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Make your email marketing sparkle this Christmas

During the festive period some businesses slow down while for others it's their busiest time of year. No matter which category you fall into here are some email fundamentals that should see your Christmas email programme go with a bang:

Deliverability
There's a lot of email traffic around the Christmas period with e-tailers pushing products hard, for instance last Christmas there was a 5.9%* increase in marketing emails during December. This increased amount of email traffic has a knock on effect for all marketeers including the B2B arena. As a result it's really important your messages are not lost amongst the clutter- especially in light of the fact ISPs tighten their spam measures up at this time of year. Now more than ever it's important to get the basics right.

Timing
Most big American e-tailers (Amazon, Ebay etc.) will be sending their emails after UK business hours close due to the time difference. This means that these messages will be opened and read in the UK first thing in the morning. Make sure your email isn't lost in the clutter by sending yours in the early afternoon.

Out of office
If your mailing is B2B you may see an increase in soft bounces as people set their out of office reply over the festive season. As always, ignore these bounces and don't suppress these people from your lists. This may also result in an increased amount of people reading your email on a hand held device so take extra care with your plain text email and don't be surprised if this decreases your open rate slightly.

Calendar
You don't need to be sitting at ReportMail on New Year's Eve to send your happy New Year email! Why not set the calendar to send on New Year's Day so your message is in people's inbox upon their return to work. If you would like some help setting this up please do get in touch.

Creative
This is the first Christmas that we whole heartedly recommend you don't use an animated gif for your Christmas card. Outlook 2007 will render this as a static gif and people may not see your Christmas message. Stick to an HTML email with your main message in copy not imagery.

Environment
Wrapping paper, packaging, plastic bags, plastic trees... Christmas has an environmental impact and email communication can cut this down. Why not send your Christmas card via email and then donate the postage cost to an environmental charity?

We'd love to help if you need some ideas for your Christmas e-card so please get in touch with Dave.

Happy emailing!

*Source: Brand Republic