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Holiday Email Marketing Guide: What, How, and When To Send
The biggest sales days of the year are around the corner...is your email marketing ready? I’m going to dive into some holiday-specific strategies and tactics in this post.
Send Time Strategy
Email inboxes are in overdrive during the holidays, and consumer attention spans become non-existent. While following a sound email send time strategy is important all year-round, at no time is it more important than during the hyper-competitive holiday season.
Time of Day
You’ll see retailers experiment with sending at all hours of the day and night during holiday season. Here are a few tips on optimizing your time of day sending:
? You want to avoid the early morning delete rush, and thus not send your emails before people get to work. You want to avoid the early morning delete rush, and thus not send your emails before people get to work.
? 9am ~ 11am is prime time. This also means everyone and their mother will be sending emails at this time. I’d suggest you avoid sending during this highly competitive time period because a) your message gets lost within the sea of competitors b) ISP’s will be seeing the highest volumes during this time, which increases your chances of getting deferred. 9am ~ 11am is prime time. This also means everyone and their mother will be sending emails at this time. I’d suggest you avoid sending during this highly competitive time period because a) your message gets lost within the sea of competitors b) ISP’s will be seeing the highest volumes during this time, which increases your chances of getting deferred.
? 12pm ~ 2pm would be a better time to send. Also, the later afternoon period may have some potential. 12pm ~ 2pm would be a better time to send. Also, the later afternoon period may have some potential.
? Evening sends are controversial. On one hand, you’ll miss many people’s work addresses. On the other hand, people have more inclination to browse and buy at home. Evening sends are controversial. On one hand, you’ll miss many people’s work addresses. On the other hand, people have more inclination to browse and buy at home.
Day of Week
In addition to time of day considerations, which day of the week you send email is also important. Several notes below:
In addition to time of day considerations, which day of the week you send email is also important. Several notes below:
? Generally, retailers like to send between Tuesday and Thursday. During normal times of the year these do perform best. However, you’ll see large volumes on every day of the week during holiday. Generally, retailers like to send between Tuesday and Thursday. During normal times of the year these do perform best. However, you’ll see large volumes on every day of the week during holiday.
? Fridays and Sundays are under-utilized. According to some studies, Fridays have the second highest engagement rates of any day of the week. Sundays, during that afternoon/early evening period is a good time to send emails. Many people are browsing casually at home during this time, and more likely to click & convert. Fridays and Sundays are under-utilized. According to some studies, Fridays have the second highest engagement rates of any day of the week. Sundays, during that afternoon/early evening period is a good time to send emails. Many people are browsing casually at home during this time, and more likely to click & convert.
? Saturdays are generally bad days to send. Retailers tend to avoid Saturdays even during the holidays. Saturdays are generally bad days to send. Retailers tend to avoid Saturdays even during the holidays.
? Certain dates buck this trend of course, i.e. Cyber Monday, Black Friday. Certain dates buck this trend of course, i.e. Cyber Monday, Black Friday.
Other Considerations
Frequency
You have more leeway to send email at a higher frequency during the holidays, since it’s in line with consumer expectations. That said, you still want to ideally segment based on past engagement (for example, send at a lower frequency to the segment of contacts who haven’t been opening/clicking your emails much), and have a diverse content mix.
Some large retailers send 7 times+ per week during holiday season. I’d highly advise against this practice, as it tends to spike attrition and be bad for the long term health of the program.
Your ideal frequency would depend on your resources as well as baseline frequency. For example, if you have historically been sending 1x a week, it’s okay to up it to 2x a week if you have the resources to devote to do it (or can work with an outside partner who can).
Deliverability
Deliverability is especially important during the holidays since you stand to lose much more revenue if you run into bad inboxing issues. The good news is if you have been following good list practices, you should be in good shape. However, there are still some special considerations.
Deferred mail - during extremely high volume days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, ISP’s are known to "defer" email due to their inability to deal with the sheer volume of email coming in. What this means is your email will not be outright rejected, but instead put on hold for several hours before getting delivered...which is no good during these critical days.
This may happen to you even if you have a pristine sender reputation and are categorized as a "good" sender.
This is one of the reasons why I suggested earlier to avoid peak send times on these high volume days.
