RETURN TO BLOGS

by
Senior Storyteller

by | Senior Storyteller

Here is the second installment of common #nightmarebeforeholiday moments. You have a great idea, but you’re missing the how. We’ve been there. So we’ve taken some commonly asked questions and tapped our channel experts.

Issue #2: Holiday emails frequency. How much is too much?

As our resident email expert Carolyn Meyer puts it, “There is no magic number.” Bummer. But as a rule of thumb, more than two emails per day is too many. To be honest, in many cases, more than one email per day is too many. But there is a lot of grey area here. So let’s explore this a little deeper:

  1. If you are promoting a one day sale and you send an announcement email in the morning, it is okay to send a “last chance” email that same evening.
  • In order to make this second message as effective as possible, we would recommend sending to non-openers of email #1 and also clickers (but not purchasers). This will allow you to reach those that missed the morning message, as well as anyone who indicated an interest, but did not yet convert.
  1. If a transaction is made on the same day that a marketing email is sent, it is absolutely okay to send more than one email.
  • Such as an order confirmation email. These should be sent immediately after a purchase is made.
  • Same goes for shipping notifications. These emails should always be sent directly after an order has shipped.
  1. It is never acceptable to send more than one marketing email in one day if the content is not time-sensitive.
  • If you are promoting a new product at full price with no potential inventory issues, one email is sufficient.
  1. As is the case with all email marketing, relevancy is key.
  • If the messages you are sending are relevant to the people receiving them, then there is no real reason to limit the frequency.
  1. Finally, the best way to optimize your email frequency is to provide your customers with a preference center.
  • This will allow your subscribers to select their ideal email frequency – just be prepared to abide by these preferences if you decide to give customers the option.

Issue #3: How do I personalize my holiday marketing messages without creeping out my customers?!

Everyone likes a message tailored to them. It feels, well, personal. Like the sender has taken the time to get to know you. On the flipside, no one likes to feel like they are being stalked. Like how did you get that information…creepy, right? So where is the happy medium?

  1. Simply put, leverage your personas.
  • Personas allow a business or brand to be more intentional. Keep your messaging simple and only focus on a few traits of your brand personas. Focusing on a few traits shows interest in the customer without being overbearing or big brother-y.
  1. Tread lightly with data.
  • Shy away from super specific information. For instance, stick to information that the customer readily provided i.e. birthday, gender, zip code, etc. Stay away from data that the customer might not understand where it came from, like data pulled from an IP address.

If you don’t currently have any personas, check out how to build one here.