Start Your Email Marketing for the Holiday Season Now

By ELIZABETH JACOBI | Special to the Palisadian-Post

It sounds funny to talk about the holidays when we are in September and having days when it’s 90-plus degrees outside. However, now is the time to start planning for the holiday season.

Having worked in the email marketing industry since 2001, I have seen the planning start earlier and earlier each year. Big brands assess the previous year in January or February, and start planning for the holiday beginning over the summer.

This holiday season will be very different. With the uncertainty of this year, planning for really anything needs to be fluid.

It is likely that people will avoid the malls, more will shop online and fewer people will travel. All of this creates an opportunity for local businesses. Because people have stayed closer to home the past few months, many have explored their local neighborhoods and started to frequent local places that they had not tried in the past.

Part of the planning process is usually looking at how your emails performed last year. We typically analyze the previous two years to determine the best strategy for holiday email marketing.

The last two years cannot be used to the same extent this year to predict this holiday season. The holiday shopping season generally kicks off on November 1. Still, experts predict that people will likely start shopping early this year and spend less.

I know for myself this is the year of staying local while shopping and dining at small businesses. This trend is also how I will personally do my holiday shopping. Businesses who have been engaging me with email marketing will likely be my first stop, simply because they are in my inbox.

While the holiday email marketing season means flooded inboxes from big brands, small businesses need to think big and start the holiday email marketing planning now. You want to make sure your email hits a customer’s inbox and gets read.

So, where do you start?

Develop a Plan and Start Early

We all know the key dates during the season (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, last day for shipping, etc.) but you should determine the key dates that are important to your business.

Do people need to order holiday meals by a specific date? Is your in-person business going to offer virtual events? Are you planning to provide personalized in-person shopping or allow people to order online and pick up at your store?

Once you have answered those questions, build a calendar that includes when you will start marketing these holiday initiatives. Remember, the earlier, the better, this year.

List Segmentation is Critical

Know who purchased last year, who is new and who has not opened your emails. Being able to identify these groups will allow you to communicate different messages as necessary.

Analyze and Purge

Each holiday season it becomes harder to get into someone’s inbox as email volume grows. Analyze what worked last year to bring you sales and, more importantly, review what has worked over the past couple of months and apply it to your holiday email marketing.

There are likely people on your list who have not engaged with email marketing in a long time. Now is the time to win them back or purge them.

I know that businesses are often concerned with list size but what you want is a subscriber list that is highly engaged vs. a large list. These tactics will help you get to the inbox and generate higher open rates and additional sales.

In closing, it is time to start your email marketing planning now because the holidays will sneak up on us quickly as they always do.

Elizabeth Jacobi grew up in Pacific Palisades and is the owner of MochaBear Marketing. Elizabeth can be reached at info@mochabearmarketing.com or 424-272-6712.