customers, surely the holiday season
is it!
Learn how to set up Automated
Messages and Autoresponders with
GetResponse!
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9. 8. Test
emails. In particular, keep in mind that many emails will be read on mobile devices rather than
desktop computers.
holiday promotional campaigns.
Exactly when should you roll out your Christmas campaigns?
Christmas
Arrives Early!
notice companies selling Christmas décor and providing
gift ideas in July. Although they call it Christmas in July,
true holiday shopping begins in November.
1. October
The law of supply and demand
demand, there will be a supply. For
holiday shopping, this means many
businesses start promoting seasonal
to search shopping aisles. To avoid
with gift deliveries, many consumers
begin their Christmas shopping in
late October before the shopping
madness of late November begins.
your customers in October, add a
Once Halloween is over, most businesses start to
promote
,
,
,
,
shipping,
,
, and
.
Regardless of your promotional angle, make sure your
increased quantity of promotional emails.
as the beginning of the holiday shopping season, so take
the opportunity to build expectation and desire in your
customers. If you decide to participate in these events,
keep your communication consistent, focus on providing
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10. After Thanksgiving weekend comes Cyber
Monday. The term originated in 2005 to
persuade customers to shop online. If you
Inspiration for
Your Christmas
Campaigns
your competitors probably are. Prepare an offer
focused on this day of the year, so competitors
Once Cyber Monday is over, the countdown
to Christmas begins — the most important
part of the holiday season and the time for
your offer to really shine. In your Christmas
offer, a series of
,
, or
. Think through how
each idea goes with your strategy and choose
related to our interests? Make sure your
content, offers, bundles and special deals are
necessarily mean the holiday shopping spirit is
uncommon to see people looking for presents
Christmas goodies. So sell your inventory and
clear those shelves while
.
Just send a newsletter or autoresponder
sequence that will return information about
what your subscribers are looking for as a gift
this year.

11. Adapt the old English Christmas carol “The Twelve Days
of Christmas” for a holiday campaign that delivers a series
of gifts of increasing value or a series of offers that build
Thanks to GetResponse Autoresponders 2.0 you can
easily set up such a campaign by creating each message
delivery.
There are places all around the
world where holiday gifts are scarce.
Show your human face and offer
to share part of the income with
charitable organizations to make an
in
poor parts of the world.
Inform subscribers about this in a
separate newsletter or in a banner
inside your holiday promotion
emails.
Offer your subscribers related
products, upgrades, additional
they bought during holiday
campaigns.
, so make sure
recipients know how to use them.
Let your subscribers help you decide which products
would be most popular for Black Friday and Cyber
Monday special deals.
CTA, banner or image to deliver
the details to your subscribers. You
never know — a subscriber may
have received a gift card that can
be redeemed for your products or
services.
product offers that your subscribers can vote for. Analyze
click rates and prepare perfectly tailored special deals that
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12. This way you can sell out your remaining
holiday bundles and make customers happy
with low prices and information about how to
claim what they are eligible for.
newsletters that raise the bar for holiday email
offers.
Whether you offer groceries, electronics, or
interactive services, make the most out of your
recommendation for all of you marketers out
Play with your offers and holiday bundles, and
let the customer decide what they would like to
get as a “2013 Special”.
be fun and rewarding.
Look Book
Christmas newsletters?
Picture 1 – Sky’s HD Christmas newsletter
Christmas is the time of the year when
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13. Picture 2 – Starbuck’s Christmas gifts newsletter
Picture 3 –Christmas apparel deals
Picture 4 – Mattel’s Cyber Monday Deals
Picture 5 – Target’s Black Friday newsletter
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14. Picture 7 – Barnes & Noble’s Christmas deals
Picture 6 – Lillian Vernon’s Christmas Newsletter
Picture 8 – JCP Christmas wishes
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15. Picture 10 – NBC family Christmas wishes
Picture 9 – Backcountry’s Christmas deals
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16. Conclusion
Authors
In this Christmas Guide we aimed at introducing
ping campaigns.
Director of Education
GetResponse Email Marketing
like Starbucks, turn off the lights like Target
in their Black Friday newsletter, speak to the
www.getresponse.com
Back Country, or send holiday wishes from your
entire team like NBC.
Mack Gorski
You name it.
Be creative this year. Make sure your newslet
ters stand out. Deliver deals and wishes that
are perfectly tailored to subscriber expecta
tions. We wish you great return on investment,
increased sales and Merry Christmas!
Education Expert
GetResponse Email Marketing
www.getresponse.com
Education Expert
GetResponse Email Marketing
www.getresponse.com
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