The Ultimate Holiday Email

Marketing + Landing Page Guide

Contents

Introduction 3
Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns 4
Clicks to conversions: the magic of landing pages 11
5 principles of high-converting landing pages 15
Creating an irresistibly clickable call to action 21
Making it work on mobile 23
Email & landing pages, like two turtle doves 25

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 2

 Introduction

Email marketing and landing pages go together like

hot cocoa and marshmallows
The air is cooler, the atmosphere is merrier, and you probably have more
work to do than you have in the past 10 months combined. The holiday
rush is here!

When it comes to promoting your holiday offers, email marketing should be

one of your go-to tactics. After all, it works: in 2014, 27.3% of e-Commerce
sales on Black Friday came from email marketing and over one-third (35%)
1
of holiday shoppers say they used retailers’ emails to keep track of deals.

This guide is packed with tips for creating holiday emails that your
customers and customers-to-be will love. But the truth is, that’s only half the
equation for a successful campaign.

Those emails need to lead somewhere. They need to turn a click into a
commitment. And that’s where landing pages come in: standalone pages
focused solely on convincing the visitor to convert while removing anything
that could distract from that goal.

They’re the missing ingredient of so many could’ve-been-great campaigns.

The conversion stuffing to campaign turkey. And this guide will teach you
the perfect recipe.

1
National Retail Federation "Holiday headquarters" (2015)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 3

 Deliver like Santa with
optimized email campaigns

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 4

 Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns

With email marketing being

responsible for driving a huge
chunk of holiday revenue, it’s
vital that your emails deliver
better than Santa.
By creating well optimized emails that have effective
subject lines, are personal, automated and look
fabulous on any device, you’ll create the gift that keeps
on giving - results!

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 5

 Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns
Deck your
subject lines with
holiday cheer
Subject lines are as vital to your emails as
snow is to a snowman — 33% of subscribers
decide whether or not to open your email
based on the subject line alone.
With email volumes increasing exponentially
around the holidays, your subject line needs to
work even harder to get potential shoppers to
open your email and take action. Convince readers
you’re worth their time with these subject line
tweaks:
1
MarketingProfs " Holiday and Back-to-School Email Benchmarks" (2015)
2 campaigns.
Campaign Monitor "New Rules of Email Marketing" (2015)
THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE
1 Make sure subject lines grab attention — using emoji
(Hello Mr. Snowman!) can boost open rates.
2 Use words like “Sale,” “Holiday,” “New,” and “Off” in your
subject line for promotions. Holiday themed subject lines
tend to produce higher open rates.
1
3 Use a question like, “Ready to knock out your holiday
shopping?” or “What will you do with your 50% off
holiday coupon?”
4 Use popular holiday traditions and creative to entice
shoppers to open your message including holiday
cookies, latkes or trimming the tree, opening an advent
calendar, lighting a menorah, or winter-related themes like
snowmen and sleigh rides. Nostalgia and creativity goes
a long way this time of year.
5 Remind customers about pending deadlines like,
“Limited-time offer,” “Sale ends today,” “Only 4 hours left,”
or “Doorbusters till Noon only.”
6 Make it personal. Emails with personalized subject lines
are 26% more likely to be opened and marketers have
found a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented
2
6
 Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns

Show shoppers you

know them better
than St. Nick
Shoppers expect you to know them: More Here are product recommendation ideas to consider:
than half (56%) of consumers say they
expect retailers to use what they know • Create a gift guide by price point, gender, or end-use to help
shoppers plan what they want to get.
from their past interactions and purchases
to personalize gift-giving ideas this year, no
• Make recommendations based on what subscribers have
matter what device they’re shopping on.1
purchased.

Personalized product recommendations can have

a huge impact on your results: 77% of customers
make additional purchases when presented with
2
product recommendations that match their needs.
• Leverage browsing behavior to offer discounts on similar
products in a welcome email.
• Use positive phrases such as "We like your style," or "You’ve
got good taste" in browsing and/or cart abandonment
emails to increase the likelihood of converting.

• Send a wish list reminder that shoppers can share.

