10 email marketing tips for SMEs to get ahead this holiday season
This year, the holiday season is going to be a crucial time for all businesses, even more so for marketers of start-ups and SMEs. This is the time for businesses to plan and strategize for that fast-approaching holiday. So, what are some of the top email marketing tactics you are able to adopt to drive more holiday sales?
Employ an incentive
Incentives would be the cornerstone of holiday marketing. And it is not just because every store will offer you one, but because they work well. You'll be surprised how many consumers are out there looking for a bargain – despite their sizeable budget. Be sure to communicate your incentive clearly. Using a website popover is a great way to highlight your incentive yet isn't overly intrusive.
Ask customers the things they want
This tactic is extremely important during
the holidays – simply because there's so much noise in the inbox. Having preferences
at hand will help you tailor your message making the experience much more
relevant for potential and existing customers.
You may either collect preferences via a preference centre, during the opt-in process or through a number of welcome emails. The latter might be more effective because new sign-ups don't necessarily want to be bombarded with questions.
Use email marketing insights
Email behaviour is a useful indicator of
customer intent – especially if you've offered up a motivation. For instance,
an email recipient might have opened their welcome email a couple of times, but
not redeemed their incentive yet. Use this insight to send them another email,
urging these to take you up on the offer.
Abandoned browse and cart recovery
Having your data-triggered messaging up and running for the holidays is essential for success. With web tracking behaviour enabled, you can re-target website users who have either abandoned their browse or cart. Cart abandonment stands at approximately 70 per cent – just think how much revenue you could be passing up on during the holidays. Just one or two timely reminders are all it takes to nudge customers to the checkout. Your business is begging for it.
Product recommendations are key
Your bread-and-butter email marketing tactics would not be complete without product recommendations. For customers, they provide super-useful and relevant recommendations they really want to buy. And for businesses, they drive a chuck of total revenue: 26 percent to be exact.
Segment valuable data
Segmentation is one of the most important email tactics out there. Identifying a razor-sharp segment is always good for business.
Once you've selected your qualification criteria and built your segment, curate a note that speaks directly to the crowd, meaning your messages will always make sense to recipients.
Reward customer loyalty
For loyalty to flourish, you need two things: one, a customer that buys; two, a brandname that rewards. While your site, plus your email communications, have to be shipshape during the buying process, it's your post-purchase program that'll sow those loyalty seeds.
Create a loyalty program that both nurtures customers to purchase and rewards them for his or her efforts. Whether it's loyalty points or one-off rewards, a mere “thank you” will go a long way.
Extend the promotion
This is really a key multifaceted strategy – extending your promotions beyond their end dates will invariably bring in more revenue. You've developed your promotional campaign for weeks, targeted customers according to their email and website behaviour, made steady sales before the last push. And, other family members . of the campaign the sales really start flooding in. So, thinking about extend your most revenue-generating period? Not only is it great for brands, but last-minute customers will love this too, because all of a sudden there's additional time to browse, select, and purchase.
