Premiere Global Services' director of deliverability services offers suggestions on how to maximize the season's potential.

Every year, the holidays seem to generate more and more of everything: more food, more parties, more travel, more spending, more advertising-- and now, more email. Recent surveys indicate the biggest increase in holiday marketing for 2006 will be email, which means consumers will be inundated with messages all vying for their attention. For companies banking on the last two months of the year to deliver a big portion of annual sales and profitability, doing email right is an absolute must.   

Your holiday to-do list
Holiday shoppers no longer wait until the day after Thanksgiving to start the annual spending spree. This year, the season has already started and won't pause for a breath until Christmas. What can you do to get in the game and maximize the season's powerful potential? For starters, don't wait. Lay the groundwork for an effective program with these important steps:

1. Pick a deliverability partner. People change their habits during the holidays, so what worked all year may no longer apply. If you don't already have a deliverability partner at your ESP, in house, or use a deliverability service provider (DSP) for testing, get one now. There are a number of good companies that can help you test deliverability, HTML readability and SPAM scoring before you send your messages out. The two most popular DSPs are Pivotal Veracity and Return Path.

2. Make it readable. An HTML readability program will enable you to confirm your emails will appear the way you want them to when opened, whether your recipients use Lotus Notes, Outlook or any number of web-based email programs. A deliverability partner can check to ensure the message renders correctly across all email programs as well as see that links work, text renders properly and images load in a reasonable amount of time.

3. Be sure with seedlisting. Most DSPs offer email seedlists for any type of client communications you might need to test: B2C, B2B or International. They all contain recipients at a variety of domains such as Earthlink, Yahoo! and AOL for the B2C list. The DSP will monitor delivery to see what percentage of your messages land in recipients' inboxes, and help to identify where and when deliverability problems may be occurring. Messages that end up in the spam folder are as good as blocked, since most people will never look there to see the subject line, let alone open the message.

4. Protect yourself. Spam, scams and fraud are rampant, and more are likely to crop up during the frenzy of the holidays. Monitoring programs are available to track domains, IP addresses, URLs and brand names to ensure they are not used by unauthorized parties or in ways that could negatively impact your communications or reputation with customers.

10 secrets of savvy holiday marketers
Last year, nearly 75 percent of respondents to a late December survey said email had influenced their holiday purchase decisions. Email marketing during this crucial time of year is more than just adding a few wintry images or season's greetings to your existing campaigns. Pull out all the stops with these winning tactics:

Get permission. Require customers to opt-in, then make it clear what they will be receiving from you and why. In addition, always provide an easy way to unsubscribe.

Stick to the subject. Create subject lines that stand out and appeal to recipients' current needs. Keep it short, include your company name or identity so you're not perceived as spam, make it urgent and focus on benefits instead of features.

Don't follow the crowd. Test different days to send your messages. If the entire world is trying to get their messages to customers on Monday because it is the beginning of the week, maybe you should try sending on Wednesday. Test to see what works for your company in particular, not what everyone else is doing.

Make it personal. While most stores and TV ads would make us think everyone celebrates Christmas, this obviously is not the case. Email is the one mode of advertising that can be personalized, so if you have the information to customize your messages, use it.

Be responsive. One study showed 88 percent of customers expect their online inquiries to be resolved within 24 hours. Make sure you're geared up for holiday traffic spikes so you can fill orders and respond to customer requests quickly.

Keep it short and simple. Everyone's in a hurry during the holidays, so email copy should be concise with plenty of clear calls to action. Make it easy for recipients to click through to what you're selling. 

Make a suggestion. Put your existing data to work to leverage customers' previous purchases and create remarketing messages that could drive additional purchases.

Remember to be relevant. Generating sales may be your highest priority, but some timely, non-selling content could make customers more receptive to your promotional messages. Consider a timesaver newsletter, weekly holiday recipes or super shopper tips.     

Enhance relationships. Remember, the holidays aren't all about business. Take time to thank your customers for their business and send greetings to prospects, partners and suppliers.

Tie it all together. Your email campaigns will be much more effective if they are part of an integrated communications plan rather than standing on their own. Build your holiday strategy so all forms of media complement and support each other.

Follow these 10 rules and make sure you start testing now and this holiday season could be the "best time of the year" for you, your company and your email ROI.

Have a great holiday and happy emailing.

Spencer Kollas is director, deliverability services, Premiere Global Services, Marketing Automation. Read full bio.