Whether you’re here after reading “Guide: Planning out Newsletters for the Rest of the Year,” or you’re desperate to figure out a holiday marketing strategy – either way you’re at the right place. Below you’ll find a treasure trove of ideas for one-off email marketing ideas for the holiday season.

A Holiday Preview Sale

It’s sort of like a trunk sale, but it’s a sneak peak of what’s in store for the holiday season. Not only does this give customers the chance to buy in earlier, but it also helps create buzz. Now all you need is to make sure you’ve got an excellent product to preview.

The Holiday Gift Guide

The gift guide goes hand in hand with a preview sale in terms of functionality. However, the gift guide sees a much higher ROI. Create a gift guide for all the different types of recipients your business can cater to: men, women, children, hostesses, bosses/co-workers, etc. Say you’re only offering products for women, in which case you can break it down on the type of woman a customer might purchase for. Gift guides are always a win – and they tend to get social shared more often than not.

Gifting on a Budget

Gifting isn’t just about who you’re giving something to. For some people, it’s just as much about who it’s from as who it’s going to. So along the lines of a holiday gift guide, you can create a guide for gifting on a budget. This gives those with a tight budget an opportunity to think about offering something meaningful without breaking the bank.

Gift Packages

As you probably figured out from the holiday gift guide, people aren’t really a big fan of figuring out what to give to other people. So make it easier for them. In addition to the holiday gift guide, you can offer gift packages that give a few different options on what can be offered. These sorts of packages work great for gourmet snack and dessert retailers like Harry and David’s…all the way to cosmetic giants like Sephora. There’s no reason why it can’t work for you too.

Sample Sale

This works great for the beauty industry. Offer as a sample sale a few months before the holiday kick-off. This gives women a chance to purchase multiple products at an affordable price range, before they further invest. The beauty industry is its busiest during the holiday season. Offer a sample sale gets people to “preview” products and keeps your products on their radar. If you can host a sample sale in-store, that would be even better.

Free Shipping During the Holidays
With the cost of holiday decorations, wrapping paper and all the other trimmings, it’s nice to know that you can save a little bit of money here and there. Free shipping is always a great incentive for products over $50.

Bonus Gift Card

You can offer to give a customer a $10 gift card bonus in exchange for every $100 spent. Make sure you remind them that $10 gift cards would make a great stocking stuffer.