Throttling - To balance out the deliverability risk on each email send, I suggest throttling your email over time. What this means is instead of sending to your entire email list all at once, you should split your list and send to your best customers first and worst customers last. This strategy does two things:
1) It ensures the highest probability that your best customers get your email delivered to them, even if your run into deliverability problems on your later sends.
2) It helps your short-term deliverability because your best customers will engage more with your emails (open/click) and are far less likely to mark as spam. This sends a positive signal to the ISP’s, which helps get your later sends through their filters.
Suppression - Another balancing act is to choose how aggressively you want to suppress your inactive contacts. For example, you can suppress (not send to) anyone who has not opened or clicked your emails in the last 6 months. Or you can define that threshold at 3 months, or 12 months.
The advantage of an aggressive threshold (3 months vs. 12 months for example) is that you will lower your deliverability risk. The disadvantage is of course the loss of potential revenue. It is a tricky balance to maximize returns since if you get 0% inboxing on Black Friday for example, you could be losing a lot more revenue than from suppression more aggressively.
Unfortunately there’s no universally correct answer on what threshold to use, and it all depends on your risk profile.
Frequency
You have more leeway to send email at a higher frequency during the holidays, since it’s in line with consumer expectations. That said, you still want to ideally segment based on past engagement (for example, send at a lower frequency to the segment of contacts who haven’t been opening/clicking your emails much), and have a diverse content mix.
Some large retailers send 7 times+ per week during holiday season. I’d highly advise against this practice, as it tends to spike attrition and be bad for the long term health of the program.
Your ideal frequency would depend on your resources as well as baseline frequency. For example, if you have historically been sending 1x a week, it’s okay to up it to 2x a week if you have the resources to devote to do it (or can work with an outside partner who can).
Deliverability
Deliverability is especially important during the holidays since you stand to lose much more revenue if you run into bad inboxing issues. The good news is if you have been following good list practices, you should be in good shape. However, there are still some special considerations.
Deferred mail - during extremely high volume days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, ISP’s are known to "defer" email due to their inability to deal with the sheer volume of email coming in. What this means is your email will not be outright rejected, but instead put on hold for several hours before getting delivered...which is no good during these critical days.
This may happen to you even if you have a pristine sender reputation and are categorized as a "good" sender.
This is one of the reasons why I suggested earlier to avoid peak send times on these high volume days.
Throttling - To balance out the deliverability risk on each email send, I suggest throttling your email over time. What this means is instead of sending to your entire email list all at once, you should split your list and send to your best customers first and worst customers last. This strategy does two things:
1) It ensures the highest probability that your best customers get your email delivered to them, even if your run into deliverability problems on your later sends.
2) It helps your short-term deliverability because your best customers will engage more with your emails (open/click) and are far less likely to mark as spam. This sends a positive signal to the ISP’s, which helps get your later sends through their filters.
Suppression - Another balancing act is to choose how aggressively you want to suppress your inactive contacts. For example, you can suppress (not send to) anyone who has not opened or clicked your emails in the last 6 months. Or you can define that threshold at 3 months, or 12 months.
The advantage of an aggressive threshold (3 months vs. 12 months for example) is that you will lower your deliverability risk. The disadvantage is of course the loss of potential revenue. It is a tricky balance to maximize returns since if you get 0% inboxing on Black Friday for example, you could be losing a lot more revenue than from suppression more aggressively.
Unfortunately there’s no universally correct answer on what threshold to use, and it all depends on your risk profile.
Key Dates
Thanksgiving - Nov 28th
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov 27th) is generally a bad day to send email since it’s a very heavy travel day. Instead, sending on the day of Thanksgiving, during that afternoon 2pm~4pm time slot is ideal. This is a time when many people are home, and have time to browse email.
This year’s Thanksgiving should also be fun as it falls in line with Hanukkah.
Black Friday - Nov 29th
Black Friday is one of the biggest days for retail sales of the year. Retailers have been sending Black Friday emails earlier and earlier during the week (and extending the sale longer). My suggestion would be to:
Thanksgiving - Nov 28th
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov 27th) is generally a bad day to send email since it’s a very heavy travel day. Instead, sending on the day of Thanksgiving, during that afternoon 2pm~4pm time slot is ideal. This is a time when many people are home, and have time to browse email.
