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It’s not every year that you have a major election and holiday season at the same time; even more unlikely is a major election, holiday season, and a global pandemic. The particular circumstances of this year mean that the fight for the inbox is going to be especially tough for email marketing professionals for a variety of reasons, and it’s going to be important for brands and marketers to set themselves apart. Site Impact knows what it takes to set yourself apart in the inbox, and today we’re going to talk about the challenges ahead and the ways to meet them.
It’s not mysterious: the more emails people have coming in, the harder it is for any individual email to get the attention the sender wants. According to a paper by Essence of Email titled “Black Friday/Black Monday Special Edition,” the forecast for the early part of the holiday season--already in progress, actually--is somewhat grim. The biggest challenge the paper cites for businesses comes from the sheer volume of emails that will be coming in from now through early November; between the election in a few short weeks, and the Covid-19 pandemic, people are already seeing a major uptick in email volume. The big influx causes two problems for businesses: one is that the algorithms that email platforms use will be working overtime, which is likely to result in more emails landing in spam filters and fewer emails landing in inboxes all around. The second is that there will be high competition for the messages that do make it to the inbox; the volume will still be much greater than usual, meaning that recipients will be screening their emails more ruthlessly than usual in search of the most relevant information.
It’s not hopeless, of course; it just means that brands that want to really reach their prospects and customers will have to get creative and make their cases strong from the subject line onward. A lot of the best practices of email marketing come into play more than ever at a time like this. It will be vitally important--through the next few weeks in particular--to send emails with strong content and high authority. Subject lines will have to communicate urgency and give recipients the best reasons possible to open, while also avoiding anything even a little similar to spam keywords. Body content will need to be clear, concise, and to the point, with a stronger call to action than usual. It’s going to be a challenge--but it’s not impossible.
This holiday season is going to see a huge uptick in email sends, especially in the next few weeks leading into the election; brands that are looking to capitalize on the trend of consumers getting their holiday shopping done early are going to need to make sure their email marketing campaigns are as competitive as possible on every level. Contact Site Impact to learn how we can help you set yourself apart.
