While we’re still in the middle of spooky season celebrations, the holidays are quickly approaching. And for brands looking to boost their Q4 results that likely means brainstorming last-minute email tactics to drive clicks and engagement from shoppers who — once again — experiencing unprecedented shopping territory. 

While most retail outlets are back to in-store business as usual by this point, shoppers are still a bit wary of brick-and-mortar shopping. For audiences still doing a majority of their holiday shopping online, that means creating holiday email marketing campaigns that offer personalized product recommendations in addition to finely crafted messaging should be your number one goal this season.

So, here are three of our favorite, tried-and-tested email marketing tactics from last year’s holiday season that can help you drive conversions, engagement, and revenue gains through email experiences in Q4 and beyond. 

Make it personal like Tory Burch

When Tory Burch wants to focus on personalizing its holiday season email campaigns, the clothing brand makes it a point to call every subscriber by name. The conversational email messaging using first names in every subject line, along with text and branded imagery like “Be the first to shop for new markdowns.” make these sends particularly effective in eliciting responses from its most loyal shoppers.

email marketing tactics

From there, the minimal look and feel of these interactions and well-used white space has done wonders for keeping recipients hyper-focused on Tory Burch’s compelling CTAs — maximizing their chances of conversion in Q4 and beyond. In fact, this advanced personalization approach quickly became the brand’s most successful email marketing tactic of 2020 in terms of click-through rate and overall engagement.

Build anticipation with email marketing tactics like MZ Wallace

Everyone likes surprises — especially around the holidays. And while it’s much simpler to generate anticipation in a single email, keeping subscribers engaged with an entire series of emails is a much more complicated prospect. That’s why MZ Wallace’s 2020 campaign, which boasted a subject line of “The reveal you’ve been waiting for,” was a brilliant way to drive engagement and eventually boost revenue through the power of mystery.

email marketing tactics

MZ Wallace’s daily deals holiday campaign introduced audiences to its discounted products by focusing purely on the element of surprise. Each day, the brand’s content was dynamically created and delivered to subscribers who were constantly delighted by fresh mystery deals. And, more importantly, left wondering what irresistible offer tomorrow may bring.

This year, you should take a page out of MZ Wallace’s email marketing playbook by creating some of the engagement-building suspense that inspired so much success in 2020. Build a series of daily (or regularly delivered) experiences featuring mystery promotions — but don’t stop there. Add a one-click or checkbox opt-in within the body of your emails so that audiences never miss a moment of your holiday marketing — or the content that will keep them coming back all year long.

Drive interactions with data like MATCHESFASHION

While personalized subject lines and first names can be an easy way to make your holiday email marketing tactics more engaging, the most effective experiences drive clicks, conversions, and new sales even without these elements. 

Take this highly successful MATCHESFASHION holiday email from 2020, for example. The brand ensured that it was serving audiences the email content that suited their individual tastes by using advanced recommendation algorithms and tracking individual engagement levels in order to make sure each email was offering subscribers their preferred brands and products.

email marketing tactics

During the holiday season, most retailers will rely on traditional engagement tactics such as using name or location data. But brands that go one step further like MATCHESFASHION by offering their audiences products and promotions tailored to their unique tastes will likely win more clicks than anybody else by going above and beyond in Q4. In return, this hyper-personalized promotion will deliver your highest click engagement of the year — at least, it did for MATCHESFASHION.