By Lauren H. Dowdle
With the holiday season upon us, now’s the perfect time to spread some cheer with an email campaign. These are perfect if you have an upcoming sale, gift guide, or simply want to send a season’s greetings to subscribers to show that the brand cares about them.
Need some help getting in the holiday spirit? Here’s how to leave customers feeling merry and bright with a festive email campaign.
Catch their attention
Everyone from brands and nonprofits to doctor’s offices and family members are sending holiday emails this time of year. Make sure yours stands out from the rest with an eye-catching design.
This email example from Kizik seems to pop off of the screen thanks to the layering effect they’ve created with the product image overlapping the call to action button. They’ve added dimension with the stacked shoes and wrapped boxes in the image, as well.
Robly also has a holiday template where parts of the design overlap to give the email life (and an adorable gingerbread man). The block with the text has a slightly brighter background to make it pop even more.
Holiday emails are also a great excuse for a fun GIF, which is sure to catch their eye. Whether that’s adding a snowy effect to text, cute moving winter animals, or a funny scene from a holiday movie, the choices are endless. You can find premade GIFs or create your own on sites like GIPHY.
Google Store used two separate GIFs for this email along with the fun title text, “Oh, what fun it is to save.” Since the main GIF image doesn’t have too much movement, it doesn’t overwhelm the viewer to have another right below it.
Stay authentic
Customers grow accustomed to (and expect) the email content and design to match the brand’s voice, whether that’s lighthearted, straightforward or cute. The holiday email should stay true to that same style during the holidays but with a festive twist. For example, if your brand is known for its formal tone, you wouldn’t want to include photos of cats drinking eggnog.
Coterie takes a simple yet elegant approach with their holiday email by creating a Christmas tree outline with the text and a star topper. They feature their products in the background to further tie in the branding with the messaging.
While the email does need to fit the brand’s persona, it’s alright to switch it up a little to add holiday colors and images. For example, Chick-fil-A’s logo typically is red, but they changed it to gold to match the festive design at the bottom.
Give the gift
Between all of the events and buying presents, the holiday season can often become stressful. Use your holiday email campaign to make your customers’ day a little easier by providing them with something useful like a gift guide. But don’t make this just any gift guide.
Instead of including a list of products at random, tailor the guide to match their preferences. You can use data like purchase history, site engagement, gender, location, or browse abandonment to pick products they’re sure to be interested in seeing. If you don’t have that information, choose some of your most popular items to feature.
Gift guides are also the perfect campaigns for a discount too. That way if they see something they’re interested in buying, they’ll have even more motivation to purchase it right away.
Bring them good tidings
Not only do consumers want to buy presents for their friends and family, but they also want to give back to their communities and beyond this time of year. If your company partners with organizations to give back on a local or national level, include that in your holiday email. Also, share how your subscribers can get involved and who they will be helping.
Holiday emails are also a great place to share some of the ways your company has given back this year. Everyone loves a feel-good story during the holidays, so let customers know who you’ve helped support. That will also form a closer relationship between the brand and them for the future, especially if they are part of the younger generations.
Keep the season going
The holidays don’t have to end in December, so don’t forget to send New Year’s emails, as well. These can be year recaps, like sharing what the company did the past year or the customer’s engagement history like in this example from Kroger. The full email shows their yearly savings, fuel savings, top categories of food they bought, and personalized offers.
You can also wish them well in the new year and beyond—and remind them your company is excited to continue serving them. A new year is full of hope, and you want subscribers to feel good about their relationship with your company moving forward. Babbel does that in this email by sharing tips for how their users can be successful in the new year.
As we get ready to close out the year and jump into a new one, find ways to show subscribers how important they are to your company.
