Essential Email Marketing Tips for Your Christmas Campaigns

Author: Gautam Mane

No matter what you consider the reason, ‘tis the season! The season to exchange gifts, the season to hang stockings and make your wishes to good ol’ Santa, the season to decorate trees and spend most of your time with friends and family. In a nutshell, ‘tis the season most people look forward to. And given the scenario of the rest of the year, this year’s Christmas brings more comfort, solace, and is a much-needed distraction from the worldly chaos. 

Well, ‘tis also the season when marketers go all out with their most personalized and innovative campaigns. After all, according to the World Economic Forum, American shoppers spent an estimated whopping of $1 trillion during Christmas 2019, out of which $150 billion went to online retailers!

However, if you’re bogged down due to a lack of ideas for successful and eye-catchy Christmas email campaigns, given below are a few tried-and-tested tips. 

1. Seasonal Greetings, Humorous Taglines, and Christmas-Friendly Colors

“This the season!” right? So, make the most of it while you can. For emails that are personalized and relevant, start your campaigns with a simple gesture such as “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays!” Then, go on to wish joy, blessings, and good health instead of jumping right into your sales model. For the campaign layout, you can use different graphics, fonts, emojis, and more –‘tis the time to experiment and see what works best for you. 

Also, never run out of humorous taglines and clever copyrighting or wordplay. Use brand-relevant puns or double meanings with a clever twist. Afraid that your campaign will sound a little too corny, but isn’t that the point? Holidays are one time when you need not be scared of having some fun with your campaigns; the rest of the year has been tough enough already! 

2. Personalized Offers to Your Loyal Brand Supporters

When you sit down to see the ‘Year in Review,’ it would be unfair to not shortlist your most loyal brand advocates and send them some exclusive personalized offers – Remember, exclusivity is a powerful thing, and what better time than the holidays to let your supporters know that they made no mistake by being one of your subscribers! This is especially true of a year that has been tough, making gratitude all the more a vital essence of your campaigns to existing customers. 

This is something that Williams Sonoma, American kitchenware and home furnishings company, did for their Halloween sale. The company introduced a special Halloween offer exclusively for the cardholders of the brand. Despite this, the promotional mail showed consistency in design to their other mails, which is also a great thing if you do not wish to go overboard with your campaign layout. Campaigns such as these motivate your customers to continue supporting your brand, and better yet, if you can include those enticing words, “Email Exclusive Offer,” just like Mark and Graham did for their Halloween email campaigns. 

3. The ‘Holiday To-Do List’ Campaign

Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year, a time when most consumers put down their shopping checklist in good ol’ pen and paper. Well, this is an excellent opportunity for you as a marketer to come up with a ‘Holiday Checklist or To-Do-List’ for your target audience, something that they’d enjoy going through and checking off. 

Take cues from Bonobos, a company that designs and sells men’s apparel – instead of using a lot of emojis and wordplay, the company simply created a checklist for Thanksgiving, that too, in black and white, and guess what, it paid off big-time! You can include items like – Buy nice clothes, bake sugar goodies, create handmade Christmas cards, and so on. Also, don’t forget to use relevant abbreviations and hashtags to let your audience know that you understand them well. 

4. Campaigns to Last-Minute Shoppers

There are several shoppers who have the tendency of putting items in their cart and procrastinating until the last minute. Then, some are indecisive or unable to find something special and relevant for their loved ones. For such, you can take the ‘you snooze; you lose’ campaign route, something which Casper, an award-winning mattress company, did for its Black Friday sales. 

Much like Bonobos, the promotional offer looked simple in terms of its layout, which bore a resemblance to an alarm clock app. Each alarm had a special, witty name, such as “1:30 A.M. – Get in line for super sale!” “1:35 A.M. – Early bird gets the discount” “1:37 A.M. – Seriously, get up” with the final one at 1:45 A.M. saying, “You’re gonna pay full price!!!!” 

With the clever use of a design that complements their nature of the business, witty word usage, and exclamations at relevant places, the brand was able to wake up some last-minute shoppers out of their Slumberland. 

5. Giving – to Receive

No other holiday spurs up the giving spirit in people other than Christmas. It’s a time when people spend most of their holiday budget looking for that ideal gift for their friends and family. As a marketer, you can leverage this opportunity to give some great incentives to your shoppers. After all, it’s in giving to each one that we receive, right? 

Taco Bell came up with this ingenious idea. The company sent out promotional holiday emails to encourage their audience to purchase an e-gift card of $15, for which they would get an extra $5 for free. In other words, by giving a gift to someone, shoppers could receive a gift for themselves. Smart, right? Not only is this a warm holiday gesture from the company’s end, but the extra $5 ensures that several shoppers would definitely get back to purchase more!

6. It All Doesn’t End with Christmas!

Well, amid the festive season, most shoppers are engrossed in shopping for their friends and family, preparing cards, baking goodies, and more! It is possible that in the spirit of giving, they may have forgotten to treat themselves well or failed to find that perfect gift to gift themselves. Plus, marketers often spend their time running campaigns that focus on giving others that ideal gift. How about you as a marketer reveal your surprise gift once the hustle-and-bustle of the season has ended?

Yes, as odd as it may sound, this strategy worked best for Mahabis, a lifestyle brand that designs slippers with an “Italian sole.” The company’s subject line itself was catchy enough – “No Mahabis under the tree? Treat yourself instead!” Perhaps, nobody would have dreamt of receiving a pair of slippers under their Christmas tree, but does that mean they should pass on super-comfy Italian slippers, that too when they’re available with exciting offers? Hard to say no, at least after Christmas! You get the drift. 

No matter which route you choose to take, keep in mind a few basics – start out with your Christmas teaser email at least a week before the Big Day and do send an exclusive holiday shopping guide or catalog to your shoppers for easy reference, and we’re assured that following our useful tips will ensure you have your slice of “Happy Holidays!”