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It’s been a record-high holiday buying season so far, with almost 197 million Americans shopping 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 exceeded expert predictions, racking up more than $11 billion in sales, up 5.3% from last year.
While inflation does account for some of this increase, for businesses like yours, this holiday season is a time of great sales potential. Email can help you boost sales, but first, you have to land in your customers’ inboxes.
Here are three ways to improve your email deliverability during the holidays.
Increase your sending frequency
Did you know that your sending frequency has an impact on your email deliverability? Showing up consistently in people’s mailboxes keeps you in good standing with Internet service providers. It keeps your IP warm and increases your chances of arriving in the inbox. Aside 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, make sure to reach out to them before you launch a holiday campaign. Also, consider targeting smaller segments of your audience, one by one, to warm up your IP gradually. That way, you’re less likely to run into deliverability issues and also, you can gather useful engagement metrics.
Verify the validity of your data
Email data degrades, and the changes in the workplace in the past two years have only caused it to degrade faster. The pandemic and The Great Resignation were major factors, resulting in millions of email addresses getting deleted or deactivated.
To get your holiday emails in the inbox, remember to check your email list before you send. An email verifier does the job quickly and accurately, allowing you to see how many of your contacts have gone bad. Remove them so you can avoid bounces and help your holiday emails stay out of spam.
Test your emails to see if they land in the inbox
There are so many things to check before you send an email. First, you want it to render correctly across different devices. This holiday season, more people than ever shopped on their phones, with 55% of online sales occurring on mobile, shows the Adobe Analytics study quoted above. So, ensure that people can see your email on any device and, also, that all your links and landing pages are functional.
Then, test your email deliverability. It can give you valuable insights into whether your email is about to go to the inbox. It takes minutes to gather 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 go to spam. The wrong words in your subject line, the use of 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 deliverability issues can be hard to fix overnight, but if you follow the tips above, you’re on the right path to reaching your prospects. To further boost your inbox reach:
- Prune out subscribers who haven’t opened any of your emails in more than three months. They are highly unlikely to convert and their lack of engagement affects your overall deliverability.
- Personalize your campaign to make it relevant to each recipient. The more you fine-tune your offer and content, the more clicks you’ll get. In the eyes of mailbox providers, every click is a vote of trust for you as a sender, and that helps you earn your spot in the inbox.
- If your latest reports show an unusually low number of clicks, it pays to check if your IP or domain have been blacklisted. Being on a blacklist can cause your emails to be rejected, but you can take steps to get off that blacklist before an important campaign.
Keep sending emails after the holidays, too
Many companies increase their sending frequency before and during the holidays. However, not all of them continue to be present in people’s inboxes, thus causing their engagement to drop.
If you send several emails this holiday season, keep the streak going to build loyalty with your audience. Provide useful, educational content throughout the next year to keep people engaged and more likely to make a purchase on your next sale.