Top Email Marketing Strategies To Use For Q4
As we approach the Q4 period, it鈥檚 never too early to start preparing for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday email marketing strategy. Once Black Friday week hits, our inboxes are filled with a hurricane of brands fighting for attention, each with the 鈥榖iggest鈥 and the 鈥榖est鈥 offers you won鈥檛 get anywhere else.
To set your brand apart from the competition, it鈥檚 crucial to plan ahead. Over 60% of brands send out multiple emails over the course of the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend, and it鈥檚 a perfect time to up your brand awareness ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
If you鈥檙e not sure where to start with Q4 planning or need some last-minute tips to enhance your strategy, we鈥檝e outlined some top email marketing strategies to incorporate into your plans!
1. Send Pre-Black Friday Emails
Sending pre-Black Friday emails is great for keeping your brand at the forefront of people’s minds ahead of the big day. Not only will a pre-Black Friday email let your audience know about your upcoming event, but it will also ensure that your audience is regularly checking in on your brand throughout the Q4 period.
Additionally, sending pre-Black Friday emails is beneficial for A/B testing. Sending out different formats of emails with minor tweaks, such as the CTAs or subject lines, can help you determine what your audience is more likely to engage with so you can then tailor your Black Friday strategy accordingly.
2. Run a Lead Gen
It might seem like a given, but ahead of Black Friday, it鈥檚 beneficial to give your email list a much-needed boost. A simple but effective way to do this is to run a lead-generation advertising campaign. For example, offering your audience the chance to win a prize in return for submitting details, such as their email address, is a quick and easy way to increase your list size. Similarly, refreshing your pop-up on-site with an irresistible offer will also contribute to gaining new profiles.
3. Offer Something Unexpected
Email marketers only have to capture the attention of their readers, which isn鈥檛 surprising due to the amount of emails the average person will receive daily. If an email isn鈥檛 driving you to click on it, it swiftly gets forgotten about and lost within their inbox. Over Black Friday, to avoid this happening, make sure you鈥檙e offering something unexpected, whether that鈥檚 a mystery discount or a gift with each purchase!
4. Keep Your Promotions Simple
One of the worst things you can do over Black Friday is to overcomplicate your promotions. If you鈥檙e offering multiple promotions and codes, things can get a bit too hectic. To make it as simple as possible, consider running a standard 鈥渦p to鈥 percentage amount. If you want to include a code, it helps to have this auto-applied at checkout to avoid customers dropping off if they input it incorrectly. In the design of your email, make sure the promotion is clearly highlighted within the design so it can鈥檛 be missed, and also referenced in the body copy and subject lines too!
5. Create An Effective Design
Creating an effective design is one thing, but how do you know what works? To , consider running an A/B test to pinpoint which elements of your design are improving the CTR and which are hindering it.
Highlighting metrics such as colour, font size, and CTAs can instantly impact whether people will click through or discard! If a consumer clicks on your email, you鈥檒l have, on average, to keep their attention, so making sure your design stands out for the wave of other Black Friday content is key! Keep the design of your email reflective of your branding but with stand-out elements specifically for the shopping season.
6. Make Use Of CTAs
CTAs (call-to-action) are one of the most underrated parts of any email campaign, especially over the Black Friday period. They鈥檙e one of the driving forces behind making your email recipients turn into passive readers to customers. One key way to make your CTAs stand out is to make use of bright and bold colours that will attract and hold attention. Additionally, it鈥檚 important to think about the placement of your CTAs to increase your click-through rate, make sure the copy used is clear and concise (between two and five words) and use actionable language.
7. Focus On Subject Lines
Subject lines are make or break for every email campaign. Over Black Friday, consumers’ inboxes are cluttered with emails, so it鈥檚 important to stand out. It鈥檚 estimated that on Black Friday, from brands were sent out (more than any other day), and Black Friday sees the highest number of emails opened and clicked. To prevent your emails from being lost in the void, having a cracking subject line to stand out from competitors is everything.
The secret to a great subject line is to keep it short and snappy. On average, subject lines with 50 characters or less tend to get an average of and 75% higher click-through rates. Including emojis within subject lines has been seen to increase click-through-rates by as much as 28%!
Additionally, it helps to use language that will really pique your audience’s interest, stay away from any overused cliches and keep them as attention-grabbing as possible.
8. Prep for Cyber Monday
To plan an effective Black Friday, it鈥檚 crucial to prepare for Cyber events too. With Cyber following straight after, it鈥檚 easy to forget about it or not prioritise it as much as Black Friday, however, it鈥檚 still an extremely profitable day! To make the most of it, create dedicated campaigns and tailor your online sales messaging so that it focuses on driving urgency.
9. Incorporate SMS into Your Strategy
Sometimes the importance of SMS can be overlooked because a lot of brands assume that text messages won鈥檛 fit in with their brand. However, it鈥檚 a no-brainer for reaching even more customers. On average, 82% of people engage with marketing content on their smartphones, so it鈥檚 something to definitely explore, especially over the busy shopping period.
To gain SMS sign-ups, you can effectively tie your SMS campaign in with your lead generation and ask for customers to fill out their phone number as well as their email address. That way, they鈥檒l be opted into your send list. It can also be used to send reminders when sales have launched or when offers are coming to a close.
Despite having only 160 characters to work with, SMS campaigns are longer than recommended email subject lines, so it can be just as, if not more effective than email marketing campaigns.