1
Internet Retailer (2015)
2
Listrak (2015)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 7

 Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns
Check your
automated email lists
more than twice.
Think of email marketing automation as your own
staff of email elves. When a trigger that you set
occurs, a specific email or set of emails will be sent
to subscribers. And just like elves, they’re pretty
magical: triggered emails are opened 71% more
often than non-triggered ones, and links within them
are 102% more likely to be clicked.
1
1
SmartInsights " Email marketing statistics 2015" (2015)
2
BI Intelligence " Shopping Cart Abandonment" (2014)
3
Campaign Monitor "New Rules of Email Marketing" (2015)
4
Shopify " 10 Tips to Boost Product Sales" (2015)
THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE
Some examples of automated emails you can send during the
holidays include:
THANK YOU FOR PURCHASING
Once a shopper has purchased, you can then use an automated
email campaign to suggest items on wish lists, other products
that relate to the one they just purchased, special offers if they
purchase again within a certain amount of time...all designed to
compel them to buy again.
ABANDONED SHOPPING CART
Send emails to re-engage shoppers who abandon their online
shopping carts. Approximately $4 trillion worth of merchandise will
be abandoned in online shopping carts this year, and about 63%
2
of it is recoverable by savvy online retailers.
TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS
From purchase receipts, confirmations, shipping notifications and
password resets, customers need to know where their orders
are at any given moment and how to access their account.
Open rates for transactional emails are four to eight times
3
higher than traditional emails . Extra bonus? Adding cross-sell
recommendations to shipping confirmation emails can increase
4
transaction rates by 20%.
8
 Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns

Go mobile, or get coal

this holiday season.
There’s no telling where your subscribers will
be when they open your emails, but there’s a
good chance it will be on a mobile device.

53% of emails are opened on mobile devices. And, one out of

four online purchases was made on a mobile device during the
holidays last year— up from 18.6% in holiday 2013. Black Friday
was “Mobile Friday,” with nearly a third of sales done on phones
and tablets.1

1
MarketingLand (2015)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 9

 Deliver like Santa with optimized email campaigns
Here are tips for adopting a “mobile-first” mentality to make
sure your emails look awesome on any device shoppers are
using this holiday season:
1 Use a mobile-friendly email template
How do your emails look on mobile devices? Make sure you
use a mobile-friendly email template. It’s best to preview how
your emails appear on different email clients so you know your
email looks fantastic in every inbox.
2 Keep it brief
On a small screen, five or six sentences can look like a novel.
You don’t want to overwhelm your subscribers. Keep your
email messages short and consumable and link to longer or
more detailed content on your website or blog.
THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE
3 Use buttons instead of text links
According to a recent MIT study, the average size of an adult
index finger is between 1.6cm and 2 cm. If your reader’s finger
takes up a significant amount of space on the screen, the worst
thing you can do is make them try to click a tiny link. Use call to
action buttons to make it easy for subscribers to click-through.
4 Entice readers with a short summary of your email
The preheader is the short summary text that follows the
subject line when an email is viewed in the inbox. Readers use
this to decide whether or not they should open the email. Use
this strategically and maximize the “selling” power of your email
content.
10
 Clicks to conversions:
the magic of landing pages

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 11

 Clicks to conversions: the magic of landing pages

But wait. Where do you

send all that traffic to?
A shopping page might be a little premature when the customer is just getting
acquainted with the offer. And your homepage is far too busy — how will your
customer know which link corresponds with the offer in your email?

What you need is a landing page dedicated solely to your offer, designed
specifically to match your email campaign. There are two principles that make
landing pages so different — and so much more effective — than other pages
on your site:

1 Attention Ratio
2 Message Match

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 Clicks to conversions: the magic of landing pages

1 Attention Ratio

Your holiday campaign should

have a single conversion goal. So
why send traffic to a page full of
links that distract from that goal?

Attention ratio is the number of things

one can do on the page versus the
number of things you actually want them
to do. In practice, this usually comes
down to “links on your page: calls-to-
action on your page.” The closer that
ratio is to 1:1, the more likely the user is
Attention ratio = 1:1
to convert.

While it can be tempting to have multiple

calls-to-action or to include your full site
navigation in the hopes of saving a lost
conversion, these elements can distract
from your primary CTA, or worse, lead
the user down the wrong path altogether. 
Attention ratio = 57:1

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 13

 Clicks to conversions: the magic of landing pages

2 Message Match

Message match refers to how closely the landing page’s content

matches whatever linked to the landing page. That means your
landing page’s copy has to echo the copy of your email campaign,
and the same goes for how it looks, too.

If your email campaign promises “30% off,” the headline better repeat the
words “30% off.” This not only re-enforces your offer, it reassures the visitor
immediately that they’re in the right place — or reminds them if they’ve
forgotten what they were doing.

When the messages don’t match, the user is forced to closely examine the
page to ensure they understand what it is. And chances are, they won’t want
to bother.

