One area of confusion is the difference between ‘cross-channel‘, ‘omnichannel’, and ‘multichannel’ marketing strategies. By exploring these terms and their benefits, we can clear up any confusion and help you make the best decision for your business. So let’s investigate what these terms mean and how they can benefit you.

What is cross-channel marketing?

Cross-channel marketing is all about connecting with your customers across multiple channels. We’re not just talking about sending out a bunch of emails or posting on social media. It’s about creating a seamless experience for your customers, no matter where they are. 

Think about it, your customers are constantly switching between different devices and platforms throughout their day. They might be reading their inbox on their phone, browsing search engines on their laptop, or scrolling through social media on their tablet. By utilizing cross-channel marketing, you can reach them at each of these touchpoints and make sure they get a consistent message from your brand. 

Figuring out which channels your audience prefers and personalizing each channel is an important aspect of cross-channel marketing. Are your customers more active on social media? Do they prefer email? Once you have that figured out, it’s all about creating a consistent and tailored message that works across those channels.

Some key aspects of cross-channel marketing are:

Coordinated cross-channel strategy

Cross-channel marketing amps up your reach by strategically coordinating your campaigns across multiple channels. This creates a seamless, consistent message for your audience no matter which platform they use. 

Increase cross-channel reach

By using cross-channel marketing, you have the power to reach a larger audience thanks to the variety of platforms available. Each channel offers the opportunity to connect with different segments of your target market, amplifying your brand’s visibility and presence.

Personalized touchpoints across channels

Cross-channel marketing enables businesses to create personalized touchpoints with customers based on their behavior and preferences. By tailoring your message and content to suit the individual, you can effectively address their needs, desires, and pain points at various stages in the customer journey.

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is similar to cross-channel as it allows you to deliver a seamless and integrated customer journey across marketplaces, devices, channels, and platforms. 

When comparing omnichannel and cross-channel marketing, the main difference is that omnichannel integrates marketing efforts, data, and strategy under one umbrella while cross-channel does not.

With omnichannel, data is organized centrally and becomes more reliable. This creates more chances for personalization as customer data is synchronized, making it easier to deliver personalized content and messages. This approach enables retailers to offer shoppers the products they need, when and where they need them.

So how does it work? Let’s say someone finds your company through a Facebook ad and decides to view your website. With omnichannel marketing, you want to make sure that the messaging and branding on your website match what they saw in the ad. And if they decide to make a purchase, you want to make sure that their shopping cart is saved across devices, so they can seamlessly continue the checkout process on their phone or tablet.

Some key aspects of omnichannel marketing are:

Customer-centric focus

The primary goal of omnichannel marketing is to ensure customers have a convenient and engaging experience, regardless of the channel they use. By prioritizing the needs and preferences of your customers, you can create a unified experience that encourages brand loyalty and satisfaction.

Connected interactions

In an omnichannel strategy, all customer interactions are interconnected, allowing for a smooth transition between various touchpoints. For example, a customer browsing your website on their phone can continue shopping on your desktop site or in-store, experiencing the same level of personalization and tailored recommendations.

Data integration

Omnichannel marketing relies on integrated customer data that provides a holistic view of each individual’s preferences and behaviors. This information enables businesses to offer relevant content, promotions, and offers across all channels, enhancing the overall customer experience.

What is multichannel marketing?

Multichannel marketing is using different marketing channels to reach your audience. Instead of just relying on one method, like email or social media, you’re spreading your message across various platforms to maximize your chances of connecting with potential customers.

Think about it like fishing. If you only cast your line in one spot, you might catch a few fish, but you’re limiting your chances of reeling in a big one. But if you cast your line in several different spots, you’re increasing your odds of catching something awesome, right?

So, multichannel marketing works the same way. You’re casting your marketing net wider, reaching people through different channels. This approach amplifies your brand visibility, as you’re able to reach a larger and more diverse audience who might have different preferences when it comes to how they like to receive information.

Some key aspects of multichannel marketing are: 

Diverse channel selection

Multichannel marketing involves implementing a mix of channels, such as email, social media, content marketing, paid advertising, and traditional avenues like print or TV ads, to reach your audience. By leveraging each channel’s strengths, you can optimize your overall marketing strategy and reach a wider range of customers.

Channel-specific strategies

With multichannel marketing, each channel has its unique strategy, catering to the specific characteristics of that platform. For example, social media campaigns might focus on building brand personality and driving customer engagement, while email marketing is more targeted towards nurturing leads and driving conversions.

Measurement and optimization

If you use multichannel marketing, analyze the performance of each channel to determine which are most effective in achieving your business goals. Through data analysis and performance metrics, you can optimize your marketing strategy by allocating resources to the most successful channels and maximizing the return on investment (ROI).

What approach is best for me?

Choosing the right strategy depends on your business goals, resources, and the preferences of your target audience. To determine the best fit, consider these key factors:

Customer experience

If delivering a completely unified and immersive customer experience (CX) is your priority, cross-channel or omni-channel marketing may be best suited for your business. 

Personalization

For businesses looking to personalize messaging and engagement at specific milestones in the customer journey, cross-channel marketing offers the flexibility and customization needed to create targeted touchpoints.

Channel diversity

If your focus is on actively engaging with customers via multiple channels, without necessarily linking the messages or strategy between them, multi-channel marketing is the ideal approach.

How Dotdigital helps your cross-channel marketing strategy

Here at Dotdigital, know the importance of implementing comprehensive marketing tools tailored to your business goals and target audience. That’s why we’ve developed an innovative cross-channel platform as an all-in-one solution to help manage your channels.

With the Dotdigital platform, you can:

Connect with your customers on all their favorite channels

In today’s world, reaching savvy customers through multiple marketing channels is essential to stay ahead of the game. With Dotdigital, you can effortlessly connect with your audience across various touchpoints, leading to a more effective and rewarding marketing strategy.

Create seamless customer journeys

Dotdigital’s marketing tools help you send personalized messages to customers through email, text messages, and social media. By enhancing their experience at every stage of their journey, you’ll be able to build stronger relationships and drive engagement.

Supercharge your email marketing

Email is a powerful way to stay in touch with customers who want to hear from your business. Dotdigital’s email builder makes designing eye-catching emails a breeze so that you can grab your customers’ attention and inspire them to take action.

Turn texts into sales

Have you considered using SMS marketing to reach your customers? It’s a quick and effective way to connect with them in real time. With Dotdigital, you can integrate your text messages with other channels like email and social media to increase your chances of making a sale.

Grow, convert, and retain with social media retargeting

Looking to expand your customer base? Dotdigital has got you covered. With Facebook Lead Ads, you can easily acquire new leads and grow your marketing lists. Plus, keep your current customers engaged by showing them targeted ads after they visit your website.

