It’s no secret that the holiday season is a magic time for retailers. In fact, for most retail stores, close to twenty percent of their annual sales volume will take place during the months of November and December. For jewelry stores, that figure is much, much higher – they typically receive close to thirty percent of their annual sales volume during the holidays. Those sales figures are achieved in large part through a flurry of advertising. How can business owners send out additional email advertising during the holidays without causing subscriber burnout?
Use multiple lists to make sure your holiday email marketing doesn’t backfire.
Avoiding Subscriber Burnout
The challenge for business owners is to advertise enough to increase sales, but not to the point of turning off your audience. This is an especially important issue for those using email to stay in touch with their list and inform them of holiday ideas and seasonal promotions.
When someone receives a piece of mail in their mailbox and they’re not interested, they can simply toss it in the trash can. The fact that the recipient wasn’t interested in that piece of mail doesn’t impact the businesses’ ability to send them mail in the future. Email marketing is a very different animal. If someone receives an email that they aren’t interested in they can delete it, they can mark it as SPAM, or they can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the message. If they just delete it, future email from that business will still likely get through. However, if the unwanted email gets marked as SPAM, future email from that business will likely not be seen. If they unsubscribe, you won’t be able to contact them via email in the future.
How then do you increase your holiday email frequency without causing subscriber burnout?
Multiple Lists
During the holidays, there is a certain portion of your list that is not only receptive to, but would really appreciate, getting additional email from you. The remainder of your list will not be so receptive. You can please both groups by segmenting your list. This is done by creating a special list that receives email from you on a more frequent basis. You can introduce this to your main list announcing that you will be sending out a “daily deal” or some other kind of special mailing and then provide them with a link to be added to your new list for special holiday email.
A note of caution is needed when discussing the subject of sending additional email to your list. Never send your list more than one mailing per day. Sending multiple messages to your list is only acceptable in very rare situations – such as emailing those who have registered for a live webinar.
By segmenting your existing list and creating multiple lists, you are able to better cater to the interests of your audience. By honoring their interests and preferences you will decrease your unsubscribe rate, and increase your email open rate. This approach will produce increased sales not just during the holidays, but all year long.
