Sure… we all appreciate our clients and customers and want to send them our very best wishes for a happy holiday season.
But SHOULD we send those greetings as a separate email? Or, are our SinterKlaas, Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years greetings better received as an inclusion within a regular newsletter?
Justin Premick posted a great article on this topic at Aweber, titled “Holiday Marketing Tip: Don’t Send Pointless Greetings!”
Although the title reveals Justin’s slant and the article justifies his reasoning, I want to add a few thoughts of my own on the matter.
One of the commenters on the Aweber blog made a good point against sending denominational greetings because not everyone on your list will celebrate Christmas. That should be SO obvious, yet how many “Merry Christmas” emails did you get last year?
In a similar vein, email marketers should also make themselves aware of when certain holidays are celebrated in countries.
Case in point.
I received an Inbox full of “Happy Thanksgiving” emails on or about the 4th Thursday of November. That would have been nice except for the fact that I live in Canada and we celebrate Thanksgiving on the 2nd Monday in October… so those greetings came about 6 weeks late.
Those marketers need to figure out how to parse their lists geographically and send their messages accordingly.
For more reasons not to send pointless holiday greetings, read Justin’s article here and check out the comments.
About Rosalind Gardner
Hi Ros,
This is a great example of why segmentation and targeting matter – and fortunately geo-targeting isn’t hard to do, even if you’re not asking readers to indicate their locations.
I sense a follow-up post and how-to coming soon…
Thank you, Justin… I’ll be on the look out! ~ Ros
I don’t send email “holiday greetings” as I think they not only get lost in the inbox shuffle, but they are very impersonal.
I agree that it’s not appropriate to send everyone a “Merry Christmas” greeting, either.
What I do is send a card, in the real mail, that sends appreciation and well wishes greetings in a New Year card. I send them out the last few days of the year and most are received by my subscribers and customers somewhere during the first week of the new year.
This way, everyone is included and my greeting will not get lost in the holiday kitchen counter clutter.