Tackle October Email Campaigns with the Right Playbook

Fall is officially here.

It’s time to kick off your October email campaigns, as well as plan for your holiday season emails. With the right playbook, you’ll be able to attack your to-do list and score a touchdown with every message you send. Avoid email marketing fumbles with these tips for each part of your email marketing game.

Offense

An airtight offensive strategy for your October email campaigns starts with taking advantage of the autumn theme. This time of year often brings special traditions and routines for people. Capitalize on these fall festivities with your email campaigns including copy, color and creative.

Huddle up with your team and talk about what October holidays you can use to inspire your campaigns, too.

• Columbus Day is Oct. 13 – Why not make a play using a contest or giveaway for this official holiday? Time to get creative!


• Halloween is Oct. 31 – Promote your social media sites via email by asking subscribers to share costume ideas/pictures and then posting favorites in your email campaigns. Ideas like this one will get your brand fans cheering.


• Oktoberfest (dates vary) – These festivities are all about beer and German food. If that’s not your brand’s thing, maybe avoid this one. But if you can work it in, do! Here’s a fun example taken from a World Market Oktoberfest email:

Defense

This October, the defensive strategy for your email marketing should be focused on deliverability. The recent report from ReturnPath should motivate you to put double coverage on your delivery scores, especially with the holiday season approaching. Take the time now to build a solid reputation so your important holiday emails are sure to get through in the coming months. Here are the plays to add to your defensive formations:

• Block inactive subscribers. They’re only carrying away your engagement scores, so at the very least, you can unsubscribe those who haven’t opened in the past year.


• Add valuable players. Go after subscribers who do want to receive your content and will open and click within your emails. Beef up your preference center and website popups to gain these subscribers.

Special Teams

You can’t ignore those smaller, but oh-so-important, tasks that make your email marketing a star. Need help kicking your email campaigns through the goalposts for the win? We’ve got league veterans who can help with even the most specialized of tasks. You should see how we’ve helped a bunch of email marketers up their games.

Remember, the key to any successful email program is an offense, defense and special teams that complement each other. Yes, you’ve got to be prepared to work hard this October not only to punt amazing seasonal campaigns but to condition your email marketing for the holiday season. Once you’ve worked hard to put your playbook together, you can sit back and enjoy seeing the game in action.

Tackle October Email Campaigns with the Right Playbook