The holiday shopping season is quickly approaching. Whether you're planning a marketing program that is robust and complex or simple and straightforward, you'll want to put something out into the marketplace that is visually compelling, stands out from your competitors, and presents a consistent brand experience. To help you achieve these goals, consider the following creative best practices.
Creative considerations
Before you start finalizing deliverables, assigning tasks and setting deadlines, set some overarching creative guidelines that will establish a foundation for the success of your online holiday program.
First, make sure your emails and other marketing elements are consistent, supporting both online and offline holiday marketing initiatives. While email designs using best practices cannot replicate a print piece 100 percent, there are plenty of ways to incorporate key design elements so your customers have a cohesive holiday brand experience through the use of consistent look and feel, featured products and tag lines.
Second, whether you're using an existing email template or creating a new one for the holidays, be sure to design with flexibility and speed in mind. If inventory suddenly runs low, or stores need certain items you plan to promote online, you'll need a design that accommodates quick content changes while still maintaining a seasonal, branded look.
Simple strategies for stand-out email marketing during the holidays:
- Send shorter promotional emails with compelling subject lines.
- Keep the copy concise, the products relevant and the offers fresh.
- If you plan to start sending holiday emails now, consider a seasonally appropriate "soft launch," such as a fall theme that begins to introduce festive messaging and products, without imagery of Santa or snowflakes quite yet.
- Know your customers, and create content to match their preferences.
- Once your messaging fully transitions to a holiday theme, include helpful information like shipping cut-off dates, shopping help tips and prominently placed customer service numbers.
- Keep your newest customers in mind by including relevant testimonials that will give them confidence to purchase from you vs. your competitor.
- Promote offers that your customers will respond to and value vs. what is easiest to implement. If you're not sure how your shopping cart handles shipping discounts, find out now to make sure it's working in time. Considering a free gift with purchase? Make it a good one, and be sure you have plenty in stock before the email is sent.
- Make it easy for customers to identify and find what they are looking for with intuitive site categories such as top sellers, stocking stuffers, traditional favorites, shop by price, shop by recipient, et cetera.
- Are you planning to use dynamic content? Before you go into production, make sure that every holiday product has been associated with the appropriate data segment and gift category to ensure the right items are offered to the right customers.
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