This year’s Thanksgiving should also be fun as it falls in line with Hanukkah.
Black Friday - Nov 29th
Black Friday is one of the biggest days for retail sales of the year. Retailers have been sending Black Friday emails earlier and earlier during the week (and extending the sale longer). My suggestion would be to:
1. Send a Black Friday "Sneak Peek" email to a segment of your best customers on Thanksgiving
2. Send a proper Black Friday email on Friday
3. Do one or two resends over the weekend (don’t forget, sale extended, last chance)
Retailers tend to promote their juiciest offers during Black Friday, so I’ve seen a lot of large, blanket site-wide discounts.
Cyber Monday - Dec 2nd
For Cyber Monday, retailers generally do a one-day only sale (although most will extend the sale for at least a day, some for longer). You should send an early Cyber Monday email, and then a Cyber Monday "hours left" or "last chance" email later in the day.
Also, consider at least extending Cyber Monday for one day on Tuesday (and send an email to notify people...I’d exclude anyone who bought from the Monday email though, since you don’t want them to feel shafted).
The key is to make sure your Cyber Monday offer is clearly differentiated from your Black Friday offer. Not doing so is a big mistake I’ve seen many retailers make.
A good way to do a Cyber Monday email is to drive to a dedicated landing page with a selection of very deeply discounted products vs. a blanket site-wide sale.
Green Monday - Dec 9th
Green Monday is the Monday following Cyber Monday. It’s not an actual holiday, but is another very high sales-volume day of the year. You should send a compelling offer out on this Monday, though you don’t really need to call out "Green Monday" in particular.
Christmas - Dec 25th
Most retailers won’t be sending emails on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day (though I have seen some do it). The shipping deadlines "delivered by Christmas" will determine when your last pre-Christmas emails will go out.
New Year’s - Jan 1st
After Christmas is over, retailers will start launching into the New Year’s clearance sales. For certain niches like fitness, January is a huge month, so getting a head start on promotions early is a good idea.
Promotional Content Mix
The holidays see more email volume than any other time of year. Since you will likely be sending at a much higher frequency and volume than normal, you need to be aware of the optimal types of email content to include in your marketing in order to maximize your returns as well as keep your emails fresh and diverse.
X Days of Deals
The X Days of Deals email is a daily email pushing a specific product, brand, or category-based discount. I’ve seen campaigns run anywhere from 5 to 12 days of deals. This type of email generally starts to pop up in early December.
This X Days of Deals type email offers several advantages:
? Allows you to do a high (daily) frequency due to the message positioning Allows you to do a high (daily) frequency due to the message positioning
? Generates momentum and anticipation of knowing each day’s deal, which translates to higher engagement Generates momentum and anticipation of knowing each day’s deal, which translates to higher engagement
? Pushes discounts on a specific sub-section of your product mix, thus protecting margins vs. a site-wide blanket discount Pushes discounts on a specific sub-section of your product mix, thus protecting margins vs. a site-wide blanket discount
If you do decide on launching a X Days of Deals campaign, here are a few recommendations:
? Do a "kick-off" email prior to the campaign. This will alert your contact base that they should expect the emails in the coming days. Do a "kick-off" email prior to the campaign. This will alert your contact base that they should expect the emails in the coming days.
? Consider sending only to the most engaged segment of your contacts. Since there’s a significant increase in frequency by moving to a daily email, you don’t want to risk spiking your attrition rates by alienating contacts who would not tolerate a daily email. Some retailers run the X Days of Deals campaigns as a separate campaign from their main program, requiring users to opt-in specifically to the X Days of Deals. I won’t recommend this since the rates of opt-in are low, so instead decide who to send to based on your contacts behavior. Consider sending only to the most engaged segment of your contacts. Since there’s a significant increase in frequency by moving to a daily email, you don’t want to risk spiking your attrition rates by alienating contacts who would not tolerate a daily email. Some retailers run the X Days of Deals campaigns as a separate campaign from their main program, requiring users to opt-in specifically to the X Days of Deals. I won’t recommend this since the rates of opt-in are low, so instead decide who to send to based on your contacts behavior.
