‘Tis the season for holiday greeting cards! While your B2B team may not be sending a group photo to every contact in your address book, you should consider creating a holiday-centered email marketing campaign for your company. If your business serves other businesses, holiday sales and promotions aren’t quite as popular as they are for business-to-consumer markets. That said, there is still value in nurturing your leads with a holiday-related email, especially with the season of being merry right around the corner. Here are some of our favorite strategies for creating an engaging email marketing campaign during the holidays.
Embrace the season of giving
Everyone loves a good holiday discount. Whether you’re offering a great deal on your services or just sending your warmest wishes, your email should provide readers with something tangible. This could be a limited-time offer, a service-related discount, or anything else that relates to your industry — but don’t go too overboard. If you aren’t sure what to offer, take a look at what other businesses are doing to celebrate the holiday season within their business network.
We also recommend using a subject line that catches the attention of the recipients, without being too cliche. You don’t want your audience to feel like the sole purpose of your message is to sell them something, because you are trying to wish them a happy holiday season, after all. Take a look at your team’s past marketing strategies, and evaluate what was effective and what can be improved for this next campaign. The businesses you work with want to gain something from their relationship with you, so providing an incentive for being a loyal email subscriber is a great way to give them a gift they’ll appreciate.
Make your list, and check it twice
No matter how interesting your email is, it’s unlikely that anyone will be reading it during their holiday travels. Many people leave the office early for vacation, so make sure you plan to release your campaign early enough so you can reach your recipients while they’re still in the office.
Developing an email marketing campaign can be time-consuming, as there are both written and graphical elements involved. The sooner your team can get started on creating one, the better. Your marketing team should also be aware of different holidays and when they fall each year, as not everyone celebrates the same holidays. If you aren’t sure which holidays your recipients celebrate, it is best to avoid using specific terminology and stay more general in your jargon. Warm wishes, season’s greetings, and happy holidays are a few examples of sayings that address the holiday season without limiting your audience. Having a few members of your team proofread your email drafts is always a helpful strategy, too.
Snowflakes, starlight, and segmentation
Segmenting your market requires you to consider the organizational structure of the businesses you work with. If you are capable of adjusting your message to reach specific market segments, you could even include different offers that are specific to your recipient’s industry. This element of personalization adds value to your message and gives your email a touch of warmth that will make people remember what your company did.
If there are ways you can provide service for your customers while they are out of office, use that to generate content for your email campaign. Letting businesses know what you’re capable of doing for them will help clear up any confusion as employees begin to go on vacation and as businesses begin to close early in observance of the holidays.