5 reasons email is your most valuable marketing tool this Christmas

The smell of mulled wine is already wafting through the Christmas markets and you can almost hear the sleigh bells ringing, as the most wonderful time of year is coming our way. 

But as a marketer the task of having to capitalise on this magical time of year can leave you feeling spellbound. What channel should you focus your efforts on? How much impact will your budget allow you to make? The pressure of trying to reach your extra busy and less engaged audience is piling up, nearly as quickly as the supply of mince pies in your kitchen cupboards.

As many are dreaming of a white Christmas, you are dreaming of that almighty Christmas marketing strategy. However, at e-shot™, we think we have found it….email. Think about it, the potential for reaching shopping crazed customers is huge! 

Below see why we think email is the ultimate marketing tool this festive season below…

1.       We’re living in a mobile world 

We spend more time with our phones than we do our nearest and dearest and the range of tasks we now feel comfortable performing on our phones has rapidly expanded. 

51% of emails are now opened on a mobile device. This shows that email has the opportunity of having an intimate and immediate connection with your target audience, something which other marketing channels can’t provide.  Combine this with research showing that mobile is becoming the no.1 online sales channel for UK retailers, and you realise that the email and online shopping are meant to go hand in hand like pigs wrapped in blankets. 

2.   It’s all about instant access
Online browsing directly from an email couldn’t get any easier. Use clear call to actions with prominent buttons and hyperlinks around special offers or highlighted gifts, making your website one simple click away. Make your customers purchase journey as simple experience as possible, helping them effortlessly glide from your email to the offering on your website, to the checkout basket. It’s the multi-channel way of life!

3. Endeavour to engage
Email has a multitude of techniques to engage your customers and encourage conversions. GIF’s can be used to show off varied perspectives of a product that a still image could not encompass. Countdown timers can instil a sense of urgency for upcoming sales.  Use live content which adapts upon opening based on each customers situation. Live scratch reveals can be used to expose special offers. Finally, use cart abandonment emails to engage with customers at the last possible point of the customer journey. 

4. Let’s get personal  

Draw attention this Christmas using behavioural data and sophisticated targeting. Create segmented campaigns using product recommendations from behavioural data such as product views and previous email campaign clicks. This way your customers are receiving highly relevant promotions all from the comfort of their home, decidedly appealing compared to a trip to a manic shopping centre. The plus side for you, all of this can be automated… giving you time to breathe over the Christmas period.

5. Breadth of promotion

Email allows you to nurture your customers unlike any other channel. Ultimately you will want to make sales for the Christmas targets, but in the lead up to Christmas you can focus your messaging around other areas. Offer your customers useful information and insight. If you start trickling this feed of useful content in the first week of December, your customers will be more willing to engage with later promotion from you.

So, to sum up why email is your go-to marketing tool this Christmas:

• With mobile trends, email is now one of the most immediate marketing connections you can have

• It provides an easy flow to your website, which is highly valued by stressed Christmas shoppers

• Using a mixture of content mediums encourages engagement

• It’s a highly targeted and personal channel

• Its content diversity allowance lets you promote a variety of messages

Lastly, you can send gorgeous campaigns without breaking your budget, as we all know; email is the best marketing channel for ROI. Email is truly the angel on top of the Christmas tree. 

So save the Christmas meltdown for when your auntie has one too many drinks at the Christmas dinner , because we’ve got you and your marketing strategy covered this festive season.