Reduce barriers to purchase with live chat

Forrester says using live chat on your website can increase conversion rates by up to 40%. With Dotdigital’s live chat feature, you can make it easy for customers to get the help they need while also increasing their happiness and likelihood of buying from you. 

Reach customers anywhere with push notifications

Dotdigital helps you stay connected with customers by sending them timely push notifications on their smartphones. These messages remind customers of your business and encourage them to take action, like making a purchase.

Summary

So there you have it – the key differences between cross-channel, omnichannel, and multichannel marketing. Now that you’re in the know, it’s the perfect time to reevaluate your marketing strategy. The good news? Dotdigital’s cross-channel platform can make the journey smoother and more effective than ever before.

1. Tap into eRFM

eRFM customer modeling is a good way to determine whether your customers are genuinely engaged. This tool empowers you to categorize customers based on their past behaviors and actions. eRFM looks at data from four metrics: engagement, recency, frequency, and monetary value.

With eRFM modeling you can develop comprehensive customer segments. Each RFM persona receives an engagement score, so you can identify customers who are primed for conversion, and those who need to be re-engaged. With detailed segments, you can use eRFM to adapt your email marketing strategy to send the right message to your audience at the best time.

2. Predictive AI (Artificial intelligence)

By utilizing predictive analytics powered by Dotdigital’s WinstonAI, you can turn insights into action. Using AI, you can segment your customers based on predicted actions such as a customer’s anticipated next purchase date. This enables you to create timely and relevant marketing campaigns that reach your audience at the perfect moment. Not only does this help you keep your customers, but it also ensures that your messages remain relevant and the conversation continues.

You can use predictive analytics to forecast what products your customers may be interested in next. WinstonAI will analyze browsing history, past purchases, and spending patterns to understand your customer’s unique tastes and interests. This allows you to offer tailored product recommendations before they even know what they want themselves.

3. Behavioral segmentation

Unlocking the full potential of email marketing begins with understanding your subscribers through behavioral segmentation. Start by closely monitoring their email interactions; keep a keen eye on email metrics like opens, clicks on links or attachments, and conversions. This data lays the foundation to help you create highly effective messaging and content.

For ecommerce business owners, understanding your customers’ buying patterns is important. Take a closer look at your customers’ purchase histories, average order value (AOV), and category preferences. This information can assist you in not only refining your segmentation strategy, but also creating personalized campaigns that cater to each customer’s interests and needs.

4. Lookalike segmentation

If you’re looking to reach potential customers who share similarities with your ideal buyers, why not try Dotdigital’s lookalike segmentation tool. To start, you’ll need to use the single customer view (SCV) feature.

Dotdigital’s SCV gives you a holistic view of every one of your customers. You can see all your customer’s interactions, preferences, and behaviors from different touchpoints like email, SMS, and website activity. This helps you better understand your target audience and you can recognize their behavior patterns and trends. With this knowledge, you can optimize and tailor your email marketing campaigns.

Once you have insights from your SCV, you can then identify ideal customer profiles to represent your best buyers and create lookalike segments based on that information. With just one click, you can use these segments to effectively target the right prospects with the right message.

5. Self-segmentation

You can get customers to self-segment using preference centers. Encouraging your customers to select their preferences at an early stage in their journey allows you to use zero-party data to create customer segments.

In the preference center, your subscribers can set and modify their content, frequency, and communication channel preferences. Then you can create segments using selected preferences to easily send messages to your contacts based on their expressed interests in your brand and products.

Alternatively, you may want to send out a survey or questionnaire to learn more about your audience and hyper-personalize your messages. Let’s say your customer service survey asks someone their job title and you find that your audience base has many teachers. Try sending out messages that align with their interests and career seasonality to strategically deliver the right message at the right time to the right people.

6. Preferred channel segmentation

When it comes to cross-channel marketing, recognizing your customer’s preferred channels is your secret weapon for maximizing audience engagement. It helps you discover the communication methods your audience prefers most. 

Start by segmenting your audience based on their preferred channel. By doing so, you will not only increase the efficiency of your segmentation strategy but also ensure a seamless cross-channel customer experience for your customers.

It’s also a good idea to maintain an up-to-date contact list of your customers’ preferred channels. This way, you can easily pinpoint where they’re most active and tailor your cross-channel marketing approach to resonate with their preferences.

By reaching out to your contacts through the channels they’re most likely to engage with, you’ll be well on your way to forging meaningful connections and nurturing long-lasting relationships with your customer base. 

7. Event-triggered segmentation

Segment customers based on key milestones in the journey with your brand. You can do this by sending them a special discount on their birthday or celebrating their brand anniversary. 

Sending personalized messages to your customers is an excellent way to demonstrate appreciation and foster brand loyalty. For instance, if you have customers who were born in a specific month and haven’t engaged with your brand in a while, you can segment this group and provide them with a customized birthday discount. This not only encourages them to come back, but also demonstrates your consideration for their special occasion.

Summary

By using these seven innovative segmentation techniques, you can deliver personalized and relevant content to engage your customers. When you make your messages more in tune with individual preferences and interests, you’re much more likely to boost engagement, form deeper connections, and ultimately make your customers happier.

It’s important to prioritize customer data privacy and make it a central part of your marketing strategy. At Dotdigital, we know that understanding data privacy can be complex and you may have concerns and questions. That’s why we created this blog to explain the key considerations and best practices you should use. By embracing these practices you’ll build trust with your customers and comply with regulations.

What is data privacy?

In a nutshell, data privacy is the protection, and the fair and transparent use of an individual’s personal information, preferences, and activities. With the rise of online customer data, new measures have been developed to protect personally identifiable information (PII) such as full names, dates of birth, email addresses, financial details, and browsing history. 

How governments and organizations are safeguarding customer data privacy

To tackle the pressing concerns surrounding data collection, governments and organizations across the world are taking action to protect personal information. As a marketer, it’s important to be compliant when collecting data. Consider keeping an eye on these regulations:

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Data privacy regulations like GDPR have made a big impact on marketing. These regulations aim to give people more control over their personal data and make sure businesses ask for clear permission before getting and using their data. Due to this, digital marketers have had to change how they collect data and update their privacy policies to follow the new regulations.

One big challenge for marketers with GDPR is having to be extra clear about how they collect and use data. Companies have to let people know what they’re doing with their data and give them a choice to say yes or no to having their information collected. This makes it more complicated for marketers to target customers and personalize content, as they need to be sure they have the right permission from people before using their data.

Another key part of GDPR is handling requests for people to see or delete their data. Customers can ask companies to show them the data they have on them and request for it to be deleted if they don’t want it stored anymore. Marketers need to be ready to deal with these requests quickly and properly to follow GDPR regulations.

Emerging privacy legalization in the US

As data privacy evolves globally, the United States has started enacting its own privacy laws. Although the country has yet to implement a comprehensive, nationwide data privacy regulation similar to the European Union’s GDPR, individual states have begun stepping up their efforts to protect their citizens’ privacy.

