Is It Time to Bin Your Christmas Email Marketing Campaign?

The idea of skipping your Christmas email marketing campaign might sound like the plot of a mediocre holiday movie. But could ditching the Yuletide greetings in favour of New Year’s good wishes better suit your brand?

If you’re worried that a Scrooge-like turn may alienate your customers, consider what happened to Starbucks. During the #Cupgate2015, the coffee company courted controversy by introducing a simple red cup for that year’s holiday season. 

The intrigue? The design didn’t reference Christmas. Some groups accused Starbucks of being part of a “War on Christmas.” Others rallied to support the brand.

A social media fracas ensued. However, most folks continued to buy Starbucks anyway, unaware of the drama.

When Christmas 2016 rolled around, Starbucks poked the bear. They introduced a green holiday cup symbolising unity. Again, it did not mention Christmas. The resulting public outcry forced Starbucks to close its doors worldwide.

Just kidding! The move fostered another Twitterstorm. Starbucks reaped the word-of-mouth publicity and social media exposure, and sales hummed along as usual.

Now, we’re not saying you should take a more secular approach to your email marketing this season just to provoke a response. However, Starbucks illustrates that although some people love to make a fuss, most of your customers won’t care.

Consider, too, that not sending emails that are overtly ‘Christmasy’ could help you avoid appearing to favour one holiday over another. Representation and inclusivity are key values for Millennials and Gen Z. Even those who celebrate Christmas are likely to appreciate a touch of sensitivity toward people who celebrate different holidays - or nothing at all. If you need to reach these customers to grow your business (spoiler: you do ), what have you got to lose by trying a different email marketing strategy?

If nothing else, the approach is also practical for business reasons. There are plenty of New Year messaging angles you can take. It sets you up to re-engage with your audience during the first quarter.

One caveat. Not everyone celebrates Christmas. And not everyone celebrates the new year at the same time. Keeping an explicit New Year’s thrust out of your subject line might be wise. Use your best judgment: you know your audience better than we do!

Basic New Year’s Messaging

The messaging angles described here are designed to have a broad appeal. They offer great options for companies without the tech stack or data depth to segment their audience at an advanced level. 

That said, these aren’t plug-and-play campaigns. You will still need to develop value-added content to encourage your readers to follow through on your call to action.

That won’t happen if your message feels inauthentic, or if you focus too much on your product or brand instead of your customers. Foremost, focus on a genuine, heart-felt expression of goodwill. Show a generosity of spirit befitting the time of year.

Having achieved that, you might add a commercial twist. Sign off wishing them success in the coming year and align it with any promotion you may be running. 

Gratitude

A heartfelt thank-you goes a long way. It's also a great way to stand out. How many times have you received an email saying "Thank You" and not asking you to buy anything?

This approach works when emailing new customers and loyal partners alike. You can bring in a touch of business if you pivot to your messaging to planning for the road ahead. Just make sure your readers can see themselves in the future you describe!

Reflection

Structure your message as a retrospective on the outgoing year. Have there been any major trends or news stories affecting your customers? Are there any big client wins or good news stories you could celebrate with your business community?

You could also focus your email on helping your contacts to catch up on your most valuable content. 

Your email design could include a digest of posts. Or, you could link to a “greatest hits” listicle blog post.

At this time of year, conciseness prevails. People are bombarded with promotional messages from before Thanksgiving so they will look for easy to digest emails.

New Year’s Resolutions

Making them is easy. Sticking to them? Not so much.

Some people love the fresh start that comes with a new year. Others feel pressured by the idea of making New Year’s resolutions.

Either way, your customers might enjoy some content on reviewing performance, finding lessons to be learned, and inspiration for planning and goal setting.

You also could flip the script. Get your contacts excited about the new year by announcing your goals as they relate to them. Express your gratitude for their part in your success, then set their expectations for great things to come with an exciting announcement.

Promotional Elements

Sending transactional emails after customers’ holiday spending spree can be challenging. However, if you reward customers with a discount or a special deal, plugging your product or service can still work.

If you have a self-service or retail offering, you could run a sale that expires at midnight on 31st December. Or you could create a coupon that takes a percentage off your goods or services - i.e., “23% off for ‘23”. 

