Holiday email marketing 2009

Working in a cardboard factory taught me many lessons as a teenager. The first* was the importance of proofreading: there are not a lot of alternative uses for 200,000 boxes advertising "Premium bannanas".

I also learned the importance of planning. July and August were busy times in the factory, preparing boxes for customers gearing up for the holiday season.

So...take a look back at all the great holiday email marketing advice that came out before and immediately after the end of 2009 and get some inspiration for 2010:

Kelly Lorenz looks back at some inbox highlights from the 2009 holiday season here and here
Chad White has a cool holiday subject line tree for inspiration
Stefan Pollard explains why patience is needed when it comes to holiday deliverability
Ed Henrich has some last-minute suggestions to fix your holiday email program
A report by Chad White reviews etailer email volumes and practices over Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Kristen Gregory has some simple questions to shape your holiday marketing plans
Cynthia Edwards suggests designing those holiday emails around seasonal emotions
Alex Williams talks holiday email timing, design etc. with Chad White
Ben Alschuler picks out some email highlights from a report on holiday marketing
Karen Talavera has three strategies for inspired holiday email
Eric Groves has advice for small businesses, warning against going the holiday discount route
Slides from Tamara Gielen and Andrew Kordek's "Holiday email campaigns" webinar are now online
Adam Holden-Bache has some super ideas and examples for holiday email themes and approaches (B2C and B2B)
DotMailer has advice on planning and running a Christmas campaign
Brent Shroyer explains the benefits of getting a fresh opt-in to a holiday campaign and how you might automate the messages
Chad White outlines the 18 phases of holiday messaging
Kelly Lorenz has a 2009 holiday planning checklist for you
Joanna Lawson-Matthew also details planning steps and includes numerous ideas for creative holiday messaging
Stefan Pollard has advice on managing email frequency during the holiday season
Ed Henrich looks at the steps you can take to freshen up your email approach in time for the end of the year
Chad White asks how you might exploit seasonal purchase habits without resorting to big frequency increases. His agency also has a reportlet on the topic of holiday retail campaigns, with guidelines and results of an analysis of previous holiday campaigns
Margaret Farmakis looks at some new approaches for 2009
Listrak outlines a 5-step holiday strategy

Each year I create a post (this one) to keep track of all the holiday marketing advice. So bookmark this and I'll add articles as they cross my desktop.

Reinventing the wheel is obviously a futile task, so be sure to consult the many articles from 2008 and before. Here the links:

Holiday email marketing 2008
Two dozen links to advice on the topic.

What the experts say: Part 1, 2, 3 and 4
Last year I got luminaries like the Retail Email Blog's Chad White and ecommerce star Linda Bustos to advise us on early planning, winning campaigns, frequency issues, standing out from the crowd, post-holiday tactics and more...

*The second was "never headbutt a sheet of heavy-duty corrugated board".

Permalink | July 14, 2009 | 7 comment(s)
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7 Comments:

That's funny I too worked in a cardboard factory as a teen and it too taught me that I didn't want to do that! lol

Email marketing with offline and online advertising is the way to success with your business. Don't ignore offline as it is still very effective in the overall marketing plan.
By Judy, on 16 July, 2009

Another thing I learned was that a fire would spread faster in a carboard factory than you could run away from it. Not very reassuring...
By Mark Brownlow, on 16 July, 2009

Thanks for this I will definitely bookmark this for new articles. You can never plan far enough ahead, procrastination will get you nowhere in these economic times, you have to beat other businesses to the punch.
By Data Quality, on 19 July, 2009

Thanks for the linkage, Mark! You've posted some great articles here. I'll actually be hosting a holiday email planning webinar soon too ... can't believe the holidays are coming up so fast! @joannalm
By Joanna Lawson-Matthew, on 12 August, 2009

My pleasure! Always looking to spread the word about quality content like yours Joanna.
By Mark Brownlow, on 13 August, 2009

Thanks Carlos: I've now added the link to the main post.
By Mark Brownlow, on 23 October, 2009

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