How to Run Email Campaigns during Holiday (Peak) Season

If you send more emails campaigns, email as a channel would get more revenue attributed, does this mean it’s always better to send more emails?

This question was discussed in the book Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments to highlight the importance of choosing the right metric. You shouldn’t only evaluate an email program by revenue attributed because there are always downsides of sending more emails that need to be considered — unsubscribes (loss of revenue from not sending customer emails), email reputation (loss of revenue from future emails ending up in spam), etc.

While it’s tempting to maximize your exposure among competitors in customers’ inboxes during the holiday season by sending your entire email list the same messaging over and over again; don’t forget the downside of doing that (if you want to quantify do some frequency a/b testing), also remember there are other ways to achieve the same result.

Targeted emails before the holiday for better deliverability

As you increase your email frequency during the holiday period, it’s easy to get labeled ‘spam’. Before peak, use highly targeted emails like purchase survey and abandon cart to get your audience to engage with your emails to ensure deliverability later.

Targeted Sales

If you have multiple SKUs, instead of just sending a ‘souless’ sales email like “Don't wait — 20% off everything — buy now! ”, try mixing in some targeted sales email to catch customers' attention. What’s the last product/brand each customer last visited, visited the most, or saved to their wishlist? Embed those products in your email subject lines and messaging and your customers are much more likely to engage.

Take advantage of the window between ‘shipped’ and ‘delivered’

Customers are more likely to make impulse purchases during sales. Not only it’s important to sell the products, but it is also important to have customers keep what they buy.

Therefore, education about their purchases also needs to be included in customer communications during the holiday period. Before customers receive the products, give them a tip or two about how to make the most out of what they've bought.