As crazy as it sounds to say out loud, the impending holiday shopping season – and all this means for your inbox operations – is truly right around the corner. Spooky Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving meals with the family, and pumpkin-spiced everything will soon be on the minds of everyone that makes up your target audience – whether you’re ready or not. With this in mind, let’s connect with some of the leading voices from around the web to ensure that you get off on the right foot with your email marketing campaigns as we head toward the autumn online shopping season.
Start Testing Your Landing Pages
In terms of getting your stable of digital content in shape for the holiday season, Carolyn Nye of Practical Ecommerce points out that it’s hard to go wrong with giving your landing pages a seasonal face lift. Considering that these pages often serve as the digital doorway that connects your email content to the virtual shopping cart on your site, it’s beyond important to get things right on this front.So how does a brand shore up its landing pages in advance of the email marketing busy season that comes with the shift to autumn? According to Search Engine Land’s Mona Elesseily, staying descriptive and succinct is the key to success. Just like your inbox content, skip the fluff and get straight to the point regarding holiday sales and promotions when possible. A powerful seasonal call-to-action (CTA) goes a long way, so avoid airy language and make it a point to impart value and urgency upon the consumers who are in the process of transitioning from the inbox to your holiday-centric website offerings.
Add Triggered Emails That Target Early Fall Shoppers
Outside of spicing up your landing pages with a targeted and optimized seasonal slant, Nye also suggests trying out new triggers for your automated email responses. Yes, most brands have some form of “abandoned cart” event message, but standing out during this hectic and exciting time of the year requires so much more than a this kind of standard email offering.Some of the most effective triggered emails offer guidance and suggestions, so use this knowledge to get a leg up on the competition. For instance, in the weeks leading up to a particular holiday, set up a trigger that promotes suggested and similar items for those early birds who start searching for deals well in advance of the typical sales cycle. At the very least, this approach ensures that your brand products and services end up in the digital conversation with your inbox audience early and often.
Know When Your Audience Starts Consuming Autumn-Oriented Content
Speaking of getting ahead of the competition, James Green of Marketing Land explains that your brand has a golden opportunity to shape and mold the aforementioned interactions by taking note of when and where your audience starts seeking out holiday-oriented content. While the obvious answer to this query comes in the form of “around Black Friday” or “the week before Christmas,” the truth of the matter is that you’re much better off going as deep into this process as possible.Consumer data – both in the form of third-party sets and harvested first-party information from your site and social media pages – can tell this story in a precise and detailed manner. While other brands stick to the status quo, your organization can hone in on the weeks, days, and even specific times of the day, that serve as the crucial moments of audience interaction and activity.
Personalization Matters More Than Ever
The final tip from Green offers up the notion that success in the inbox this holiday season will rely upon personalization like no other before it. Essentially, more than 50 percent of online shoppers want their personal info to be used as a means of creating a better shopping and outreach experience, so it’s imperative that your brand use these tools to give the people what they want.Everything from content tailored to holiday trends and activities in the shopper’s area, to simply using the person on the other side of the screen’s name periodically, is fair game within this practice. The big key here is that you do everything you can to make each message feel like it is unique and one-of-a-kind. If you’re able to accomplish this – as well as put to good use the rest of what you’ve learned here – then there’s no reason why this coming holiday season can’t be the catalyst for your best inbox initiative ever.
