30.11.11 Seven tips to tap into year-end sales with our email marketing software

Many companies generate up to 50% of their annual turnover between October and January. The amount of emails sent to customers during the Christmas months is therefore correspondingly high. Below you will find seven valuable tips on how you can use our email marketing software optivo^® broadmail to position you products, services and special offers to make a big impact with little effort.

 

1. Provide inspiration & information
The emails you send at Christmas time should make the most of the pervading festive spirit. They should include inspirational offers and gift ideas – that are naturally linked to your portfolio – and can help to relieve the rampant "Christmas stress" many recipients endure by providing targeted information and service details. You can, for example, integrate a prominently placed "Gift Ideas" tab or button in each of your Christmas emails. Christmas calendars or countdowns and other special suggestions are another method to incite avid Christmas shoppers. Potential buyers are – more so than usually – thankful for clear, succinct indications of prices and delivery times, returns policies, closest branches, opening hours and telephone support hotlines. Bear in mind that many recipients inform themselves online before purchasing in a traditional retail outlet.

 

2. Publish customer reviews
What is more convincing than positive reviews and recommendations made by satisfied customers? Incorporate product reviews into your Christmas communication to build trust and to support the purchase decision process of the recipients. In the age of social media, user-generated content is the trigger for successful word-of-mouth communication. The integration of comments and opinions in year-end emails can be undertaken manually or automatically. Many marketers have customer reviews at the ready – such as in the form of Facebook fan pages or user forums. But these can also be generated via email and social media at short notice. Furthermore, a good possibility exists to induce reviews by regularly asking for customer feedback following each purchase.

 

3. Set the right time for dispatch
The timing for sending emails is especially important for end-of-year business. It is very helpful to assess the response of Christmas mailings of past years to establish the optimal period for dispatch. Orientate yourself on the highest performing days, placing special emphasis on opening rates. Take into account domestic and international holidays, special dates and deadlines – such as St. Nicholas day or the shipping deadline for dispatch in time for Christmas. All such dates are potential "touchpoints" with both existing and potential customers. Send targeted emails on such dates that remind, for example, of the last day to place an order for guaranteed delivery so that an impulse for purchasing is given due to the urgency of the deadline.

 

4. Manage the frequency of mailings
Companies that generate the majority of their turnover during the year-end period generally increase the number of emails sent in order to regularly inform customers of their offers. In doing so, it is vital that the most important KPIs should be kept in mind. This especially applies to the development of unsubscribe and return rates over the Christmas period. Besides poor relevance for the recipient, the main reason for this peak in unsubscribes and bounces is that intervals between dispatches are too short. A so-called preference centre where recipients can individually determine the frequency of emails may help alleviate this phenomenon under certain circumstances.

 

Experience shows that clear, strong branding in the recipients’ inbox has a positive effect – even with high contact frequency. Effort should be made so that the recipient can clearly see in the email inbox and preview window that the email is about your brand and is a premium offer. It is therefore advantageous to repeatedly use a constant sender name that is recognized by the recipient, and to place your logo in the header area along with attractive graphical elements (which ideally are also known from other marketing channels).

 

5. Trust in the power of segmentation
Which segments have performed best in past year-end business periods and over the year as a whole? This information is crucial for the Christmas period. You can thereby create incentives for your highest turnover customers. Orientate yourself on the bestsellers and top product categories of the last end-of-year period. For even more effective segmentation, you should also evaluate the sales made over the preceding months and apply this knowledge for cross and up-selling opportunities. Another clever approach is to distinguish Christmas email recipients between openers/non-openers and clickers/non-clickers. A follow-up email ("Your discount voucher is waiting for you…") could, for example, be sent to all recipients that opened a corresponding product newsletter a week earlier. Our email marketing software optivo^® broadmail lets you effortlessly individualise emails on the basis of a central mailing and dynamically dispatch these. The applicable content paragraphs are selected and sent to the various target groups according to specific segments.

 

6. Make use of image personalisation
Conveying that special Christmas spirit not least comes down to the optimal design. You can set yourself apart from other emails in the inbox by varying or changing the email header. Christmas emails with personalised images are a particularly effective way to attract attention. Image personalisation allows sophisticated, personal and emotionally-charged Christmas greetings to be sent. The personalised images are usually displayed in the email header. Besides addressing recipients personally, it helps to also incorporate a visually appealing photo or motif in the header.
You want to send Christmas emails with individual images using optivo^® broadmail? We have a whole range of premade image galleries for multi-step email campaigns at the ready. Talk to our consultants to find out more!

 

7. Don’t forget January
The end-of-year sales rush doesn’t end with last-minute offers in the final days before Christmas. Experience proves that increased potential for sales using email extends into the second week in January. Many employees are still off in early January and school children on holidays. Potential customers can again be activated in this phase through vouchers and specials, or possibly by also incorporating special offers from stationary retail outlets. It is imperative that you adjust your messages according to the changed focus of consumers following Christmas. Many email recipients will not necessarily be buying something for their loved ones – but rather for themselves. The festive spirit of the weeks before should be gradually toned down to hit the right chord with recipients. Furthermore, this phase can be used to announce exclusive January specials and thereby enable a seamless transition into the new sales year.

 

Our special tip:
This end-of-year season, make the most of the above-average opening rates as well as cross and up-selling opportunities that transactional emails provide by also incorporating your Christmas specials in these types of emails.

 

We wish you a successful Christmas business – and a high response from your mailings! Should you have questions or require further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.