Holidays are highly charged seasons. During these popular, merry-making times of the year, consumers are constantly looking to cash in on deals and discounts.
And not just from their favorite brands but also from their not-so-favorite brands, especially the ones that have mastered the art of using attention-grabbing catch-phrases to lure prospects.
The impact of holidays on your company’s sales can be phenomenal but only if you have the right strategy, which includes the right marketing tactics, tools, content, and most importantly, the right timing.
Holiday marketing campaigns have increasingly become the mainstay of all successful businesses and brands. The main reason is that most consumers are ready to splash their cash on a long list of gifts. It’s an age-old tradition that won’t be going away any time soon.
Since times immemorial, gifting has been the climax of all holiday seasons, and brands that have realized this are capitalizing on this massive trend to boost their sales and grow their bottom lines in the process.
Holiday campaigns are, therefore, super important to your business regardless of the industry or category your brand is in.
Before we go any further, let’s put its importance into perspective by looking at some eye-opening statistics real quick, shall we?
To drive purchases during the holiday season, brands must include coupons and discounts – which are the go-to tactics with 19 percent and 15 percent respectively of marketers using them – as part of their holiday marketing strategy. Other tactics with decent impact are free delivery and early access — both at 10 percent.
Here’s an interesting insight. Eighty-five percent of consumers are most likely to back out of a purchase simply because the item they were interested in was not on sale. Seventy percent of consumers on the other hand expect to find unmissable deals right around the holiday season with half of the shoppers planning their shopping spree during holidays such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas.
At the height of the global health crisis, a study by ITERABLE, for instance, revealed that 67 percent of consumers were planning to do their holiday shopping online with only three percent of consumers saying they will complete their holiday shopping in physical stores.
The same study also concluded that 36 percent of consumers were willing to wait for online sales events to kick off so that they can do their holiday shopping.
But while all these numbers demonstrate the importance of holiday marketing campaigns for brands, you also need to be tactical in the way you plan and execute your holiday marketing tactics.
For instance, while most consumers are in the mood for shopping during the holiday season, they will not shop blindly. For starters, consumers will be looking for products and services that feature prominently in their wish list. This means they will gladly interact with content that is created with their needs in mind.
To ensure that you reach the right audience, segmenting your email list is crucial. This way, you will ensure that the right content is reaching the right audience. This will significantly improve your lead generation and conversion efforts.
Segmentation helps you to be more efficient in terms of budgets, time, and other marketing resources. It also helps you and your marketing to learn more about your customers and prospects – an important attribute that allows you to put the right products/services in front of the right customers.
With segmentation, you are also able to understand your customers’ needs and preferences, which in turn allows you to create killer marketing campaigns for the holiday season.
Segmented email campaigns, for instance, can generate up to 58 percent of all email revenue. That’s not all. Marketers who use segmentation as part of the holiday marketing arsenal noted as much as 760 percent increase in revenue. This is why an overwhelming 76 percent of marketers today admit that segmentation is part and parcel of their email marketing strategy.
That notwithstanding, segmentation is more than just categorizing your target audience based on gender, age, and location. You must also know their behaviors, what influences their purchase decision, and what kind of content triggers these all-important decisions.
Now that you are up to speed with the importance of holiday campaigns and your segmentation strategy is spot on, the next and most critical, step is to deliver your email using the most effective subject line. This is where your holiday marking battle will be won or lost!
It doesn’t matter much that you have rock bottom prices in your category, if you are not able to deliver your marketing emails to the right audience, your sales will ultimately suffer. To avoid this rather unpleasant situation from happening to your business, it’s highly recommended that you seriously consider using powerful subject lines.
Good subject lines give you a better chance of increasing your marketing email open rates during the hotly contested holiday season. To get you started, we have collated a comprehensive list of email marketing subject lines that pack a colossal punch.
