What does your Boxing Day technique appear like?
If you reside within the U.Ok. or Commonwealth international locations, like Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, your plans for the Dec. 26 purchasing extravaganza are both locked down already, otherwise you at the very least have some type of concept, however you’ll give it some thought after you get by Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and all the opposite emails in between.
In the United States, Boxing Day barely registers (until your clients are Brit expatriates or devotees of “Downton Abbey”). So, it doesn’t determine into many e-commerce email advertising plans, except for some manufacturers with a cross-border viewers.
Boxing Day’s significance as a purchasing driver has fallen over the past couple of years, nevertheless it might get extra oomph this yr due to fortuitous timing (it falls on a shopper-friendly Saturday) and the increase in digital purchasing due to the pandemic.
If Boxing Day is a part of your plan—otherwise you want a contemporary theme to make your post-Christmas emails stand out within the inbox—now could be a good time to create a memorable marketing campaign that might get you nearer to reaching your 2020 enterprise objectives.
What Is Boxing Day?
Boxing Day has a number of origin tales, however these are two of the commonest traditions:
- Churches opened their alms-collection containers and distributed the monies to the poor.
- Wealthy households introduced present containers (or packaged-up vacation leftovers, or cash) to their home workers, or companies gave their workers items and the time off (until you labored for Scrooge & Marley).
However you outline it, Boxing Day is a part of the cultural zeitgeist in lots of elements of the world. It’s a financial institution vacation within the U.Ok., a statutory vacation in Canada and one of many National Public Holidays in Australia—which means banks, workplaces and faculties are closed. In the previous, it was a huge in-store purchasing day, however that might be totally different this yr.
Why Boxing Day Could Be Bigger in 2020
Although Boxing Day stays a main purchasing day, it has misplaced some floor to Black Friday in recent times. In 2019, a SimilarWeb analysis discovered complete visitors on Boxing Day to the highest 100 purchasing websites within the U.Ok. declined by 6% from 2018. Visits that went previous the touchdown web page and had been extra more likely to contribute to a conversion fell 13% in 2019.
SimilarWeb attributed that decline to uncertainty over Brexit and December parliamentary elections. Boxing Day additionally fell on a Thursday.
This yr, nevertheless, Boxing Day is on Saturday, so the official vacation is noticed on Monday. That provides consumers extra time to hunt for bargains and probably extends your Boxing Day campaigns by a couple of days.
Also, digital purchasing is predicted to develop in 2020 due to the mix of renewed lockdowns and other restrictions in the U.K. and Canada, and a continued reluctance by consumers to shop in stores.
5 Quick Tips for Better Boxing Day Emails
Many e-commerce email campaigns for Boxing Day comply with a Black Friday format, starting with a preview email despatched the day earlier than, timed provides all through the day and a “last chance” marketing campaign despatched the next day. Aggressive bargains lead the message.
These suggestions can assist you tune up your current Boxing Day technique or introduce the idea to a new viewers.
1. Look at previous purchasing habits to time email sends
SimilarWeb’s analysis discovered Boxing Day visitors typically parallels Black Friday. It begins to develop early within the morning, peaking first round midday, then mid-afternoon and a remaining surge in early night.
Use what you already know about buyer purchasing habits to do some real-time testing round email ship instances. If you don’t have Boxing Day historical past to attract from, Black Friday shopper conduct might be your information.
The retailer boohoo U.Ok. sends campaigns all through the day, matching SimilarWeb’s visitors patterns. The email under is the model’s closing marketing campaign of the day, framed because the “last gift” and utilizing animation to spotlight the provide and expiration.
boohoo U.Ok. makes use of animated email to sign the tip of its Boxing Day marketing campaign. Image by way of MailCharts
2. Put bargains within the highlight
People have present money and playing cards to spend. Retailers need to filter out merchandise earlier than the tip of the fiscal yr. It’s a match made in bargain-hunting heaven.
So, don’t be coy about your provides. But your message nonetheless has to face out in a noisy inbox, and that’s what this Reitmans message does nicely.
The topic line doesn’t mince phrases: “🔥Up to 70% off? AND 10% on top? Sale’s heating up.” Inside, the leadoff reverse bar and email header restate the anticipated reductions, whereas product pictures all through the message checklist precise reductions to drive clicks.
Reitmans mixes percentage-off reductions with particular worth reductions to encourage click-throughs. Image by way of MailCharts
3. Consider flash gross sales, countdown timers and real-time updates
With most consumers off both on Boxing Day itself or the next Monday when it will likely be noticed this yr, they is perhaps extra more likely to be in purchasing mode all through the day. Match that curiosity with provides timed to prod them into motion, and use a machine like a countdown timer that indicators both the beginning or finish of a flash sale.