One of the most prominent examples is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which came into effect in January 2020. The law grants Californians more control over their personal information by giving them the right to know what data businesses collect, who they share it with, and if desired, they can delete it. Additionally, the CCPA allows consumers to opt out of selling personal information to third parties.

Several states have looked to California’s lead and are creating privacy legislation. Virginia, for instance, passed the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (VCDPA) in March 2021, adding yet another layer of privacy protection for its citizens. Similar to the CCPA, the VCDPA gives Virginians more control over their data, offering transparency, access, deletion, and opt-out rights.

Apple’s privacy-focused updates

Marketers continue to face new challenges with Apple’s privacy-focused updates. The MPP (Mail Privacy Protection) feature, introduced in 2021, serves as one example. MPP uses a bot to open incoming emails as soon as they arrive in the recipient’s inbox. This method saves user privacy by hiding IP addresses and preventing open rates from exposing the recipient’s location or tracking their online activity.

In addition to MPP, Apple’s recent iOS 17 privacy updates add another layer of protection for users. These updates have been implemented to safeguard user data and privacy, making it increasingly difficult for marketers to track and measure engagement through traditional methods. For instance, iOS 17 features Link Tracking Protection, which automatically removes tracking parameters from messages, mail, and links, complicating the process of linking an interaction to a specific user.

Despite these challenges, you don’t need to panic. Link tracking remains a useful tool and metric, with only specific link types for certain user cases being affected. For example, Dotdigital customers are expected to see less than a 1% impact on the data they gather from link tracking. By staying informed and adapting to these changes, you can be an ethical marketer and protect your audience’s privacy.

Best practices for responsible data collection

Customers can feel limited when collecting data. If they don’t consent to data collection, their overall experience will be lessened. However, if you’re open and transparent about what data you want and why you want it, you’ll build a relationship based on honesty and integrity. Here are some ways to be ethical when collecting or using personal data: 

1. Use consent management tools: Don’t leave your customers guessing about the data you’re collecting. Use our consent insight feature at the point of sign-up. With this, you can be transparent about the data you collect, and how it will be used, and offer a fair and easy way for customers to provide (or withhold) their consent.
2. Build a preference center: Show your customers you respect their choices by providing an easily accessible preference center. Let them easily add or remove information, and include it in every email you send. 
3. Include a double opt-in: Double opt-in ensures that marketing lists are accurate and high-quality. Make it a standard for any channel you use and your customer engagement will improve.
4. Offer alternative channels: Different customers have different communication preferences. While some prefer emails, others prefer SMS or WhatsApp. Stick to their preferences by giving them the option to choose their favorite channel to ensure an optimal customer experience. 
5. Communicate the benefits: Help your customers understand how sharing their data can improve their experience with your brand. Are you offering exclusive deals? Tailoring content to their interests? Let them know what’s in it for them, and they’ll share willingly. Transparency is key. 

How to build trust and transparency

Trust is an important part of being a responsible marketer. Trust is no longer just a nice to have, it’s a necessity. Customers are more aware than ever of the potential risks associated with sharing personal information online. By establishing trust with your customers, you can reassure them that their data will be handled responsibly. This not only helps to build a positive reputation for your company but also ensures that customers feel safe and secure when interacting with you. 

Here are ways to build trust and transparency:

1. Collect zero and first-party data: To create trust and show respect for privacy, focus on collecting zero-party data by asking customers to share information via a survey or sign-up form. Also, gather first-party data from your customers’ direct actions, like website visits or social media engagements. 
2. Use data protection tools: Keep customer information safe by using encryption, secure storage systems, two-factor authentication, and safe data transfer methods. This will protect data from breaches. 
3. Educate your team: Get your team involved in a workshop or training so they can understand data privacy rules and best practices for protecting customer information.
4. Appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO): Have a dedicated person, a DPO, in charge of ensuring your company follows data privacy rules. They will also be the main contact between your company and the official authorities.
5. Regularly check your practices: Review how your company handles data privacy. Look for any weak spots and fix them to keep your practices up-to-date and effective.

Key considerations for marketers

Whether you’re aware of it or not, your data is being collected almost constantly. Regulatory breaches, brands, and buying and selling customers’ data have led to an ethical conundrum for marketers.

To tackle these ethical challenges head-on, consider the following concerns when collecting and using customer data. This will make your decisions more responsible and help maintain the trust of your customers:

1. Privacy invasion: It’s not right to take personal or sensitive information without your customers’ permission.  This could make them uneasy about their privacy and potentially put your brand at risk of legal consequences.
2. Data security: You have a responsibility to protect your customer’s data. Data breaches can lead to financial losses and damage the reputation of both your customers and your business.
3. Informed consent: Your customers should be clearly informed about the information being collected, its intended use, and the reasons for it. Transparency goes a long way in building trust.
4. Data minimization: Keep it simple, focus on collecting only what’s necessary, rather than keeping extra data. This approach reduces risks and shows respect for your customers’ privacy.
5. Unwanted communications: It’s not okay to use customer data to send emails, text messages, or make calls without their permission. Doing this can invade their privacy and might even break privacy laws.
6. Unfair targeting practices: Avoid using personal information like gender, race, or disability to unfairly exclude groups. This can lead to discrimination and unequal treatment.
7. Misuse of data: Hold off on using customer data without permission. These actions are not only unethical but can also break down customer trust. Marketers have a responsibility to make sure any third parties they work with handle data properly.
8. Accuracy of data: Double-check and keep customer data accurate, current, and up-to-date. When you use incorrect information it can lead to a negative customer experience.

By sticking to these guidelines, not only will you reduce risk when collecting data, but you’ll also create an environment where your customers feel valued and respected. When your audience knows their privacy is a top priority, you’ll establish a strong foundation of trust that paves the way for more meaningful and long-lasting relationships. In turn, your marketing efforts will flourish as your customers reward you with their loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and a genuine appreciation for your brand’s commitment to ethical practices.

Future-proof your marketing with Dotdigital

As a marketer, you should use a marketing platform that values data protection and customer trust is essential. Dotdigital, an ISO 27701-certified customer experience and data platform (CXDP), equips you with the tools to stay ahead of the curve and deliver personalized customer experiences. By using these best practices, you’ll stay compliant with data privacy regulations and grow stronger relationships with your audience.

1. Embrace simplicity

Make sure your emails are easy to read by avoiding cluttered layouts. Keep it simple by removing unnecessary elements, using a single-column format, and using clear headings. Use colors that work well together and organize your content to make it easier to understand. Break up your content into shorter, easy-to-digest chunks that your readers can quickly scan through.

2. Consistent branding is key

To build trust and recognition, make sure you keep things consistent in your email designs. Stick to your brand’s colors, logo, and typography so that your emails become an extension of your overall brand identity. This will help you establish stronger connections with your subscribers. Consistency in branding also shows professionalism and attention to detail.