Your services might not lend themselves to those sorts of promotions. In which case, consider which elements of your business align best with the spirit of the new year. Could you promote a campaign planning or strategy review session? Or maybe your tax planning services would capture people’s attention now?

No matter your offering, make sure it’s not just a reheat of something you’ve done earlier in the year. Come up with a new idea.

Remember: Most of the people opening your email will probably do so on a mobile device. Therefore, good emails are formatted to avoid embarrassing graphical glitches!

More Advanced Campaign Strategies

If your organisation can engage in more targeted and personalised campaigns, consider these strategies for building campaigns with New Year’s messaging.

Key Events and News Digest

Consider the key trends and news stories for your customer base. Then go further.

Show busy, email-weary customers how much you respect having access to their email address. Think of it as auditioning in their inbox.

Provide them with valuable content and they’ll respond by engaging more with your email newsletters.

Gate high-value content behind a simple lead capture form. You could also tag subscribers who click on registration links to set yourself up for future campaigns.

Personalised Recap

Hyper-personalised content is hyper impressive.

Consider Spotify’s ongoing “Wrapped” campaign. The music streaming giant sends subscribers a personal email each year with a recap of their listening year. 

It summarises their musical personality, and (for some, at least) gives them bragging rights that help the campaign go viral each year. The brand mines their user data to deepen their bond with the platform.

It also generates the coveted FOMO effect. Users on other platforms feel left out as their social media feeds light up with Spotify subscribers’ Wrapped badges and listening data.

Turns out FOMO and influencer exposure are a powerful combo. Spotify’s downloads shot up 20% in December 2020 as the annual Wrapped content rolled out.

How can you incorporate these types of email into your marketing strategy? It’ll take a robust tech stack, including marketing automation and loads of customer data. But by using marketing tools like dynamic email templates and web pages, you can take your email marketing channel to the next tier of efficacy.

Personalised Next Steps

This strategy also leverages customer data to provide personalised insights. The goal of this campaign is to inspire customers to succeed. 

Customer relationship data and an account-based marketing approach are key to this highly targeted marketing tactic. Craft an email message that focuses on achievement and success. Then include links to content that will help them in their mission.

You could also point them toward a specific offering that fits their needs, but the primary focus should be on providing a service.

Offer a free online class, or an invitation to book a complimentary New Year’s consultation to discuss their strategy for the year. In both cases, you can highlight how you can help them reach their goals.

Two-Tier Campaigns

Using technology as a force multiplier is an excellent tactic. But it could raise concerns your campaign might be too successful and overwhelm your team. A high-touch incentive could become a future resource-intensive drag on your team’s activities. 

To avoid this outcome, segment your audience. Reserve your advanced campaigns for your highest-value VIP customers. For everyone else, you could send a more standard greeting.

What to Do After Big Ben Chimes: Don’t Neglect the Follow-up

No matter which strategy you choose, you need a follow-up plan in place. One-and-done emails are a wasted opportunity and wasted effort. Marketing Automation can help you to get everything prepared before you close your office ahead of the Xmas break.

Always consider how this campaign offers an opportunity to gather data to drive future campaigns.

What are your customers looking for? What challenges are they facing in the upcoming year that only your products or services can solve?

Your email marketing can provide the answers!

When offering customers content links, you can track where they land on your site or blog. Tag their activities and use this data to build up a picture of their interests.

In the new year, create content and host events that address those interests. Segment your future campaigns, drip feeding relevant content and targeted event invitations to people who have already expressed an interest.

As the year progresses, follow up with them to see how things are going.

Finally, one resolution every organisation should have on their list... Clean your data!

If you do nothing else with your festive email marketing this year, resolve to clean your lists with the data you get back. Scrub off email addresses that bounce. Segment subscribers who haven’t engaged in a while and plan to re-engage or remove.

If you want to go beyond the basics, you need clean data. Without it, you undermine your ability to segment your audience and personalise content. Low-quality data means you can say goodbye to all the advantages those tactics bring.

Do you need a critical eye for your cheesy Christmas movie script? 1827 can’t help you there. But if you need a helping hand with engaging content or email marketing, we’d love to have a chat. Our expert content creators and campaign strategists can get your organisation on the right path. 

Connect with us today to learn more!