No matter how much we prep, the holiday sending season is just a lot. We’ve all heard the tried and true advice and combed through the astronomical numbers. But our customers have some really good questions that we just haven’t heard before. Here’s a round up of our team’s top advice for staying on top of the inbox—it seems like you just can’t stump these deliverability experts.
With the election coming just before the holidays, I’m afraid there will be too much inbox clutter. How can I stand out?
With holiday sending starting earlier and earlier each year, it’s very possible that early deal senders could run into a very crowded inbox through the middle of November. It might be best to give a little space with your sends, and it will not be surprising if engagement and KPIs are a bit lower YoY with the extra volume going out. It’s also possible that people’s sentiment and spending will be impacted by the election no matter the results. That being said, subscribers may also be relieved to see political email let up by the time Black Friday and December rolls around!
Pilar Bower, Sr. Deliverability Consultant
My boss just wants to send, send, send… I’m anxious that she doesn’t understand the impact that changing our audiences and frequency can have. Help!
Holiday sending anxiety is real. We know you’ve poured over a thoughtful email strategy, so make sure you socialize it well in advance, both with your internal team and deliverability consultant. Include risk tiers so you’ve calculated what the risks and rewards are within your organization. Once that’s done, it is so important to monitor your email KPIs daily to ensure you stay within your pre-holiday baseline while ensuring your email is compliant, especially across global ISPs that make up the bulk of your list.
Lastly, make sure to set clear expectations with your entire team. You’ll want to pay extra close attention to any policy violations, such as consistently meeting or surpassing the 0.3% complaint threshold if you do start increasing frequency and emailing any of your higher risk tiers. Your team will need to act quickly to adjust and preemptively mitigate any potential damage to your sender reputation during this critical time of year. Remember, flexibility is key, as it’s so easy to get lost in a crowded inbox, especially during peak.
Anna Kotlikov, Sr. Deliverability Consultant
Along with the increase in promotional sends, we’ll also have a huge increase in transactional emails, like order and shipping confirmations. How can I ensure deliverability remains strong with those?
First things first: make sure your IPs are configured properly and your transactional and promotional IPs are separated. If you have no choice but to keep them combined, don’t go dig too far into your list and lean less risky to avoid reputation tainting between your marketing and transactional emails during the holiday season. This will ensure your users receive both marketing and transactional messages in their inbox, giving you the best inbox placement experience.
Josie Garcia, Sr. Deliverability Consultant
If I’m planning to mail to more unengaged subscribers this holiday, what should I keep in mind?
Get started with some re-engagement tactics now, if you can. Try identifying your best content from the year and repackaging it in a clever way to get the less active subscribers’ attention. Take a page from one of our retail clients and do a pre-holiday sale now to see how your list responds. Make sure you are using click or other engagement metrics (not just opens) to gauge interest. Lastly, ask outright with a straightforward re-engagement campaign–then respect the wishes of your subscribers. You can even give a heads-up about upcoming holiday sales and give the option to opt out of just seasonal content.
Whatever you do, plan gradual steps to increase your email volume rather than suddenly doubling your email volume and shocking the ISP community. This unengaged audience can be woven with other sends in small amounts, avoiding the big batch deployment of unengaged names.
Also, keep in mind that seasonal engagement is real and ISPs do take this into account. So take a look at your historical year over year data when looking at engagement trends.
Thom Porter, Sr. Deliverability Consultant
Knowing how crowded the inbox will be, I’d like to dabble in SMS for the first time during Cyber Week. Anything to consider?
We notice more and more brands that only give a promotion for signing up for both email and phone number. Our advice is to respect their channel preference and don’t lose a potential sale if someone doesn’t want to sign up for SMS (and vice versa). While SMS can be a successful tactic, also consider how intrusive SMS can be–your customer could be doing anything when you interrupt so make sure it is timely, relevant, and that you have the proper permissions. Keep in mind SMS has even more strict compliance requirements and laws than email, but like email – make it easy to opt out!
Pilar Bower, Sr. Deliverability Consultant
I’ve been collecting a lot of creative “gimmicks” in a swipe file that I think could help me stand out during Cyber Week. What do you think?
We always advise you to stay true to your brand—and most brands can do that and still have good fun! Build up your voice with your audience all year, so that your more bold and irreverent holiday emails don’t seem so out of the blue. Emojis are great when used in moderation. Also, avoid what I like to call “hysterical” subject lines filled with multiple emojis, ALL CAPS, and excessive exclamation points. While you are competing with many other marketers who use this tactic, you want to appear less “desperate.”
Another temptation is often to change the friendly from name to something seasonal, but we recommend proceeding with caution and keeping the name recognizable. Another idea: try changing the friendly from a less high-stakes holiday to make sure that tactic moves the needle for your brand first.
Josie Garcia, Sr. Deliverability Consultant
Laura Sullivan, Head of Brand
I know nobody wants to think about this, but what happens after Black Friday/Cyber Monday–should I expect a big spike in unsubscribes?
There’s inevitable fallout after lots of customers just sign up for emails for holiday deals. The unfortunate truth: Don’t get too excited about a spike. Or too depressed about the exits afterward. It’s better to have your seasonal subscribers unsubscribe rather than ignore your emails for an extended period of time. Try to find ways to stay connected on other digital channels so that you can nudge these seasonal subscribers back to the email channel leading up to next year’s holidays.
Brad Van der Woerd, Head of Customer Success