3. Maximize white space

White space is more than just a design element – it plays an important role in enhancing readability and organizing content. By incorporating sufficient white space around headings, paragraphs, and other essential elements, you can create a visually pleasing layout that directs the reader’s gaze through the email. This approach not only makes your content more captivating and effortless to navigate, but it also alleviates any sense of overcrowding, resulting in a more relaxed and pleasant reading experience.

4. Optimize for mobile devices

In today’s world, people tend to check their emails on smartphones, which makes it crucial to design responsive and mobile-friendly layouts. To optimize for mobile devices, it’s important to adjust font sizes for smaller screens and ensure that buttons are easy to tap. Testing the email on different clients is also necessary to ensure a seamless experience. Additionally, compressing images and keeping email file sizes small can facilitate faster loading and prevent reader frustration.

5. Use clear and distinct CTAs

It’s essential to pay close attention to the call-to-action (CTA) buttons in your email campaign, as they can have a significant impact on its success. Ensure that your CTAs are visually appealing and easy to spot, with a clear message. You can try out different colors, sizes, and positions to see which configuration works best. Also, use persuasive language that encourages your readers to take action, without coming across as overly sales-oriented.

6. Prioritize accessibility

Creating emails that are accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities, is not only ethical but also practical. To achieve this, prioritize features such as using a font size that is easy to read, ensuring high color contrast, and including descriptive alt text for images. By making your designs accessible, you can increase engagement rates and reach a more inclusive audience, preventing anyone from feeling left out of your message.

7. Choose visual elements wisely

To make your emails more attractive, consider adding high-quality images and graphics that match your message. Be careful not to let visuals overpower the main message. Also, optimize images for faster loading and ensure they display correctly on various email clients and devices.

8. Leverage personalization and dynamic content

Leveraging personalization for each recipient can greatly increase their engagement. By incorporating user data, like their name, location, browsing and purchase history, you can personalize subject lines, text, images and recommendations. Utilize dynamic content to tailor emails based on subscriber preferences and behavior, resulting in a more relevant and captivating experience.

9. Test and refine your design

To ensure maximum engagement and conversion rates, it’s important to regularly assess your email designs. A/B testing can help you compare various aspects of your emails, from headlines to CTAs to layout options. Analyze the results to spot any trends and fine-tune your designs accordingly. Remember, consistent improvement is essential to stay ahead of competitors and maintain strong relationships with your audience.

10. Animated GIFs and interactivity

Enhance your content with animated GIFs, countdown timers, and interactive elements such as forms and surveys to engage your audience. It is crucial to ensure that these additions do not divert attention from your key message or compromise accessibility. Interactive content, when executed correctly, can add excitement and boost engagement rates.

Summary

By incorporating these 10 tips into your email design strategy you will grab your audience’s attention while also creating a long-lasting impression that builds trust and loyalty toward your brand. A properly executed email design strategy that focuses on user experience, accessibility, and engagement will enhance conversions and improve your customer relationships.

Get to know your target audience

Copywriting is all about creating a connection with your audience. To do so, you need to understand their needs, desires, and pain points. Start by diving into market research, identifying your customer’s demographics, and learning about their preferences and habits. By understanding your audience, you can create personalized content that resonates with them.

The second step is empathy. Place yourself in your customer’s shoes and see the world from their perspective. Write as if you’re speaking directly to them, addressing their concerns, alleviating their fears, and offering solutions to their problems. The more you understand and identify with your audience, the more impactful your copywriting becomes.

Use Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful assistant that you can use to optimize your SEO copywriting efforts. Generative AI helps you with:

• Content optimization: You can use AI to analyze your content and provide real-time suggestions on improving your content. These recommendations may include keyword density, readability, structure, and other factors that could impact your search rankings. By utilizing these insights, you can ensure your content is more likely to be discovered by your target audience. 

• Keyword research: Keyword research is an essential aspect of SEO copywriting and tools like SEMrush can simplify this process by providing insights into relevant search terms your audience might be using. 

• Generating ideas and headlines: Content ideation can often be time-consuming for marketers. AI tools can help you scan the web and analyze popular trends and topics within your niche to provide fresh, engaging content ideas. 

• Proofreading: AI-driven grammar and spell-check tools like Grammarly are great for automatically identifying and correcting errors, ensuring your copy is polished and professional.

Write an attention-grabbing headline

The headline is often the first thing your reader sees and plays a significant role in grabbing their attention. A good headline should get your message across, spark curiosity, and encourage them to read more. Use powerful words and be concise to evoke emotion and pique interest.

Headlines should include your primary keywords. A mix of powerful, actionable language and SEO best practices will skyrocket your content visibility, attract new readers, and improve your search rankings.

Keep it clear and concise

Effective copywriting is all about delivering your message to the target audience in the most straightforward and impactful way possible. Remember, every word you write should serve a purpose, and unnecessary fluff will only dilute the power of your message. Here are some quick tips:

• Focus on one idea at a time: When writing copy, focus on one main idea per paragraph or section. Write in an active voice, keep your sentences, short, and punchy to communicate your point effectively. This makes your message easy to grasp and leaves no room for confusion. 

• Use accessible language: While you may have expertise in your industry, remember that your target audience might not share your level of knowledge. It’s important to use simple language and avoid jargon, technical terms, or acronyms that your audience may not understand. 

• Break up the text: Long, unbroken blocks of text can be intimidating and hard to read. Improve the readability of your copy by using white space, bullet points, and subheadings. This will make your content more visually appealing and easier to digest. 

• Use clear headings:  Clear, well-organized headings are essential not only for capturing your reader’s attention but also for providing accessibility to screen reader users. Properly structured headings help in guiding both visually impaired and non-impaired users through your content with ease. 

Use effective call-to-actions (CTAs)

Create effective CTAs to encourage your readers to take action. To achieve this, strategically embed persuasive CTAs throughout and at the end of your copy that focus on the benefits, and are action-oriented. Tailor your CTAs to fit your specific goals, such as driving subscriptions, boosting product sales, or generating leads —a CTA should be direct, use active language, and be interesting. 

Incorporate power words like ‘Discover,’ ‘New,’ and ‘Unlock’ to evoke a sense of urgency and exclusivity. Don’t hesitate to experiment with different formats and styles to see what resonates best with your audience.

Optimize for SEO

Copywriting plays an essential role in creating content that ranks high on Google and other search engines. Research relevant keywords that your audience is likely to search for and seamlessly incorporate them into your content, headlines, and meta descriptions. Strike the perfect balance between readability and keyword density to avoid penalties from search engines.

Additionally, consider the overall structure of your content. Break it into easy-to-read sections with informative subheadings that also contain your keywords. To enhance your online presence and strengthen your backlink profile on Google, make certain to integrate high-quality, relevant external and internal links within your content, as these play a vital role in search rankings.

