It’s the most wonderful time of the year! or so many retailers are telling us at the moment at least! Even though it’s only November, it makes sense for retailers to have their Christmas marketing plans laid out, if not already in full swing.

Whilst you might not have a spare £7 million like John Lewis to spend on advertising, the likelihood is that you’ve spent the last 11 months collecting emails from customers and browsers of your online store. So, how about thinking of a strategy to convert some of those email addresses into purchases in the run up to Christmas?

Not all emails need to go to ALL your customers. Not all emails need to be about directly purchasing an item on your site. For example, you might send an email about delivery cut-off dates to make sure that your customers don’t miss out if they’re wanting to leave purchases till the last minute – This might be an ideal time to also start offering next day delivery, or at least delivery options that can be more useful toward the Christmas period.

From now until the new year, there are a lot of opportunities to touch base with your customers. So what are they?

A festive checklist

  • Gift suggestions – you can split this by age, gender or previous purchases.
  • Does your site have wish-list functionality? Encourage your customers to share them with friends and family
  • Get ahead of the curve by letting your customers know ahead of time about delivery cut-off dates
  • Spending days – Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals
  • Price promotions
  • Last second class post
  • Last first class post
  • Last minute gift suggestions
  • Christmas Promotions – Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing day
  • Looking at promoting new year’s sales? Get an email out on New Years Eve, and New Years Day
  • Promote the new year or new season – do you have new lines coming soon? What to look forward to in the new year?

Hopefully that gives some food for thought. Think of a date that should be added to the list? Drop me a comment below!

Image Credit: Kalexanderson