? In general, I’d recommend running the X Days of Deals on the brand, category, or sub-category level vs. the product-level. This casts the net wider, and appeals to a greater portion of your contacts. If you do opt to do it on a product-level (I have seen some success in the past with product-focused X Days of Deals emails), make sure you include secondary CTA’s and banners in case the product does not appeal to your contacts. In general, I’d recommend running the X Days of Deals on the brand, category, or sub-category level vs. the product-level. This casts the net wider, and appeals to a greater portion of your contacts. If you do opt to do it on a product-level (I have seen some success in the past with product-focused X Days of Deals emails), make sure you include secondary CTA’s and banners in case the product does not appeal to your contacts.
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Secondary Banners
Secondary banners are smaller promotional areas with your email templates where you can promote you secondary messaging. For example, if you primary messaging on an email is a 30% off sweaters, you could include secondary banners pushing your holiday gift guide and free shipping offer.
Using these banners intelligently can boost your email click-throughs since you are offering multiple points of entry versus a single message which may or may not be relevant to your entire contact base. Essentially, you are "casting a wider net" of relevance to your contacts.
The one time I’d steer away from including secondary banners is when you have a very strong offer as your primary CTA. For example, if you have a 40% off site-wide sale for Black Friday, you don’t want to distract your contacts with additional secondary messaging. Too many options can lead to the paradox of choice, and lower your conversions.
Triggered Emails
Triggered emails are an integral part of every effective email marketing program. During holidays, they play an even bigger role as many more contacts should be receiving your automated emails. Below are a select few to pay special attention to:
Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment emails are fantastically well-performing emails. If you don’t have a shopping cart abandonment trigger set up, you absolutely should prioritize it for holiday season. Many more people flow through your cart checkout process during the holiday season, so the potential revenue you can capture through a well-designed cart abandonment email is big.
If you already have a trigger in place, I suggest looking into testing & optimizing it (play with the template design, copy, time delay, and # of touches). Incremental improvements can yield a large gain over the course of the holidays.
Welcome Email
Ideally you would want to have a full welcome series of emails for new customers. Because you’ll be getting many new contacts onto your list during holidays, you want to at the very least have a welcome email to introduce them to your brand.
For certain stores, I’ve seen welcome emails perform surprisingly strongly in terms of getting a second purchase from a customer. The critical period after purchase is the ideal time to garner a repurchase, which also helps greatly extend the lifetime of a customer (repurchasers have much better longevity compared to one-time purchasers).
Post-Purchase Series
I’ve posted before on structuring a post-purchase series. This is another automated set of emails that become very important during the high-volume holiday season.
Transactional Emails - Order & Shipping Confirmation
With the increased orders during holidays, you’ll be sending out many more transactional emails. Transactional emails are a prime opportunity to up/cross-sell customers. I wrote extensively on how to optimize your transactional emails.
Page/Browse Abandonment
Page abandonment triggers use a contact’s site browse behavior (pages visited, time on page, time since last visit, etc) to automatically send relevant email. These triggers are much more complicated to set up technically, but can garner some big wins during holidays.
A simplified example of how it works:
Jimmy clicks on one of your previous emails ? he proceeds to visit the lawn mowers page 3 times within a span of 2 weeks ? you send him a dedicated email focusing on your best selling lawn mowers 4 hours after his 3rd visit.
Back-In-Stock Notification
Another automated email that is harder to set up technically is the back-in-stock notification. As shoppers onslaught your site, items inevitably go out of stock. Having a back-in-stock notification sent automatically whenever the product inventory is replenished will produce a good conversion rate.
Sample Calendar
A simple sample calendar for promo emails during holidays below:
Nov 6 - Pre-Holiday Sale
Nov 15 - New Arrivals
Nov 20 - Holiday Gift Guide
Nov 26 - Happy Holidays from CEO
Nov 28 - Black Friday Sneak Peek
Nov 29 - Black Friday Sale
Nov 30 - Black Friday Extended
Dec 1 - Black Friday Last Chance
Dec 2 - Cyber Monday Sale (2 sends)
Dec 3 - Cyber Monday Extended
Dec 8 - 5 Days of Deals Kick-Off
Dec 9 - Day 1 of Deals
Dec 10 - Day 2 of Deals
Dec 11 - Day 3 of Deals
Dec 12 - Day 4 of Deals
Dec 13 - Day 5 of Deals
Dec 17 - Last Day for Ground Shipping
Dec 23 - E-Gifts
Dec 28 - New Year’s Clearance Sale
Jan 2nd - New Year’s Clearance Last Chance
This post was contributed by "e Commerce Fuel" Members
Secondary Banners
Secondary banners are smaller promotional areas with your email templates where you can promote you secondary messaging. For example, if you primary messaging on an email is a 30% off sweaters, you could include secondary banners pushing your holiday gift guide and free shipping offer.