Cultivate a consistent brand tone of voice

The tone of voice, which serves as the “how” when conveying your message, combines elements like word choice, punctuation, and font style to evoke emotion in your readers. Striking the right balance between creativity and adherence to brand guidelines ensures that your messaging remains both engaging and familiar to your audience.

Defining a brand voice that aligns with your target audience is important for creating an emotional connection and laying the groundwork for meaningful, long-lasting customer relationships. By remaining consistent across various channels, you’ll not only strengthen your brand identity but also cultivate trust with your audience.

Test and measure results

Improving your copy is a continuous process, and A/B testing can help you achieve that. Create multiple variations of your copy, analyze which ones resonate well with your target audience, and use those insights to enhance your content. It’s important to remember that the first draft may never be perfect. Therefore, keep refining your copy based on your test results.

To improve your writing, set up a few key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on. These metrics will help you pinpoint the areas of your copy that require more attention. When creating new content, prioritize those areas and give them the attention they deserve.

Adapt to evolving market trends

Adapt to evolving market trends, to create content that continues to strike a chord with your target audience. Here are some quick tips to keep up with market trends:

Look at the competition: Keeping an eye on your competitors gives you valuable insights into emerging trends, strategies that work (and those that don’t), and potential gaps to fill in your niche. Analyze their content, marketing tactics, and customer reviews, then use this information to refine your copy and stay ahead in the game.

Do market research: Staying updated with the latest market research helps you understand emerging trends and the shifting needs of your target audience. By gathering and analyzing information on customer preferences, you can adjust your content accordingly and maintain a strong connection with your audience.

Set up trend alerts: Keep track of industry trends and news that could impact your target audience by setting up alerts and notifications. Set up alerts and notifications – you can use platforms like Google Trends to effortlessly follow relevant topics. Use the insights you gather to update your copy and address any new developments or concerns with your audience.

Summary

Mastering the art of copywriting is a valuable skill that can significantly impact the success of your digital marketing efforts. By truly understanding your target audience and using empathy to connect with them, you’ll be able to create compelling messages that inspire action. Remember, every aspect – from attention-grabbing headlines to persuasive CTAs – works in harmony, guiding your reader through a captivating journey.

Don’t forget to prioritize SEO optimization and maintaining a consistent brand voice to maximize the reach and impact of your content. Embrace AI-based tools as they can assist you in streamlining your content creation process, optimizing for search engines, and better connecting with your target audience. As you refine your copywriting skills, stay agile and adapt to evolving market trends. Keep experimenting, measuring, and learning from your results, and you’ll soon become a copywriting expert with the ability to convert your readers into loyal customers.

According to a survey, only 51% of marketing professionals said they were confident in their company’s ability to measure the ROI of their email marketing. So it’s important to be aware of the email marketing metrics you need to know and track. These metrics provide valuable insights into how your contacts are engaging with your campaign and can help you identify areas for improvement for future campaigns. 

Let’s explore the email marketing metrics you need to know and how to use them to improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.

What is a metric in marketing

Marketing metrics and KPIs are essential tools used to evaluate the performance of your email campaigns. These insights give an accurate analysis of customer behavior and how your recipients interact with your emails. Additionally, metrics are trackable and data-driven, so you can monitor progress and fine-tune your strategy to improve your email campaigns.

Email marketing metrics you should track

To measure the success of your email campaigns, you should track several metrics. These metrics include:

Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who clicked on a link within your email out of the total number of emails sent. It’s an important marketing metric because it helps you understand the performance of your campaigns and content. 

CTOR only includes the actions of those who have opened your email. In short, it only measures the performance of your content.

CTR is calculated by dividing the number of clicks your ad or link receives by the total number of times it has been shown or viewed. CTR is shown as a percentage.

A low CTR means an ad or link is not targeting the right audience, while a high CTR means your content is engaging and relevant.  

Our Global benchmark report revealed that CTR has declined by 15% to 1.4% meaning marketers have to pay more attention to creating engaging content. To improve your CTR, consider using clear and prominent call-to-action (CTA) buttons, improving your email design, and personalizing content.

Click-to-Open-rate (CTOR)

The click-to-open rate (CTOR) is a metric that shows the percentage of unique clicks and opens for an email campaign. By comparing the number of clicks to the number of emails sent and opened, you can see how engaging and compelling the content is.

CTOR is calculated by dividing the number of unique clicks by the number of unique opens. Similar to CTR, CTOR is a percentage. 

This year at Dotdigital, we have seen a notable 46% decrease in CTOR across all regions around the globe. By employing targeted email campaigns tailored to specific segments within your contact list, you can enhance your CTOR and engagement with your audience. This approach allows for more personalized and relevant content, increasing the likelihood of generating clicks and driving desired actions from your recipients. 

Email open rate

The open rate is the percentage of people who opened your email out of the total number of emails sent. A high open rate means that your subject line and email content are relevant to your audience. 

At Dotdigital, we have observed an average global open rate of 31%. This reflects the effectiveness of our partners using our platform to capture recipients’ attention via email. However, it’s important to note that tracking open rates has become complicated with the introduction of Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which prevents senders from seeing if and when recipients open their emails. 

MPP works by having a bot open all emails as soon as they arrive in the recipient’s inbox and hides IP addresses, making it difficult to link open rates to other online activity or accurately determine the recipient’s location. So, trying to measure email engagement from the number of opens is increasingly unreliable. 

If you’re wanting to improve your open rate, consider personalizing your subject lines and experimenting with different types of content.

Bounce rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of emails that were undeliverable and returned to the sender. 

There are two types of bounces: hard bounces and soft bounces. Hard bounces happen when an email address is invalid or no longer exists, while soft bounces happen when there’s a temporary issue, like a full inbox. 

A high bounce rate can negatively impact your email deliverability and reputation. To keep your bounce rate low, it’s important to make sure your contact list is up-to-date.

Conversion rate

The conversion rate is the percentage of people who took a desired action after clicking on a link within your email. This could be filling out a form, signing up for a newsletter, purchasing a product, or downloading your content. 

This rate is calculated by analyzing how many people clicked on the link and then completed the specific action. A high conversion rate indicates that your email content and CTA were persuasive, effective, and relevant to your audience.

To improve your conversion rate, consider optimizing your landing pages and testing discounts and offers.

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

The customer lifetime value (CLV) is a calculation of the total value an email subscriber brings to your business over the entire duration of your relationship with them. Using this metric, you can determine the lifetime value of your subscribers as well as how much money you can expect from them. 

To calculate CLV, you’ll need to know the average purchase value, the average purchase frequency, and the average customer lifespan. Once you have these metrics, you can use the following formula:

CLV = (Average Purchase Value x Average Purchase Frequency x Customer Lifespan)

This information can help you make informed decisions about how much you are willing to spend to acquire new subscribers, how often you should email your subscribers, and what types of products or services to offer them. By optimizing your email campaigns to increase CLV, you can increase the overall ROI of your company.

