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It’s been a record Christmas shopping season so far, with nearly 197 million Americans shop in stores and online between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Over the five-day period, people spent $35.4 billion online, according to Adobe Analytics. Cyber Monday beat experts’ forecasts, with sales exceeding $11 billion, up 5.3% from last year.
While inflation is partly responsible for this increase, for businesses like yours, this holiday season is a time of great sales potential. Email can help you drive sales, but first you need to get into your customers’ inboxes.
Here are three ways to improve your email deliverability during the holiday season.
Related: Looking to boost sales this holiday season? Here are 5 tips to make your holiday email campaign a success
Increase your transmission frequency
Did you know that your send frequency affects your email deliverability? Consistently appearing in people’s mailboxes helps you maintain a good reputation with Internet service providers. It keeps your IP address warm and increases your chances of arriving in the inbox. Apart from that, it helps you build familiarity with your audience as people are regularly exposed to your brand name.
If your subscribers haven’t heard from you in a while, reach out to them before you launch a holiday campaign. Also consider targeting smaller segments of your audience one at a time to gradually warm up your IP. That way you’re less likely to run into delivery issues and you can also collect useful engagement metrics.
Check the validity of your data
Email data is deteriorating, and the changes in the workplace over the past two years have only caused it to deteriorate faster. The pandemic and The Great Resignation were major factors, causing millions of email addresses to be deleted or deactivated.
To get your holiday emails in the inbox, don’t forget to check your email list before sending them. An email verifier does the job quickly and accurately, letting you see how many of your contacts have gone bad. Remove them so you can prevent bounces and stop spammed your holiday emails.
Test your emails to see if they make it to the inbox
There are so many things to check before sending an email. First, you want it to display properly on different devices. More people than ever shopped on their phones this holiday season, with 55% of online sales coming from mobile, according to the Adobe Analytics study cited above. So make sure people can see your email on any device and that all your links and landing pages work.
Next, test your email deliverability. It can give you valuable insights whether your email is about to go to the inbox. It takes minutes to collect these insights and find out if your email is in the best shape — or if you still need to adjust it.
Sometimes the smallest things can cause your email to end up in spam. Wrong words in your subject line, using link shorteners, or a technical misconfiguration can all prevent you from reaching the inbox. With the right tools, you can fix these errors before they damage your holiday campaign.
Extra tips to get your holiday emails in the inbox
Email delivery issues can be difficult to resolve overnight, but if you follow the tips above, you’ll be on the right track to reaching your potential customers. To further increase the reach of your inbox:
- Remove subscribers who haven’t opened any of your emails in more than three months. They are very unlikely to convert and their lack of engagement impacts your overall deliverability.
- Personalize your campaign to make it relevant to each recipient. The more you tailor your offerings and content, the more clicks you’ll get. In the eyes of mailbox providers, every click is a vote of confidence for you as the sender, helping you earn your place in the inbox.
- If your latest reports show an unusually low number of clicks, it pays to check if your IP or domain has been blacklisted. Being on a blacklist can result in your emails being rejected, but you can take steps to get off that blacklist before an important campaign.
Keep e-mailing even after the holidays
Many companies increase their shipping frequency before and during the holiday season. However, not all of them remain in people’s inboxes, reducing their engagement.
If you send out multiple emails this holiday season, keep going to build loyalty with your audience. Provide useful, educational content over the coming year to keep people engaged and more likely to make a purchase on your next sale.
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