Using these banners intelligently can boost your email click-throughs since you are offering multiple points of entry versus a single message which may or may not be relevant to your entire contact base. Essentially, you are "casting a wider net" of relevance to your contacts.
The one time I’d steer away from including secondary banners is when you have a very strong offer as your primary CTA. For example, if you have a 40% off site-wide sale for Black Friday, you don’t want to distract your contacts with additional secondary messaging. Too many options can lead to the paradox of choice, and lower your conversions.
Triggered Emails
Triggered emails are an integral part of every effective email marketing program. During holidays, they play an even bigger role as many more contacts should be receiving your automated emails. Below are a select few to pay special attention to:
Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment emails are fantastically well-performing emails. If you don’t have a shopping cart abandonment trigger set up, you absolutely should prioritize it for holiday season. Many more people flow through your cart checkout process during the holiday season, so the potential revenue you can capture through a well-designed cart abandonment email is big.
If you already have a trigger in place, I suggest looking into testing & optimizing it (play with the template design, copy, time delay, and # of touches). Incremental improvements can yield a large gain over the course of the holidays.
Welcome Email
Ideally you would want to have a full welcome series of emails for new customers. Because you’ll be getting many new contacts onto your list during holidays, you want to at the very least have a welcome email to introduce them to your brand.
For certain stores, I’ve seen welcome emails perform surprisingly strongly in terms of getting a second purchase from a customer. The critical period after purchase is the ideal time to garner a repurchase, which also helps greatly extend the lifetime of a customer (repurchasers have much better longevity compared to one-time purchasers).
Post-Purchase Series
I’ve posted before on structuring a post-purchase series. This is another automated set of emails that become very important during the high-volume holiday season.
Transactional Emails - Order & Shipping Confirmation
With the increased orders during holidays, you’ll be sending out many more transactional emails. Transactional emails are a prime opportunity to up/cross-sell customers. I wrote extensively on how to optimize your transactional emails.
Page/Browse Abandonment
Page abandonment triggers use a contact’s site browse behavior (pages visited, time on page, time since last visit, etc) to automatically send relevant email. These triggers are much more complicated to set up technically, but can garner some big wins during holidays.
A simplified example of how it works:
Jimmy clicks on one of your previous emails ? he proceeds to visit the lawn mowers page 3 times within a span of 2 weeks ? you send him a dedicated email focusing on your best selling lawn mowers 4 hours after his 3rd visit.
Back-In-Stock Notification
Another automated email that is harder to set up technically is the back-in-stock notification. As shoppers onslaught your site, items inevitably go out of stock. Having a back-in-stock notification sent automatically whenever the product inventory is replenished will produce a good conversion rate.
Sample Calendar
A simple sample calendar for promo emails during holidays below:
Nov 6 - Pre-Holiday Sale
Nov 15 - New Arrivals
Nov 20 - Holiday Gift Guide
Nov 26 - Happy Holidays from CEO
Nov 28 - Black Friday Sneak Peek
Nov 29 - Black Friday Sale
Nov 30 - Black Friday Extended
Dec 1 - Black Friday Last Chance
Dec 2 - Cyber Monday Sale (2 sends)
Dec 3 - Cyber Monday Extended
Dec 8 - 5 Days of Deals Kick-Off
Dec 9 - Day 1 of Deals
Dec 10 - Day 2 of Deals
Dec 11 - Day 3 of Deals
Dec 12 - Day 4 of Deals
Dec 13 - Day 5 of Deals
Dec 17 - Last Day for Ground Shipping
Dec 23 - E-Gifts
Dec 28 - New Year’s Clearance Sale
Jan 2nd - New Year’s Clearance Last Chance
This post was contributed by "e Commerce Fuel" Members
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