The One True Tip For Holiday Email Marketing That Stands The Test Of Time

In order to run a successful holiday season campaign, don’t plan to follow a simple checklist of best practices that guarantee some ambiguous boost in revenue and returns.

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. and U.K. companies bring in 20% of their annual revenue between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In fact, the National Retail Federation reports that holiday retail sales in 2015 increased to $626.1 billion, with online sales growing to $105 billion. We are quite literally talking about billions of dollars pouring in over the span of 30 days.

Holiday marketing appears to be trending earlier and earlier with every passing year, putting pressure on retailers to get a jump on efforts as quickly as possible. However, in order to run a successful holiday season campaign, don’t plan to follow a simple checklist of best practices that guarantee some ambiguous boost in revenue and returns. In fact, I’d argue that the only practice that is “best” is the one that works best for you, your company, and your customers. Figure out your audience, refine and iterate your strategy, and ignore the rest of the noise.

Let’s talk about email marketing, specifically, starting with subject line length. I’ve heard from brand customers time and again about “best practices” for email subject line length. You see a new report every few weeks, it seems, telling you to keep it short or stick to some specific character range. Your gut might tell you that anything over 50 characters looks too long, but we’ve actually found that the correlation of length to response rates and overall engagement is close to zero. The key is to determine what actually works for your audience and ask what types of information or emotional impetus resonates with them.

Better yet, consider emotional language that works within the context of your holiday email. A few magical keywords resonate well during event-related seasons. If you can identify the type of language that resonates the most with your audience, you’ll dramatically improve performance rates. Rather than worrying about the length of your subject line, focus on developing content that engages your audience for seasons to come. For example, did you know that urgency is the No. 1 most-used emotion in retail and ecommerce emails, but it’s also one of the five least effective emotions based on a study of more than 3,000 email experiments in the United States?

But if you’ve done your homework, tested a wide range of email subject line and emotional triggers, and found one set to be more fruitful than another, then congratulations: You have found a more appropriate best practice for your business and your specific audience. But remember that this standard came only as a result of testing and iteration—not from a random marketing listicle. Following a “best practice” might even be harmful, as it might confine your creativity and preclude wider testing.

So with this newfound creative freedom, let’s consider some things that, despite their popularity, are still rarely seen in subject lines: emojis and other symbols. Remember, the Oxford Dictionaries picked the “face with tears of joy” emoji as its “word” of the year in 2015. In fact, whole apps and businesses exist around the development of emojis, and Kim Kardashian has made a sizeable fortune deploying her own set. Even if you are vehemently opposed to their usage in your personal life, you can’t deny that emojis have changed the game, for better or worse.

Now, most “best practices” would tell you to avoid emojis and symbols altogether, as they can trip spam filters. This advice is outdated and a bit alarmist. The reputation of the sender, cleanliness of the distribution list, and level of throttling are the biggest factors that impact bouncing and spam. Emojis and symbols simply do not equal spam. Further, across cognitive content campaigns our customers have deployed, using symbols has led to a 37% boost in conversions. And in the holiday season, where a percent point can mean millions of dollars in sales, this is significant. Imagine how many emails for a 20% off coupon are flooding inboxes. How are you going to stand out?

Finally, I’ll offer the only piece of advice that could be taken as a “best practice”: Keep it simple! Save the literary allusions, seasonal puns, and inside jokes for another time. During a crazy time like the holidays, consumers do not have the patience nor willpower to sift through irrelevant jokes, no matter how clever you think they are. It’s noisy, and a clear message can do wonders to boost quality engagement and ultimately sales and revenue.

Your customers are people, too, so don’t be afraid to let your emotions show. A simple, clear message does not mean one lacking in emotional connection and more often than not, those types of messages can generate higher-quality interactions. Highlight your offer, include a clear call to action, and get out of the way of human nature. Remember that your customers do in fact want to purchase things from you. They have friends and family who need gifts or kitchens that need restocking. Make their path to purchase as seamless as possible.

Overall, if you’ve been in the game for a while and want to make an impact this holiday season, consider the above as out-of-the-box ways to rethink your approach to engaging customers and marketing your business successfully.