I imagine your company will be running email campaigns for Christmas. In which case, your brand’s impact will face fierce competition among the masses, and the opportunity to engage your audience and signpost them directly to your website will be challenging.
If you want to stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to pay close attention to what comes next.
#1 LEVERAGE DATA TO KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Email personalisation is your magic ingredient. The brandy butter to your mince pie, if you will.
Crafting your offering to meet their particular needs, profiles and personas can be key to unlocking revenue and customer loyalty.
CRM platforms mean you can leverage customer data to create intelligent, real-time campaigns, allowing you to take a more connected, customer-centric approach to your digital CRM strategies.
Personalisation isn’t about first/last name. It’s about relevant content.
Think of it this way, if a user has been visiting your Christmas tree product pages, they probably don’t want to hear about your sofa sale.
#2 MAKE YOUR SUBJECT LINE STAND OUT
Inboxes in the run-up to Christmas are noisy and full of tinsel. You must shout and shine to stand out.
Your subject line is the first point of contact your brand has with your audience, so its composition shouldn’t be left as an afterthought. The subject should suggest what is to come without giving too much away; Return Path data suggests 65 characters is the ideal length to plan with.
It is crucial to remember that the device and email client used affects how much of the subject line is available to view; structuring the line so that CTAs appear first ensures even narrower screen users won’t miss the key message.
Consider grabbing more attention by personalising the subject line to the recipient. This can be as simple as pulling the individual’s name from the database or segmenting mailing lists according to interest before tailoring subject lines unique to each send.
But don’t forget: just because a subject line stands out, it doesn’t mean your audience will like it.
Make sure you stand out for the right reasons. If your audience is cost-sensitive, try an offer in the subject line. If your products are high-end, don’t cheapen your brand with emojis. It might be all the rage, but not all tests show emojis in the subject line improves results. Think about your audience, not what everyone else is doing.
#3 ENSURE YOUR CONTENT IS LOUD AND CLEAR
So your subject line has cut through the noise enough for your email to be opened… now what?
Today’s consumers check their mail on mobile devices to occupy ‘in-between’ moments on the go rather than within a dedicated time. This would explain why Litmus email analytics state that your message has just 2 seconds to make an impact!
When first impressions are make or break, your content needs to be well optimised within the dimensions of the email; if the reader cannot state the email’s purpose when viewing the space ‘above the fold’, interest can quickly dwindle. With a finite amount of time to deliver the right message, your text should be concise and relevant and call to actions clear.
Unsure how to say it? Consider letting the visuals do a share of the talking to gratify short attention spans. Do be careful not to build an email that is one whole image, however, as this will often see your email detected as spam.
Needing inspiration? Visit: https://reallygoodemails.com/
#4 TIMING IS EVERYTHING
It is often said that timing is everything, but when it comes to emails, there is no ‘magic moment’ that outweighs any other send time. As stated by MailChimp, there is never a time of the week in which everyone drops what they are doing and decides to engage fully with their emails. Many studies have suggested that weekdays at 10/11 am are a prime time to target, but if all companies follow the same trend, your campaign will only see more competition.
That said, there are open rate trends that are useful to know when planning your email campaign.
The consensus is that Monday is the day to avoid launch: The start of the week sees people busy playing catch-up from the weekend and focused on a set to-do list. Conversely, the weekends can also see your message easily missed due to people being busy with social and leisure. Sending an email between Tuesday and Friday avoids these danger zones and could increase the chance of your email being opened.
The best approach might be to test a variety of times when sending out other promotional emails ahead of your Christmas campaign and glean from those results. Don’t forget that if your database includes addresses that span many worldwide locations, it also makes sense to segment your entire mailing list and automate send for individual time zone categories.
Test and learn to see what works best for your audience. Which leads us too…
#5 TEST AND LEARN
Sir Isaac Newton talked about standing on the shoulders of giants. A thorough test-and-learn approach might not give you giant shoulders but can at least give you stilts. The more theories you test, the more you know what will resonate with your audience. Don’t settle for your best email ideas today; your email should comprise of insights gathered from your last 20.
Experiment to see what resonates:
- Subject lines
- Calls to action
- Design/creative
- Timing
When testing, always remember your KPI (behaviour, result) - and try to test one element at a time so you can be sure you understand the impact the decisions you’re making are having.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Your audience is King/Queen: keep them in mind in every decision you make, don’t just assume the latest trends apply to you.
- Don’t treat your subject line as an afterthought. Avoid clichéd phrases and structure your content so that the essential information is not lost due to character restrictions..
- Show your email design to a fresh pair of eyes, but limit this to a 2-second viewing. If the message isn’t understood, strip the content to its essentials and emphasise the most critical parts.
- Test, test, test - and keep a record of what works and why.
- Be experimental with your send times throughout the year to build your understanding of your database’s email behaviour.
Still feeling a bit lost about your upcoming Christmas email campaigns? Get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