Return on investment (ROI)

The return on investment (ROI) is an important email marketing metric that measures the revenue generated by an email campaign compared to its cost, including the time and resources spent creating and sending emails. 

To calculate the ROI of your email campaigns, you’ll need to know the total revenue generated from your emails and the total cost of your email marketing efforts. Once you have these metrics, you can use the following formula:

ROI = (Total Revenue – Total Cost) / Total Cost

A positive ROI indicates profitable email marketing efforts, while a negative ROI suggests a need to adjust your strategy. Tracking ROI helps identify the most effective tactics, and by continually monitoring it, you can make data-driven decisions to maximize revenue and profitability.

Dotdigital global benchmark report 2023

Monitoring your email performance metrics is crucial to the success of your campaigns. By regularly tracking and analyzing these metrics, you can optimize your email content, improve engagement, drive conversions, and boost ROI. 

Be sure to read our Global benchmark report for 2023. It offers valuable insights into best practices for email marketing. Don’t miss this chance to improve your email campaigns.

Why is storytelling important?

Brand storytelling is important in marketing because it helps you connect with your target audience on a deeper and more emotional level. Our brains are wired to remember stories over simple facts. Stories help us retain information and create close, personal bonds. The benefits of integrating this into your marketing are obvious. 

Data can come to life through storytelling. By telling personal and emotional stories, you can capture and retain your audience’s attention. This makes your brand more relatable and memorable, setting you apart from your competitors. Successful brand storytelling can not only increase awareness and brand loyalty but also boost sales and business growth. 

Understand what customers need

Long before talk of customer-centricity started ringing out across the marketing world, the customer was essential to company success. After all, businesses would be nothing without customers to connect with. Despite this, there are still some brands out there that don’t put the customer at the center of everything they do. Instead, they focus on their ideas and assumptions about their target market without ever really getting to know them. Warning: these businesses won’t last long. 

For brands looking to grow, disregarding the customers’ needs can be irrevocably damaging. Especially in today’s market, customers are more than happy to jump ship and realign their loyalties to a brand that is willing to meet their needs and fulfill their expectations. That’s why you need to ensure you’re always learning about your customers. Understanding their goals and needs will help you engage them with your brand.

Discovering customer needs through data

Crafting a compelling brand story begins with discovering what your customers truly desire. That’s why it’s essential to collect customer data and use it in the right way. There are several effective methods to uncover these insights:

Polls, surveys and interviews

Direct conversations with customers will provide you with the richest data. You can explore the decision-making process: – What drove them to convert? – Why did they choose your brand over competitors? – Was there a specific element of the experience or your website that stood out? – How did they discover you? – What are their interests? What are they passionate about? 

By collecting this information, you will get to know your audience like never before. You can discover what is important to them and build this into your brand story. For example, if they’re passionate about supporting international development, you can introduce a new initiative supporting business programs in the developing world. Ultimately, displaying this commitment and aligning your brand values to match your audiences’ will lead to stronger, loyal relationships and rapid growth.

Monitor interactions

Interactions and customer interactivity with your brand will only grow in importance. Following Apple’s iOS 15 software, it will be interactions, not opens that help you understand customer intent. By tracking customer interactions, you can learn a great deal about the average customer’s journey toward conversion. The emails they interact with, the links they click, and the pages they visit all tell you something about what they’re trying to achieve with your brand. 

You can identify where customers’ interests lie, focusing your product or service development on what will drive engagement and growth. You can also identify moments that generate engagement or where customers drop out of the funnel. This will give you greater insight into what your audience is trying to achieve and how they want to do it.

Feedback and reviews

Customers should feel at the center of your brand story. This includes feeling like their opinion and feedback are valued. You should not only be encouraging feedback and reviews but also monitoring them to identify trends. Are customers raving about your fantastic customer service? Are they disappointed about the lack of shipping options?

By using feedback and reviews to identify these trends, you can improve your customer offering and demonstrate your commitment to a customer-centric approach. Including customers in the day-to-day running of your business gives them to chance to get fully invested in your brand. 

Customers love a brand that listens to them and values their input. By reinforcing and demonstrating this in your brand messaging, you’re helping to create more trust and strong bonds with your brand. Section on reviews also being great marketing material when positive. Use these at various touchpoints across the customer journey. From social media to checkout. Social proof is invaluable.

Customer loyalty is the ultimate goal

As a marketer, your ultimate objective is to enhance customer loyalty and retention. To achieve this, you can create a brand story that is based on customer data. Showing that you understand the needs of your customers fosters satisfaction and exceeds their expectations. This customer-centric approach positions your brand for long-term success and growth.

Discover how Dotdigital help you create unforgettable brand narratives that resonate with your audience by reading our best practice guide.

What is a martech stack?

A martech stack is simply the name given to the collection of marketing technology or software used by a business to support and enhance its marketing efforts. Even if you’re not familiar with the term, you likely already have one.

Forrester found that martech stacks now account for over 20% of the total marketing budget, and 56% of businesses planned to increase their allocated budget to spend on martech. Plus, a huge 82% of marketers said they plan to change their martech stack in 2022. There is a lot of growth in this area because marketing technology is constantly evolving, and martech frees up marketers’ time, and we all know that time is money.

The importance of a martech stack

The importance of a martech stack cannot be overstated in today’s digital age. With the proliferation of marketing channels and the vast amount of customer data available, a martech stack is essential for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge in the market.

By leveraging customer data from various sources, such as CRM systems, social media platforms, and email marketing campaigns, a well-designed martech stack can help automate and streamline marketing processes, improve customer targeting and engagement, and increase marketing ROI. By integrating various marketing tools and technologies, businesses can achieve a holistic view of their marketing efforts and gain valuable insights into customer behavior and preferences.

A martech stack also enables businesses to stay agile and adapt quickly to changing market conditions. As customer expectations and preferences evolve, businesses must be able to respond in real-time to deliver personalized experiences and relevant content. A martech stack can help businesses achieve this by providing the necessary tools and technologies to analyze and act on customer data.

How to build a martech stack

Curating your marketing stack isn’t as intimidating as it sounds. There are no rules and no expectations. It’s as simple as looking at what you need, both as a business and as a team, and going from there. Do you have an SEO specialist on your team, or do you need an all-in-one solution to automate your processes? Once you’ve got an idea of the areas you need support for or simply want to enhance, you need to look at your budget.

38% of marketers cited budget as a barrier to building a martech stack. However, a martech stack optimized for a marketing team’s needs is going to be worth the investment. Once you’ve figured out your priorities and your budget, you can start researching which options will work for you. There is no set number of technologies you should have in your stack.

What does a martech stack look like?

Still unsure of exactly what a martech stack is? Let’s provide some examples. For SEO, we use Semrush for social media scheduling and reporting. Then, for marketing automation, we use Dotdigital (duh), and for CRM, we use Microsoft Dynamics. 

