How to Use Holiday Emails to Reach Holiday Shoppers on Their Phones

Content Marketing, Strategy

The challenge of getting your subscribers to open emails on mobile is tricky but can make-or-break your performance

Adebisi Adewusi

December 23 2019

When it comes to reaching holiday shoppers, mobile is one touchpoint you really excel at. 41% of marketers find that email is the most effective way to get an offer to a consumer on a mobile device while holiday shopping. Since the email landscape shifts every day, we’ll drop some tips on how to reach holiday shoppers on their mobile devices with emails.

Deeper Reading: Don’t Let Your Emails Go To Spam

Send Location-Based Emails

With 90% of holiday shoppers expecting to make purchases in-store, drive foot traffic to your store with location-based emails. Location-based emails can increase campaign effectiveness and help you improve conversions during the festive season. Here are some things to keep in mind when using this strategy.

Use Quality Location Data

Ensure you have accurate data to achieve precise targeting and send relevant emails. The 2018 Location Based Marketing Report suggests you ask your provider the following questions to make sure you have quality data:

• Is the data from a trusted source?
• Is the data linked to a GPS location at an exact time?
• Is the location derived from an IP address or cached location?
• Is the data errorfree?

Share Relevant Content

Focus the content of your location emails on promoting convenience-boosting services such as “buy online, pick up in-store.” Also, send information about the nearest store and opening hours, inventory updates, and location-based offers to drive foot traffic and conversions.

Segment Your Email List

Segment your list by city, language, and climate to ensure your messages are relevant and delivered to the right audience.

Also, enrich your data with psychographic, behavioral, and socioeconomic data so that you can understand the differences among your customers and send targeted messages.

Give the Gift of Mobile-First Emails

You won’t get holiday shoppers to click your “Shop Now” button if your email isn’t optimized for mobile devices. 45% of consumers have deleted emails that aren’t optimized for mobile. Use these tips to ensure your emails look great on all mobile devices and improve your conversion rate.

Keep it Simple

Use white space so readers can distinguish content, consider experimenting with monochromatic themes, and factor in dark mode when choosing colors. Make your emails easy to navigate by having minimum scrolling and ensure links and calls-to-action are clickable with one thumb.

Use Responsive Design

Ensure your email adapts to different devices and screen sizes. Remember to stick to a single column layout, choose fonts that are easy to read, responsive images, and preview your emails on various devices before you hit send.

Eyes on Your CTA

Your call-to-action button should be large and thumb-tappable. Apple recommends CTAs that are 44px squared, and Google recommends 48px squared. Include space around your call-to-action button to prevent mistapping and consider using heat maps or A/B testing to determine the right spot to place your CTA button.

Spread the Cheer with Subject Lines

With the right email subject line, you can be the one to nail a holiday purchase this season. 64% of consumers use subject lines to determine if they’ll open your email. Beyond short subject lines, use these tips to increase your open rates.

Give Discounted Offers

Advertise a specific percent off, or a dollar amount off a purchase in your subject line. Consider including a secondary offer such as free shipping with a percent-off or dollar discount to capture attention and convert subscribers. Carry out a test to see what secondary offer works best for your audience.

Spell it Out

Communicate urgency and limited availability in your subject line. Don’t use terms like “Act fast, buy now” to create urgency. Instead, be more tasteful, creative, and direct. For instance, “Free Delivery Ends Midnight.” Also, state how long the offer lasts for.

Sell Value With Preheader Text

Include essential information and offer specific details in your preheader text to entice consumers to open your email.

Put your critical message at the beginning and consider including a CTA to drive clicks. Also, use the device and email client your consumer uses to determine the best length of your preheader text.

Avoid Inbox Overload

The holidays bring with it inbox overload. During the holidays, 8% more emails are sent than other times in the year. To avoid being tagged as spam, or having your messages blocked this holiday season, here are two things to keep in mind when sending holiday emails.

Mind Your Frequency

While consumers may overlook increased emails during the holidays, gradually increase your frequency, and remove complainers from your list. Set up a preference center so subscribers can select their preferred timing and frequency settings for receiving holiday emails.

Make it Easy to Set Holiday-Specific Preferences

Include additional checkboxes in your emails so subscribers can update their preferences and opt-out of holiday emails. Add subscribers that opt-out of your holiday emails to your suppression list until the holidays are over.

Know Your Audience

Not having intelligence about your subscriber can undermine your email marketing efforts. Below are some essential things you should know about your subscribers.

How Long They Read Your Email

Track the read rate of your campaigns to see if your content resonates with subscribers. If subscribers are spending less than 8 seconds with your emails, improve your read rate by keeping your emails short for on-the-go readers and ensuring your offer is clear and relevant.

Which Mobile Device They Use

Understand which devices your subscribers use so that you can optimize email content based on it. Also, identify which email clients your subscribers use so you can prioritize the right design compromises and optimize your emails for specific reading environments.

When They Open Your Email

Find out when your emails are being opened, and where opens are occurring, including zip, city, time zone, country, and state level. This will help you to make more informed content, design, send time, and copywriting decisions.

Hit Your Holiday Marketing Goals

No doubt, how you perform on mobile will determine if you’ll hit your holiday email marketing goals or not. Optimize your emails using A/B tests, understand your subscriber’s preference, and consider optimizing your emails to be read by voice assistants. Then, take a break and enjoy the Holidays yourself.