Regardless of your industry, the holiday season is a time to focus on optimizing your email strategy and maximizing your conversion rate.

Business data provider Infogroup recently pointed out how emails generated on Black Friday alone yielded a 33% higher conversion rate compared to “business as usual” messages. If you can tap into the mindset of your ideal customers during this pivotal season for ecommerce, you can experience success that will carry you forward into the new year.

Our marketing experts know how valuable it can be to capitalize on this time of year. We wrote this post to highlight a few of the non-negotiable steps you need to take to get the most for your money. Read on for some ways to make the most of your holiday season digital marketing campaigns.

1) Invest in Your Most Loyal Customers

To impress your shoppers and subscribers with holiday email marketing, focus on offering exclusive offers for those who are already loyal. The holiday shopping season is a time of increased financial burden for your customers.

For example, the marketing gurus at Sephora created an extremely successful loyalty program with different tiers of rewards depending on the number of points a customer earns (dollars he/she spends). The annual “Beauty Insider” holiday sale is the culmination of Sephora’s year-round strategic discounts and incentives for loyal shoppers.

Sephora knows that strengthening your relationship with your shoppers throughout the holidays pays off. The more they shop (and the more you learn about their customer behavior patterns over time), the more accurately you can provide relevant offers when they visit your website to shop.

Insider deals are also a great incentive for people to sign up for your email list (if they haven’t already). For many consumers, the only reason they sign up and don’t unsubscribe from retailers is to make sure they don’t miss a promotion. The holidays cause people to be even more conscious of their spending, so this is the perfect time to show your customers appreciation with loyalty-based deals.

2) Make Your Email Campaigns Exceptional

You want to make sure they are as effective as possible during this critical time. Here are 3 tips to start:

1) Use data from previous years to figure out the right theme, subject line, offer, content, and mailing frequency. When you rely on tested, proven strategies and innovative cross-channel tactics, you have a better foundation for success.

2) Pay attention to how your open rates increase and decrease depending on the copy and small details such as the inclusion of emojis. Take note of why your email campaigns from previous years performed well, and replicate those elements in your current holiday email campaign.

3) Prioritize mobile friendliness. You have probably heard it a million times, but we can’t stress enough how often people read their emails on their mobile devices (especially during the period of time leading up to the holidays when people are always on the move).

3) Keep Your Marketing Communications Short & Authentic

If you want to increase meaningful and memorable engagement between current/potential customers: get straight to the point. It’s refreshing and highly effective. Contrary to popular belief, the less graphics or extra wordiness, the better.

You can take advantage of the natural sense of urgency, impulsiveness and excitement of your buyers if you’re aware of it and proactive. You want to inspire the fear of missing out on a deal and drive a customer to take action.

You don’t have to have a countdown clock display on your ads, but you should underscore the time sensitive nature of your holiday offers.

4) Stick To One Central Theme Across Marketing Channels

Campaigns are usually most memorable when they revolve around a single focus related to your brand or business. Telling a story while maintaining that theme throughout is key to staying front-of-mind.

Target’s theme of “gathering ‘round” is consistent across its TV ads, social media posts, print ads, etc. Although it’s an extremely common theme of family/friends coming together for the holiday season, Target makes it unique with its own visual storytelling and musical element (in this case, award-winning artist Sia’s original cover of a classic Christmas song).

Consumers are often sentimental and nostalgic during this time of year, and Target recognizes this. You can also re-purpose content/ideas from previous years and build upon them or give a fresh twist to make the most of your content.

5) Focus On Content Marketing

Offering your current and potential customers free, valuable content reminds them why they support your company in such a competitive marketplace. Free digital content could be an entertaining or educational series of videos on YouTube, or a fun and meaningful compilation of user-generated content.

One example of an easy, digital piece of content is a holiday gift guide. Even if you’re not an ecommerce brand, you can create a useful holiday-themed guide of some sort for your customer/client base. It could be in the form of a blog article, a guest contribution to a magazine, an exclusive feature in your newsletter, or a downloadable asset you offer.

A couple of years ago, WeWork did a great job of writing a piece for their “Creator by WeWork” magazine. They recommended gifts based on products that WeWork members made and sold (supporting its community of tenants and creators worldwide).

To Wrap It Up…

If you take these tactics seriously, you’ll be impressed by the results. We wanted to share some effective approaches to reaching your marketing goals during the holiday season. You only get the chance to profit from the holidays once a year, so you want to make the most of it.

At Chainlink, we’ll guide you figure out the right strategy with the help of our expert team and our platform’s proprietary technology. We have worked with a vast range of clients throughout the holidaysw each year to maximize their marketing ROI.

Reach out to us to learn more about how our services can help transform your business. Also, remember to sign up for our newsletter below for exclusive tips.