The 12 days of Christmas Marketing Automation

As Christmas is less than a month away, we propose you have a look at our guide for the 12 days of Christmas marketing automation tips to fully tune your communications with the festive season.

Day 1: Optimise your e-mails

First things first. Update, improve and target your emails. This is the time to shine and stand out from the crowd with personalised copy – make it relevant! Don’t use the same old emails – be bold and innovate and make sure it is in tune with the festive season!

Day 2: Build customer loyalty

Companies will be fighting for the attention of customers by tempting them with offers, deals and price drops in an effort to secure the largest share of the festive wallet. Design tempting offers, but be different and most of all – be relevant: offer personalised services, include information and help clients make decisions, nurture them into the bottom layers of the funnel. Tailor your marketing automation campaign in such a way that information to the client is only delivered when and if they show interest in it.

Day 3: Make landing pages amendments a priority

For many brands, their Christmas campaigns landing pages is a priority as it will be their main selling point during the festive season. That is why it’s important that it remains available and responsive for Christmas, as well as represent accurately the offers and promotions associated with Christmas campaigns. Align your copy with the current campaign and make sure there is consistency between email communications and the landing pages they redirect the client to.

Day 4: Focus on integrated campaigns

The period leading up to Christmas is essential for developing brand awareness through integrated campaigns. If you already came up with a catchy phrase, make sure that by combining out of home advertising with email campaigns and mobile campaigns your initiatives are driving people towards your services and away from competitors’. Lock them in with a personalised touch on a relevant email.

Day 5: Tailor messaging accordingly

Make sure your marketing communications have been adapted accordingly in anticipation of the holiday season.  This will need preparation in advance and careful planning, and with everyone rushing around this time of year, you should automate all the email marketing processes and make sure they are ready to fire as quick as you say “mulled wine”.

Day 6: Stay alert

Stay alert and learn to quickly recognise the customer behaviours relevant to your business, and especially for those clients who are ready to make a purchase. Being alert and responsive to purchase intent is vital this time of year, says Oracle Marketing Cloud senior director marketing and alliances Simon Robinson. “The days or weeks customers usually take to consider a purchase for the rest of the year are reduced to a snappier period of just minutes or hours. He says that “One way marketers can better manage purchase intent is by responding to abandoned carts in as close to real-time as possible”, so make sure you have your cart abandonment programs triggering at the right time to make sure you are not missing out on “ready to purchase” leads.


Day 7: Sharing is key

Getting the word out around a Christmas offer is a great way to gain extra custom. Ask your customers to share your communications and give them a reason to do it. If you can throw in an incentive, even better. Make sure you include social medial buttons on your emails and landing pages, and invite your prospects to share your content.  Don’t forget to monitor results – you will want to know which channels work better.

Day 8: Don’t forget the mobiles

Marketers should consider exactly how their customers use their smartphones optimise efforts accordingly. Always. So when you design your campaign, make sure your emails and landing pages are responsive and customer friendly – don’t overcomplicate things with heavy images and too many links that might navigate the customer away from your services, you want to keep interested all the way through to the bottom of the Sales.

Day 9: Schedule wisely

Once you made sure your marketing communications have been adapted accordingly in anticipation of the holiday season, and that the Landing pages are in perfect shape, do your research and see when is the optimal time to send out emails to your clients. An efficient campaign will need preparation in advance and careful planning, and with everyone rushing around this time of year, you need to automate all the email marketing processes and make sure they are ready to fire as quick as you say “mulled wine”.

Day 10: Connect and listen

Make sure you keep the conversation going before and after the holidays. Schedule relevant communications, monitor social media and listen to the comments on your blog. Delivering interesting content by telling a story will help your brand stand out from the crowd as Christmas draws closer. Build your marketing campaigns around how your clients respond to your emails and actually interact with your brand. Listen to what they are saying and show them you care, respond to posts on social media and post relevant, accurate and interesting content that engages them.  Once an emotional connection is made, the lifetime value of your customer increases, as well as the probability of purchasing.

Day 11: Deliver to Sales

Nurture and grow your leads, feed them relevant communications so that they move down the funnel quicker. Make them ready for sales and deliver. Sales will love you for it! Monitor your performance and perform regulate audits to see what and who is performing the best. Or the worst.

Day 12: Don’t forget post-Christmas leads

Never forget that the marketing activity doesn’t stop with Christmas– there are also plenty of post-Christmas opportunities. Communicate relevant information to reflect their consumer behaviour and always keep them informed. Many companies cannot fight the temptation to become spammy – be careful and don’t overdo it. You can take nurtured leads at Christmas into the New Year, and continue to nurture them until they are ready to buy.

Happy Christmas Marketing Automation!