That’s just a fraction of our complete martech stack; we simply use technology that works for us, and you should do the same. No business and marketing team will be the same, so it’s highly unlikely any martech stack should be the same.

We have previously had other technologies in our stack too, ones that we’ve since changed to a new offering or simply no longer need, and we’ll likely add new ones in the future too. A martech stack is simply a name for the collective technologies and software your marketing team uses, it’s not a strict parameter, and it can be fluid.

So, how can tech integrations improve your marketing?

Dotdigital is an example of how technology can improve your marketing. Our platform unifies data, which in turn raises insights ready to empower hyper-personalized marketing messages, automated depending on customer behavior. Pretty impressive, right?

The martech industry is vast, with 9,932 martech solutions available. This means you’re highly likely to find what you’re looking for, no matter your industry or need. Dotdigital works with lots of different technologies to strengthen your marketing throughout the customer journey.

Some examples include:

• Customer service platforms like Zendesk to keep records of all interactions in one place
• CRM platforms to support sales team integrations and remove silos
• Ecommerce integrations to improve understanding of customer behavior
• Enhanced personalization through platforms like Movable Ink

If you have any questions about what’s possible, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Put into practice

For an example of how one of Dotdigital’s integrations can help, let’s look at Reviews.io. You can set up an automation program that sends customers an email asking them to review your brand on Reviews.io once they’ve completed a purchase. 

You can also have an automation set up to send a follow-up email based on the review they leave. Three stars or under? Nurture campaign. Four or five stars? Thanks for your review. Have you checked out this similar product? You get the idea.

The journey is seamless back and forth. You’re prompting customers from your communication platform, letting them provide a review on the review platform, and then following up on your communications platform. This is a great example of two technologies that offer different services working together to bridge the gap—exactly what a good martech stack is all about.

But wait, there’s more. You can also use the social proof editor within Reviews.io to create a graphic and have that automatically appear in your Dotdigital image library. That extra hit of social proof ready and waiting in your image library to add to your welcome campaigns can make all the difference to your conversion rates. 

And the best part? No one on the team had to spend time looking for good reviews, creating an image, and manually uploading it to Dotdigital. The result is stronger marketing campaigns, as well as more time on your hands.

Working together

As soon as you’ve identified the technology you need, make sure it works together. As we’ve just explored, your martech stack is there to support you and make your day-to-day run smoother. You don’t want to be bogged down in manual tasks to share data from one platform to the next.

When your technology works together, it’s going to be more effective overall. Knowledge is power right? If system B knows what a customer has done on system A, it can better market to them based on this and let systems C, D, E, and F know too. 

Of course, it won’t be this linear in reality, as your customers’ journeys aren’t linear. Your stack will be a collection of tech platforms that work in different areas as and when they’re required, in no particular order.

The point remains that your tech platforms communicating with each other is key. Data-driven marketing is imperative for success. The technology is there to strengthen your customers’ journey, so being aware of what happens throughout that is crucial. Think of your stack more like a web, with each piece of technology or software able to connect with each other. 

You need to ensure that multiple systems are integrated to transform a wealth of customer data into reliable, contextual, and timely insights and make that information easily accessible to other platforms that can take action on those insights.

Choosing technology partners based on their integration capabilities with your existing technology is imperative to building a marketing stack you can rely on. This will in turn improve your customer journey, and as we all know, a positive customer experience leads to higher rates of customer loyalty.

How can Dotdigital improve your martech stack?

With 46% of marketers citing the complexity of integrating the technologies as their top barrier to creating a martech stack, we understand it can feel daunting. We know that your time is valuable, so we offer both out-of-the-box integrations so you can get started straight away and a bespoke solution if your stack requires a bit more tailoring. (Our developers always love a new challenge).

Our marketing automation software is the best in the biz thanks to data unification, cross-channel functionality, and leading marketing automation. And while our platform does a lot, it can’t do everything.

Dotdigital is designed to work with the best of the best in other areas too, such as ecommerce, social media, review platforms, and so on, so that you can create a truly joined-up stack. Our integration hub is a great place to start exploring, as it explains how you can integrate Dotdigital with other marketing software.

Embrace technology

Marketing is a broad discipline, and there’s a lot to keep track of. As consumers have largely moved online, the tactics and tools used to engage with customers have become more and more technology-based. 

Back in the day, print advertising and direct mail were huge channels, these days, social media ads and email marketing are more common. Even billboards, which used to be printed out and pasted on by someone climbing up a ladder with a bucket and brush, are now digital screens that can be updated at the touch of a button.

The point is, technology is undeniably a huge part of marketing, and it’s only going to continue to grow. It can be hard to know where to start, what’s going to be worth your investment, and how to make it all work together. 

However, if you start by looking at what you need, researching what’s available, and curating a stack tailored to your business, it’s going to benefit both your marketing output itself and your team’s productivity.

What is customer experience?

Customer experience (CX) is how your customers think and feel about your company during their whole customer journey.

What is a customer experience platform (CXP)?

A customer experience platform enables you to monitor and manage customer interactions. The platform helps you engage with your customers using multiple marketing channels, such as phone calls, chats, email, messaging, and social media. The platform then uses this information to create tailored recommendations, marketing campaigns, and preferences based on the customer’s preferences. 

A CX platform helps bridge the gap between your customer insights and customer experience. With the platform, your company can get a better understanding of your customers and the channels they enjoy to provide them with the best possible journey through your sales funnel. As a result, you will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. 

What is customer data?

A customer’s data is information you receive from them whenever they interact with your company. You can gather zero-party and first-party data via your website, surveys, mobile applications, and marketing campaigns. 

What is a customer data platform (CDP)?

A customer data platform (CDP) is a unified, customer-focused platform that can be used as a foundation for developing data-driven marketing initiatives. The platform tracks customer data from multiple touchpoints and channels it into a single customer view. This unified view of the customer is then used to drive personalized experiences and targeted communications across channels. Explore Dotdigital’s partnership directory to discover our CDP and Data Analytics partners.

What is a CXDP and how does it work?

A CXDP is a comprehensive platform that enables marketers to effectively manage their customer experience and data. Marketers can use a CXDP to easily track customer data and analyze it to gain valuable insights into customer behavior. 

This type of platform also provides powerful optimization tools that enable companies to personalize customer experiences and increase customer engagement. You can easily create a customer-centric strategy that boosts customer retention and loyalty.

By combining three major functionalities: data unification, actionable insights, and customer experience, a CXDP provides marketers with the complete toolkit they need to create incredible customer journeys.

Data unification

CXDPs centralize and fine-tune data management. They connect with major CDPs and CRMs, to give you a 360-degree view of your customers and a deeper understanding of their behaviors, purposes, and preferred channels.

