The holidays can be prosperous times for the email marketer with a global presence. It doesn’t matter where they are located, the internet has made it so consumers can hop online and take advantage of all the deals and savings brands have to offer. Below are some examples that illustrate how segmenting your holiday email templates by region can make for an optimal strategy.
Latin America Holidays
The manner in which holidays are celebrated in the United States and other countries is a classic example of why segmentation matters when it comes to your email promotions. Take Holy Week, for example. This week of religious holidays that include Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday is a major occasion in Spanish speaking countries such as Mexico, Spain and Venezuela. Spain is one nation that happens to go all out with its celebration. In the U.S., Holy Week doesn’t get much recognition since the main focus is on Easter.
In this scenario, segmenting your list to target different regions with different campaigns enables you to engage multiple audiences from the moment it begins on Palm Sunday to the culmination on Easter Sunday.
The Feasts of Italy
Italy is another country with specific holiday cultures and traditions. Of particular note are the feast days: festivals of the Orthodox Church said to be founded by Jesus and his disciples. Some feast days are celebrated by local churches in certain regions and others make up the 12 Great Feast Days that commemorate the major events in the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Feast Days are prevalent in Italy and happen to take place throughout the year. Some of these events are a part of the 12 Great Feasts Days while others are deeply rooted in the country’s history and religion. For holiday promotions based on this type of email campaign, accurate segmentation and targeting are critical for generating responses and generating good will.
Shrove Tuesday
The interpretation of a particular holiday may also come into play when segmenting your holiday email campaigns. A perfect example of this would be Shrove Tuesday. The day that precedes Ash Wednesday, this occasion is recognized in many English speaking countries, only by different names. An email promotion built on Shrove Tuesday itself may be effective in Australia, but fall on deaf hears in the UK where it is best known as Pancake Tuesday, or the U.S. especially, where it is mainly referred to as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Depending on the region, the name you give this holiday could make all the difference.
The need for a global holiday marketing strategy will continue to grow as the digital and global world converge. Whether you are leveraging major occasions or lesser known events, proper segmentation and subsequent targeting will always be an important part of that strategy.
