Syed Balkhi — November 4, 2018 — November 4, 2018
Your email subscribers are the best people to promote your holiday sales to; they’re loyal followers of your brand and you can send messages straight to their inboxes to invite them to shop at your website or store. But you can’t send the same blanket holiday email to each of them.
Each of your subscribers have different needs: a mom overseas needs to buy different products, and needs to buy them earlier, than a teenager on a budget. So, you need to craft different holiday marketing campaigns for each of them. You can’t spend countless hours sending out emails one by one though, and that’s where segmenting your email list comes in. By using an email marketing service like Constant Contact, you can use segmentation tools to identify and group like contacts so that you can send more effective emails.
Get ready to have the most festive and fruitful holiday season yet, here’s how to segment your email list to boost sales this holiday season.
Welcome new subscribers
Your newest email subscribers are not as familiar with your business as your long-time subscribers, so you need to get your new subscribers up-to-speed before the holidays arrive. If you want new users to be ready to buy this season, set up automated, trigger-based welcome campaigns for subscribers that sign up during the holiday season. This will ensure that they get the right messages at exactly the right time.
Alter your welcome email series to include all of the key holiday messages new subscribers might have missed as well as any important information they need to know about your company. This could include:
- Holiday promotions
- Important holiday-themed content
- Shipping information and deadlines
- Important next steps like setting their preferences or completing their account
So, instead of throwing new subscribers into a holiday whirlwind of overwhelming emails, provide them with all the basics they need to know first. A welcoming email series will put them at ease and give them the confidence they need to make a purchase.
Focus on location for shipping deadlines
Even the most organized holiday buyers can be thrown for a loop by holiday shipping deadlines, so make sure your customers get their gifts before December 25th by segmenting your email list for shipping deadlines. This will help your business stand out from the competition and help your customers’ present-shopping go smoothly; that means no second-guessing when it comes to clicking the “Checkout” button on your website.
Segment your email by geographic location and determine the shipping deadlines for each country or location your company ships to. You can then send each member of your email list, in each area, an email to let them know the shipping deadlines that are relevant to them. You can even increase urgency by adding a visual countdown timer to the shipping deadline cutoff and send them reminders as the date gets closer, if they haven’t purchased yet.
Look at purchase history
Another great way to boost your sales this festive season is to analyze the purchase history of customers and segment emails based on that history. There a number of purchase history email segmenting strategies you can take advantage of in order to drive more sales.
For instance, take a look at the customers who tend to spend the most money and buy items at full price, you can send those subscribers targeted emails featuring your priciest products – they’ll likely be interested and willing to spend big bucks. Then look at customers who spend less money and only purchase items on sale, send those subscribers emails promoting your biggest deals to convince them to buy.
You can also look at what type of items customers bought previously and promote similar products to them. And if customers shopped with you last holiday season, remind them – when they remember how great you were during the holidays last year, they’ll be excited to buy from you again. Segmenting your email list based on purchase history will make sure your customers are getting exactly what they want this holiday season.
Reward loyal buyers
Take purchase history email segmentation a step further by rewarding your most loyal buyers. Customers who continue to purchase from you will greatly appreciate a little special attention from you during the holidays and thank you for it by purchasing again.
So, consider sending your biggest fans customized holiday email campaigns that reward them for their loyalty by offering bigger, better deals or free gifts with their purchase. You could even reward them by giving them early access to holiday promotions like Sephora does with their VIB Rouge members.
Whether you decide to reward shoppers who’ve purchased a certain number of times each month, or customers who’ve referred five friends to you, they’ll look forward to the next reward they receive. And they’ll keep purchasing and referring to get the next reward after that one too.
Re-send messages to non-openers
Don’t miss out on sales you could have made just because your email got lost in recipients’ inboxes. Segment your email list based on users who haven’t opened your holiday email campaign and re-send them the key messages that have gotten lost in the crowd of holiday offerings.
Since it can be difficult to grab the attention of consumers during this busy time, re-sending your emails to non-openers is essential to boosting your sales. Remember, when re-sending the emails, change the subject line; if it didn’t catch their attention the first time, try switching it up. You can also introduce a feeling of urgency to your subject lines by announcing there are only 8 hours left to save on your holiday sales. Just because they missed your email the first time, doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Try sending your message again 12-24 hours after the first missed email and you’re sure to make more sales.
Start segmenting now
The holiday season can be a stressful time for many people, but it doesn’t have to be stressful for your business. With these tips, holiday shopping will be a delight for your customers too. Be sure to start segmenting your email list now, so you’ll have ample time to get your subscribers excited about your business for the holidays. Now that you’ve learned how you can segment your email list to boost sales, you’ll be able to relax this season and watch the sales roll in.
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