How to Build a High-converting Email Funnel for the Festive Retail Season

How to Build a High-converting Email Funnel for the Festive Retail Season

Email marketing is known to be a low-cost, high-return marketing tool. According to a Campaign Monitor study, roughly $44 is made back on every $1 spent on email marketing. That’s at any regular time during the year. In the holiday season, this increases dramatically.

To really get the best results from your email marketing though, you need to make sure that your mailing strategy builds into an effective, enticing email funnel that draws and converts those clicks. What follows is a fairly foolproof sequence to help you build up your funnel.

• Start by Expressing Gratitude for Your Halloween Trade
  

As November begins, send out an email thanking your customers for doing business with you over the Halloween period. This makes them feel appreciated and that they are a part of your brand. Send to all customers, whether they made purchases last month or not.

• Send a Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday Teaser Email in Mid-November
  

Don’t jump too soon after 1 November. Give them a couple of days to settle and make sure you’re not bombarding their inboxes. About 5 to 7 days after your “thank you”, send the first teaser of your Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals. Keep it brief and high level, and focus on prime offerings across all niches of your market. However, be sure to hint at, but hold back your leading, most exciting offers. Those are for the next email.

• Send Your Main Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday Email a Week Later
  

Give it a week and then drop the main mail about mid-way through November. Now you can unveil your biggest offer, the one that will have them queuing outside your door for hours. Since this is your main offer, put more effort into it: give the graphics a lot of thought, and make them eye-catching and unmissable.

• Send Offer Reminders Four Days Before Black Friday
  

Let it rest again. And then, as the week of Thanksgiving starts, send out reminders of that main offer, as well as other major deals. People may have been very excited by your original offer mail, but then they have got on with their busy lives – your offer could slip their minds. This is just to make sure that they don’t forget – and that they know why they shouldn’t forget.

• As of the Next Day, Send Out Countdown Emails Until Black Friday
  

Normally you don’t want to overdo the number of emails you send. Now is the time to up the ante, however, by fanning the flames of anticipation. Each day, send out a short, bold reminder of your top deals, and let the customers know that there is a very limited time before the offer will be live.

• Send Your Post-black Friday/ Cyber Monday ‘thank You’ Emails
  

If you followed the sequence and focused on great content (as well as incredible offers), you should now be very happy with the results you achieved. Now, as November rolls over into December, there’s only one thing left to do:

• Repeat the Process for Christmas
  

WSI can help you build a top converting email marketing funnel. Contact us for help with your campaign.