1. Must-Pack Gift Items for Your Thanksgiving Travels
2. Killer Gift Guide for Thanksgiving 2022
3. Top Wines That Must Accompany Your Thanksgiving Turkey
4. Jane, Shop More for Less This Thanksgiving
5. The Early Bird Thanksgiving Gift Guide
6. Thanks Us Later for These Exclusive Thanksgiving Gift Ideas
7. A Gif Guide Like No Other: Thanksgiving Just Got Real!
8. A Exclusive Mom’s Thanksgiving Gift Guide
9. A Celebrity-Inspired Thanksgiving Gift Guide With Unmissable Offers
10. Thanksgiving Sale Without The Big Crowds
11. Exclusive Thanksgiving Savings: Up to 30% Off TODAY!
12. Thanksgiving Deals Galore: Tomorrow Might Be Too Late!
13. Shhh… We’ve Sent Your Boss This Exclusive Thanksgiving Gift Guide!
14. Save up to 45% on All Thanksgiving Gift Items
15. Thanksgiving Weekend Discount Banger! 25% Off
16. Thanksgiving: Last Chance for Huge Kitchenware Savings
17. Ends Tonight! Thanksgiving 50% Sale
18. It’s Thanksgiving All Week Long
19. Thanksgiving Savings Plus FREE Shipping
20. EXTENDED: 45% Off All Thanksgiving Kids Treats
1. Don’t Miss Out. The Christmas Offer is Almost Over!
2. Christmas Deals That Never Disappoint
3. Our Mystery Christmas Deals & Discounts Revealed
4. Score Big With Our Never-Seen-Before Christmas Deals
5. These Christmas Deals Are About To Break The Internet
6. Running Out of Christmas Gift Ideas? Check These Out!
7. Shop & Save BIG This Christmas – 35% Off Kidswear
8. Merry Sale! 50% Off All Christmas Decorations
9. Santa-Inspired Gifts You Wanna Get Your Hands on
10. Love Yourself? Why Not Gift Yourself? 45% OFF Personal Care
11. FREE Christmas Gift for Every $200 Spent on Kitchenware
12. Not on Santa’s List This Year? Don’t Worry. We Got You!
13. Kick Off Your Christmas Shopping With a Bang!
14. John, Try a New Look This Christmas
15. Out-Of-This-World Discounts on Men’s Apparel
16. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays From (brand name)
17. Have You Seen Our Popular Christmas Gift Guide?
18. 50% Off Ending at Midnight! Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You.
19. Reindeers Fly Super Fast. So do Our Christmas Offer!
20. Last Minute Gift Ideas for Last-Minute Shoppers
21. Dazzle Your Kids With These Discounted Toys & Story Books
22. It’s January But Who Said Christmas is Over? Our 35% Discount is Still on!
For most marketers, coming up with catchy email marketing subject lines is not a walk in the park. While I’m sure you put in extra effort to ensure you have the best offers on gift items, creativity doesn’t always come when summoned.
But subject lines are just as important as the deals being offered to customers. Remember, the subject line is what your customer will see when they receive your email. If the subject line does not inspire them to open and read your email, then your deal is dead on arrival.
So, to make sure this does not happen to you this holiday season, here are a few tried-and-tested tips and tricks that will get you off to a good start by boosting your email open rate.
1. Tone and brand personality should be aligned. The subject line needs to speak to the customer in a language he or she understands.
2. Segmentation and personalization need to be spot on. Know your customer and what they like. Include it in the subject line to grab their attention.
3. Throw in a relevant shrug emoji. Christmas tree or gift. These are great for setting the mood.
4. Include numbers. 5%, 10%, 40%. $50 Off, $70 Off, $100 Off. Customers want to see how much they will save. This is a great motivation.
5. Place the most important words at the beginning of the subject line. Most emails are now read on mobile phones where screen space is limited.
Image Source: Email Monday
6. Don’t use filler words like ‘Hello’ or ‘Dear’. They occupy precious space.
7. Keep it simple and straight to the point.
8. Don’t use CAPS. It’s the digital form of yelling.
10. Add action verbs. Power words like Sale, Offer, Your, Special can work magic.
11. Use their names if possible. This is bound to get their attention.
12. Create a sense of urgency. ‘Ends tonight’, ‘Ends at Midnight’, ‘6 Hours to go’
Holiday campaigns are an opportunity to boost your sales and grow your company in the process. If you are planning an email campaign this holiday season, you need to make sure that your email subject lines inspire your customers and prospects to click, open, read, and take action.