Actionable insights

A CXDP simplifies your marketing strategy by doing the heavy lifting for you. It analyzes data from multiple sources to deliver actionable insights, including your customers’ preferred channels. Also, you can tap into which RFM persona each customer is a part of to help you convert every time.

Customer experience

Armed with actionable insights, you have everything you need to create unforgettable customer experiences. Powered by automation, cross-channel marketing, and personalization tools, you can efficiently optimize your customers’ journeys.

What are the benefits of a CXDP?

A CXDP is the perfect solution for marketing teams looking to get the most out of their customer data and improve customer satisfaction. It offers the ability to create personalized experiences for customers. By leveraging data from across the customer journey, from their first interaction to their first purchase, you can create experiences that are unique to the individual. This can help build loyalty and trust as customers feel understood and appreciated. 

Additionally, you can also improve your marketing efforts by tracking customer engagement and satisfaction levels over time to make more informed decisions. This will result in more effective campaigns and the implementation of best practices, plus the ability to benchmark your performance against competitors.

With a CXDP you can:

• Identify the key drivers of customer satisfaction
• Create unique and personalized experiences
• Target your audience with segmentation tools
• View real-time performance metrics
• Build customer loyalty and trust 
• Simplify your marketing platform

What can marketers do with a CXDP?

CXDPs empower you with the tools you need to create a seamless customer experience. Also, you can use a real-time API, to integrate your entire marketing stack in just a couple of clicks.

A CXDP provides you with an integrated view of your customer data enabling you to map out your customers’ journeys and track behaviors. This will give you a better understanding of how they interact with your brand across marketing channels.

With advanced automation, you can target customers on the right channel at the right time. As a result, you’ll see an increase in engagement, conversions, and overall customer retention.

CXDPs enable you to scale your customer experience and data management needs. This will help build experiences that inspire loyalty quickly and efficiently.

How can I get started with Dotdigital?

Dotdigital is a customer engagement platform that helps digital marketers and developers deliver communications across the customer journey. We harness the power of customer data, powering engagement, conversion, and loyalty for brands as they grow and scale. Getting started with Dotdigital is easy. Book a one-on-one demo to explore our advanced built-in analytics and streamlined optimization tools and gain insights into your customers’ preferences and behavior.

But, that being said, there are almost too many days and too many opportunities. How do you ensure you’re maximizing every opportunity without working all the hours in a day?  

The answer is simple: marketing automation.  

Holiday marketing automation 

The weeks from the end of October to the beginning of January are jammed packed. Not only are you trying to organize reunions and celebrations with friends and family, but marketers also have to make time and resources stretch even further.  

Email marketing is a demanding job for marketers, even during the quiet months. When the holiday marketing opportunities begin, email marketers are under pressure to turn every moment into a conversion. Marketing automation provides much-needed relief during this time.  

How? Because it gives you the ability to pre-build your email marketing for the period.  

The best thing about the holiday season is that the dates are set and unchanging. No matter what Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November; Black Friday follows immediately. Christmas Day will always be on the 25^th and the new year always begins on the 1^st of January.  

Holiday email marketing calendar  

These are just a few of the key days in the holiday season with immovable dates. You will know from the beginning of the year when these days will fall. As a result, you should be able to plan, build and schedule your email marketing around these dates well in advance.  

• Thanksgiving  
• Black Friday  
• Cyber Monday  
• Giving Tuesday  
• Small business Saturday 
• Free Shipping Day 
• Start of Hanukkah 
• Christmas Eve  
• Christmas Day 
• Boxing Day (UK) 
• End of Hanukkah 
• New Year’s Eve 
• New Year’s Day 

Our ultimate email marketing automation list  

The beauty of email marketing automation is the time it saves. You can build these emails to match your business needs well in advance of the day. No longer do you have to be fretting down to the last minute, or feel sender anxiety before you hit the send button.  

Even better is the fact that you can apply rules throughout your program to improve and personalize the customer experience. For example, if a contact has opened and clicked on your ‘last shipping date’ email but has not made a purchase you can prompt them with a new action to buy a gift card.  

Below is our ultimate list of emails brands should be adding to their holiday email automation programs. 

1. Black Friday  

Nowadays, Black Friday is a campaign in itself. But if your brand is still sticking to days gone by when Black Friday really was just Friday, there’s no better place to kick-start your holiday marketing campaign. 

2. Cyber Monday 

A close rival to the biggest sale event of the year, Cyber Monday is a must-have addition, especially for ecommerce brands looking to boost sales.  

3. Giving Tuesday 

This newcomer has been making waves in holiday marketing strategies for the past couple of years. At a time when corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being taken increasingly seriously by consumers, brands need to be thinking about Giving Tuesday (falling the Tuesday after Thanksgiving) as part of their holiday marketing campaigns.  

4. First of December 

The December first is when you can really kick things off. By the time this rolls around shoppers have seen all the Christmas adverts and received endless Black Friday emails. Why not kick it off with something light-hearted and fun to get people in the festive spirit?  

5. Gift guides

Gift guides are invaluable to the consumer during the holiday season. There’s nothing harder than spending hours trying to find the perfect gift for your impossible-to-buy-for loved one. Gift guides can help alleviate the pressure. Even better, when you categorize your email by product or price, you’re making it even easier for the shopper to convert.  

6. Free Shipping Day 

Another newbie you might not have considered before, Free Shipping Day generally falls in mid-December and offers free shipping with guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve.  

7. Happy Hanukkah 

This one is less about Hanukkah and more about inclusivity. Never forget that not all your customers will be celebrating Christmas. Hanukkah and Kwanza both fall around the same time of the year too. To ensure you’re never marginalizing your audience, add these celebrations to your holiday email marketing plans.  

8. Last shipping date 

Gone are the days when Arnold Schwarzenegger has to run all over the city on Christmas Eve to find the perfect present for his kid. With a ‘last shipping date’ email in your campaign, even last-minute shoppers should be able to get organized.  

9. Gift cards 

And for those that don’t gift cards are always an option. Of course, some people won’t be able to see and exchange gifts with their loved ones, for gift cards CTAs should be included in all your holiday marketing, but after your last shipping date, it’s time to push them and help those un-savvy shoppers who have left it too late.  

10. Christmas Eve  

Depending on your brand and your brand message, Christmas Eve campaigns can look very different. For some it might be a simple season’s greeting; for others, it might be the start of yet another sale as you look to get ahead of the competition in the January sales.  

11. Merry Christmas 

Keep this one simple. Chances are people won’t get the time to read their emails on Christmas Day, so keep it short and sweet. Thank you and festive messages of goodwill always go down a treat.  

12. New Year’s Day 

And so, the new year begins. It’s likely that January sales have already kicked off, despite it only being the first of January. This is a good time to reconnect with customers after a long and busy sales period. Set out your goals and ambitions for the year and make customers feel a part of the journey. This is the key to long-term customer loyalty.