The holidays are a special time for both businesses and consumers worldwide. As well as using email marketing as a method to increase sales, companies can also use email to strengthen their relationship with customers and spread festive cheer.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic means the holiday season may look very different this year, there are still many ways in which you can successfully connect with your email audience and keep the holiday spirit going through challenging times.

In this article, we're sharing five practical ways you can effectively adapt your holiday email strategy for Covid-19 and still benefit from one of the most profitable times of the year.

5 Easy Ways to Adapt Your Holiday Email Strategy for Covid-19

1. Use positive, uplifting copy

With so much doom and gloom in the news, many of your customers will likely be finding it tough to get into the holiday spirit this year. Try coming up with positive email copy to help get customers in the mood for celebration.

Although it's important not to just carry on as normal and completely disregard the situation, you also don't want to appear to be spreading more bad vibes, or worse, attempting to profit from fear.

In your email copy, you should work to find a way to put positive spin on the current situation. Sharing useful ideas for safe ways to enjoy the holiday season (whilst also incorporating your products!) is a good way to keep up your marketing efforts and also remain respectful and sensitive in the context of the pandemic.

2. Stick to traditional themes and motifs to get recipients in the holiday spirit

While the holidays may be anything but typical this year, you should still keep to traditional themes. Classic festive design elements such as holiday color schemes, seasonal imagery and winter motifs are all super important for this time of year. Building these into your emails helps get customers feeling festive and in the mood for holiday shopping.

This sales email by Anthropologie puts a creative, modern twist on traditional Christmas tree motif and definitely sets the holiday tone with a practical gift guide. You can find more fabulous examples of holiday email designs here.

3. Offer free shipping

With so many restrictions in place and a large emphasis on staying at home, online shopping has become even more important for consumers. For this reason, promoting your online store should be a central focus for your email marketing efforts.

One great way to get online orders soaring is by offering free shipping. Oftentimes, high shipping costs are a key reason for abandoned transactions. By centralising your promotion around free/discounted postage, you're providing customers with a safe and attractive alternative to visiting your physical store.

This strategy is especially important for those customers who may be isolating or are concerned about going shopping during the busy holiday period.

4. Optimize your call-to-actions for an optimal online shopping experience

If you do decide to make your online store the centre of your email marketing efforts, you should put extra work into your call-to-action (CTA) buttons.  In this case, an effective CTA should point the customer directly to a particular product or landing page (i.e. for a sale.)

As well as a prominent design, a good CTA also needs an actionable text which speaks clearly to the reader. Actions such as "View online", "Add to cart" or "Shop now" are all super clear and concise.

Looking good is one key thing, but of course the functionality of your buttons is also very important. Before sending, make sure your links are all correct and lead to a sensible destination. Ideally, the customer should be able to jump directly to the advertised product and purchase it in as little steps as possible.

Tip: Mail Designer 365 automatically checks all links in your design and will alert you to any errors:

5. Highlight your in-store health and safety measures in your emails

For many of us, holiday shopping is an experience and there will still be customers who would prefer to shop at your physical store. Use your marketing emails to also highlight the health and safety measures you've got in place and help reassure those shoppers that your store is safe for them.

Include a dedicated section in your email design which explains the current health and safety measures in your store. This could include measures such as masks, a one-way system, temperature checks, maximum number of shoppers, or disinfection stations. If you have a large amount of information, linking out to a landing page is a good way to help keep things concise while still keeping customers up to date.

Whatever you have in place, it is reassuring for your customers to know what they should expect and also shows your business is taking the situation seriously.

Sending Holiday Emails during Covid-19

Although it will take some adapting from your regular marketing strategy, sending effective marketing emails this holiday season is still very much possible.

Integrating the tips above into your holiday email campaigns will help make your content more suitable for the current situation, while also showing customers you care about their safety and wellbeing.

Happy Holidays and stay safe!

Your Mail Designer 365 Team