Make Your Email Holiday Program a Year Round Business Strategy

Say Christmas to a merchant and he thinks holiday - when the bulk of his business is done and the year might possibly be made or not. Peak holiday times are from Thanksgiving to Christmas for online sales and most merchants have a strategy for an email campaign. That same email campaign can be used for Valentine's Day, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day and graduations. By including these celebrations in your holiday email plan you have many more opportunities than Christmas to use your holiday strategy throughout the year.

A successful email campaign's intent is about creating sales from past customers. Being established customers, the target audience is most likely to buy from you again, given a compelling reason. Two compelling reason for a successful email campaign are convenience - malls are crowded and generally not a fun thing to do and continuing a relationship as the email customer is already familiar with your business and prone to shop with you again. Online buying is the most comfortable way to shop and more and more people are taking advantage of it each year. An effective email campaign keeps your name in front of the customer so that you can take advantage of your goodwill and convenience.

There are two immediate goals of a successful email campaign. The first is to get out emails to prior customers on a schedule that gives maximum exposure up to the last day you can ship your products, the second is to get them out on a scheduled basis, with declining times between emails. By declining times, I mean that the initial email should go out six - eight weeks before the holiday. The next email should go one week letter. As the holiday approaches, you should email every other day, and finally, when there is one week to go, email daily.

Client needs should dictate what the email message is. The first email should offer a small "shopper's reward" for placing an order. As you get further into your campaign the buying incentives should increase. If people have procrastinated to the last minute, they will jump over any offer they think is a good deal!By following a plan like this, you should obtain conversion rates of 20% or better.

For many online vendors, Christmas sales comprise the bulk of their annual business. If you fit into this category make sure you zero in on all the holidays in the year and incentivize your customers with a good email campaign.

For many sites, holiday sales are the bulk of their revenues produced in a fiscal year. If you are in this situation, make sure you focus on all the holidays in the year and mine those former customers with email incentives.