5 Low Hanging Fruit To Build Momentum & Drive Sales in Holiday Emails

While many digital marketers are focused on 2014 planning and budgeting, others are locked in on maximizing the last two months of 2013.

The end of the year is a great time to make some headway on high impact, yet low hanging fruit that could send your email program in the right direction as we turn the corner into the new year.

Here are 5 strategies and tactics to consider:

1. A Thank You Email

…with a survey for your valued subscribers. They are valued as more than a list, right?

I am a proponent of the idea that email programs should be treated like VIP programs and you should thank your best and most interested customers and prospects. A simple and meaningful thank you email with a special offer or note from the CEO can generate further loyalty. When combined with a survey, it allows you to gather crucial data about what your subscribers actually want instead of assuming what they need. A simple five to ten question survey can provide the framework for how to optimize your messaging and planning for 2014.

2. Get Aggressive in Capturing More Site Visitors

A pop-up box can be added, for example, to display for first time visitors (or every tenth site visit) to cleanly capture email opt ins. Don’t try to capture multiple fields right away, as it could diminish the number of new subscribers you will get. You can always ask for that data later.

3. Update Your Creative for Transactional Emails.

Everything from your welcome email to your purchase confirmation email can become a bit stale. For those of you who had your IT create these, I would certainly recommend auditing them down to subject lines, pre-headers and cross-promotions, to keep them fresh and user friendly. These emails are often overlooked, yet they usually have a higher response rate and can set the tone not just for your email program, but also for your brand.

4. Create a 5-10 Slide Year in Review

This should outline the successes, opportunities and challenges of your email programs. Do this even if your boss doesn’t ask for it. Any email marketer knows getting additional resources (internal or external partners) can be a challenge and selling it in the right way is of paramount importance. Remember, your success metrics are better told when they tie into the business goals as opposed to opens and clicks.

5. Outline a Plan to Build Consensus

…and integrate with other internal groups and your email partners. By redefining (or defining for the first time if need be), you will align key stakeholders and show email as a proactive and crucial communication channel and help move email only as a deployment channel when sales are slow or someone needs to “blast” to the list. Make email the strategic channel it deserves by creating a more team-oriented approach and tearing down the silos that can leave email isolated.

Email is the digital hub and 2013 cemented its place in this dynamic ecosystem. Take some time to reflect and plan accordingly and your 2014 will be in a much better place to succeed.