As small businesses wrap up the year, there are a few matters pertaining to email marketing that ought to be considered. All organizations tend to increase the frequency of their email ad campaigns around this time of the year. Should they hope to actually establish a strong brand image, convert prospects and sustain relationships through the new year, though, they will need to follow some best practices.
Language is especially important during the holidays, and email ad campaign managers need to ensure that the script they are following is indeed the right one.
The hook
Marketing Profs recently reported that subject lines are among the most important element of holiday season emails, and that businesses need to ensure that they are being as specific as possible. Citing data from Sailthru, the news provider stated that “holiday” and “holidays” are not the words to be used in subject lines – not one bit. Rather, the research concluded that the use of “holiday” and “holidays” aren’t going to be received well by the audience, nor as effective as other subject lines could be in provoking a click.
According to Marketing Profs, email subjects that replaced “holidays” with “Christmas” had a 26 percent higher chance of being opened, while those that used “Hanukkah” as the operative word were 40 percent more likely to be opened than “holiday.” This shows that specificity in language is critical, and businesses do not need to choose between the one holiday name or the other. Rather, coordinating campaigns to target potential customers around each holiday can be a great way to keep content fresh and stick in the minds of recipients.
Marketing Profs also pointed to other terms that have exceptional performances with respect to open rates when placed in the subject, including “discount,” “best-selling” and “joy.” The subject-line words to avoid, the news provider noted, include “free,” “midnight” and “family,” as they were at the bottom of the study’s “open rate index.” Always remember verbiage and word choice are sciences in the email marketing game, and not becoming proficient in the best practices of each can doom a campaign before the first ad is sent.
The retrieval
Experian recently released the results of its latest study on email marketing behaviors among consumers, and found that the abandoned shopping cart messages were the most notable. According to the credit agency, subjects of the study who received one follow-up email correspondence from a retailer regarding an abandoned cart did not complete the relevant purchase nearly as much as those who were sent two.
Given that consumers are shopping for numerous friends and family members, shopping cart abandonment will likely increase around the holidays. By sending out at least two separate reminder or alert emails regarding the abandoned cart, email advertisers can increase the chances of a completed purchase rather than only sending one or none at all.
Happy holidays!