If you could have entry to real-time content material updates, use these to substitute an expired provide for a new or default provide.
Hush Puppies limits its Boxing Day marketing campaign to a single day. So, its marketing campaign email stresses the brief deadline with a countdown timer and outstanding reminder all through the transient message that point’s a-wastin’.
Everything on this Hush Puppies email is designed to prod consumers into appearing shortly. Image by way of MailCharts
4. Include useful shopper info in your Boxing Day email
If you like to focus your copy solely on what’s on provide, you are able to do what Lush does in its preliminary Boxing Day marketing campaign email: It packages up all of the superb print (what’s discounted, what isn’t, returns/exchanges, provide expirations and different limitations) on a touchdown web page and provides an attention-getting button to the email.
It’s a intelligent tactic that retains the email messaging easy and direct. The low cost stays entrance and middle within the email whereas additionally letting clients realize it’s restricted to a particular product set.
Putting the superb print on the touchdown web page means the advertising staff can replace phrases shortly to accommodate last-minute substitutions (one thing to remember on this season of potential supply-chain issues), variations between in-store and web site provides and different essential subjects that may distract from the sale message.
Lush’s “keep it simple” Boxing Day message encourages consumers to click on by. Image by way of MailCharts
5. Introduce Boxing Day to a new viewers
Outside of Downton Abbey devotees, English lit majors and expatriates of Commonwealth nations, Boxing Day isn’t a main cultural reference.
So why use it to border your after-Christmas sale for your American clients? Because it may be a enjoyable technique to differentiate your self from all the opposite emails of their inboxes.
Green Chef, a U.S.-based weekly meal subscription service, pulls off the Boxing Day theme by taking part in it 3 ways:
- The topic line—“Today, we’re thinking inside the box”—is a twist on the “outside the box” trope.
- The headline, “It’s Boxing Day,” can resonate each for individuals who get the cultural reference and those that suppose it’s a intelligent play on phrases.
- The copy shifts from Boxing Day to “unboxing,” one other widespread reference that internet-savvy followers of unboxing movies will decide up on.
Introducing new interpretations of an unfamiliar cultural zeitgeist may be dangerous, however Green Chef retains it related and enjoyable for its viewers.
Green Chef makes use of some out-of-the-box pondering to deliver Boxing Day to its American viewers. Image by way of MailCharts
A Few Words about Personalization and Testing
Given Boxing Day’s comparatively brief shelf life and hyper-focus on bargain-hunting over research-driven purchasing, you is perhaps tempted to only knock collectively a commonplace broadcast email. Resist the temptation!
The main practices that you simply use on different campaigns all year long ought to nonetheless allow you to maximize your returns on Boxing Day emails:
Personalize the place you possibly can. Even if all you are able to do is pop the consumer’s title into the topic line or email copy, do what you possibly can to make your clients see that you already know who they’re.
If you could have the aptitude, embody a module of dynamic content material displaying merchandise beforehand browsed or bought, the place your nearest retailer is, your hours and particular purchasing restrictions (face masking, restricted hours or capability, availability of curbside or front-door merch pickup).
Test when and the place you possibly can. Subject line testing is a begin, but in addition create A/B variations of a marketing campaign, and check in actual time. Use the outcomes to refine different campaigns you ship in the course of the day or to regulate your technique for subsequent yr.
Track opens, clicks and internet visitors all through the day. See in case your emails correspond to surges in internet visitors within the second after which additionally observe for a number of days after to seek out out whether or not clients come again even after your sale ends.
Subject Lines That Get Emails Opened
It might sound that left the start for the tip, however we try this for a motive. Good email practices ought to prevail right here, too: Nail down your technique first. Focus in your email message. Then create a topic line that can snag consideration.
If you want some inspiration, these e-commerce examples can hearth up your inventive engine:
- Your Last Present: Free Shipping 🎁
- Boxing Day Blues?
- Happy Boxing Day. Unwrap these Deals.
- Today, we’re pondering contained in the field
- Boxing day particular: open to find
- Your Boxing Week Deals are Here
- Boxing Day Markdowns | Up to 50% Off
- The Boxing Day Sale You’ve Been Waiting For
- Merry. Early. Boxing. SALE!
- Boxing Day Sale Now Live | Up to 50% Off
- Set your alarms for tomorrow morning
Here’s hoping your Boxing Day messages ship the products this yr!