3 Ideas to Boost Holiday Email Response

By Stephanie Colleton
Director, Strategic Services

For many retailers, the holiday shopping season is a make or break selling period. Our recent webinar, "Boost Holiday Email Response: Give Subscribers What They Want," presented many actionable ideas for using email to boost revenue during this season. Here are three of those ideas that will help you drive strong response rates this quarter.

1. Balance your promotions and offers with useful content by thinking of ways your products can help your subscribers throughout the holiday season. For example:

• Fantastic hostess gifts: stock up now and have them on hand for last minute invites.
  
• You may have the perfect outfit for Saturday night, but what about that office party?
  
• Don't wait for Santa, buy gloves now to keep warm while hanging the lights and wreaths.
  

2. Be interactive. People love to give their opinion and see how they compare to others. Add a poll or quiz to promotional emails to take the edge off the "buy, buy, buy" message. Some ideas:

• Did you have fun at your office party this year?
  
• What's your favorite part of the holidays?
  
• Which holiday chore do you dread the most each year?
  

3. Instead of trying to make every single holiday email this season a must forward, focus on sending 1-2 campaigns that encourage pass-alongs. It's hard to predict what might become viral, but focus on content that is provocative, clever, interactive or humorous. Consider sending a limited invite: the first 200 people to respond to your email are invited to a special session with Santa at a local retail store location or go interactive with a quiz: "Test your holiday spirit to find out if you're Mrs. Claus or the Grinch." Celebrate your great viral content with prominent forward to a friend links and simple forms.

Download the webinar recording to learn more about relevancy, frequency, viral marketing and increasing average order size this holiday season.