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 14

 5 principles of high-
converting landing pages

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 15

 5 principles of high-converting landing pages

1. Headline
The attention span of the digitally-connected human has fallen from Unique value proposition
12 seconds in the year 2000 to just eight seconds today. Imagine
how much shorter it is during the frenetic holiday rush!1 A clear statement that describes
the benefit of your offer, how you
Your page’s headline needs to capture attention and keep it on the page. solve your customer’s needs and
And the best way to do this — other than ensuring the messages match — is to what distinguishes you from the
communicate your product’s unique value proposition.
competition.2
Conversion copywriting expert Joanna Wiebe outlines the fundamentals of an
attention-capturing UVP as:

Specificity: It should be immediately clear what the offer is and how it addresses
the needs of the visitor. Resist the urge to hide details behind cute or clever copy!

Succinctness: While your headline should have personality, it should also get to
the point. Too-long or confusing headlines are an invitation to your user to hit the
Back button.

Focus: While it can be tempting to communicate multiple offers or features, you

should instead focus on the one element of your offer that’s sure to resonate
with your targeted audience.

1
Microsoft " How does digital affect Canadian attention spans?" (2015)
2
Unbounce "Conversion Marketing Glossary"

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 16

 5 principles of high-converting landing pages

2. Hero Shot
While we like to think it’s the thought that counts, the truth is we
can’t help but be drawn to the big box in the nicest gift wrap.
There’s no better way to capture your visitor’s interest than some
great photography.

That means no crummy stock photos. In an A/B test, replacing

perfectly-staged stock photos with less polished, more authentic
1
pics resulted in a 45% increase in conversions.

While you might be able to get away with photos from one of
those artsy, niche stock photo providers, your best bet is to have
either a photo or illustration that shows your product’s context of
use — that is, how the customer will actually use it, whether it’s
sandals or software.

Consider video: There’s no better way to show context of use

than showing it in motion. In one study, adding video to the hero
2
shot of a landing page increased conversions by 216%.

1
VWO " See How Adding Real Photos Improved Conversions" (2014)
2
Unbounce " Testing Your Hero Shot"

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 17

 5 principles of high-converting landing pages

3. Benefits
Now that you’ve captured attention with some beautiful
packaging, it’s time to get to what’s inside. Benefits will comprise
the majority of a page’s content, all to answer the visitor’s
question: “What will this do for me?”

A few tips on crafting compelling benefits copy:

• Use bulleted lists in addition to small paragraphs so readers

can scan your page and find what’s relevant to them. After all,
79% of readers scan web pages versus reading them word-by-
1
word.
• Unless you know your audience is looking for specific features
by name, focus your language around benefits: the great
outcomes that those features enable.
• The best place to find copy inspiration is in the language your
customers already use. Talk to them directly, dive deep into
messages from your customers, or research what they’re
saying about you online.

1
Nielsen Norman Group "Website Reading: It (Sometimes) Does Happen" (2013)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 18

 5 principles of high-converting landing pages

4. Social Proof
Whether a small testimonial, review, or case study, social proof
gives you credibility. Users are more likely to convert when
they can see that other people are already using and loving your
product, which is probably why nearly 70% of online consumers
1
look to product reviews before purchasing a product.

Reviews are a great place to start, but aren’t the only kinds of
social proof. Consider testimonials from recognizable or relevant
sources, or case studies that detail real results.

One thing you should do whenever possible is accompany your

social proof with photos: research shows that associating an
image of a person with a statement increases the likelihood of the
2
reader actually believing it.

1
Mintel " Seven in 10 Americans seek out opinions before making purchases" (2015)
2
Psychon Bull Rev. "Nonprobative photographs (or words) inflate truthiness" (2012)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 19

 5 principles of high-converting landing pages

5. Call to Action
Your landing page’s raison d'être, the call to action is
essentially what you want your visitor to click in order
to complete the conversion goal.
Depending on what type of campaign you’re running, there are
two types of CTAs you might use:
Lead Generation
Lead generation forms are used to collect contact information
and other demographic data from visitors.
On a click-through landing page, the goal is not to collect
information but to convince the user to click through to another
page — often to make a purchase. The call to action is the link
itself.
Click-through landing pages are great for presenting a product
in detail, where they don’t have to fight against distractions
like site navigation, social share buttons, and other products.
The lack of options makes it easier to make a decision.

This information is typically then used to deliver marketing

messages — like an email nurture campaign — later on. In this
case, the call to action is the button that actually submits the
form.

Click-Through

It can be hard for any product to stand out in the hyper-

competitive holiday shopping season. So give your best
products the spotlight they deserve.

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 20

 Creating an irresistibly
clickable call-to-action

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 21

 Creating an irresistibly clickable call to action

Despite the fact that it’s just a

button, your page’s call to action
has an outsized job to perform.
Not only does it need to show to user where to click, it
needs to convince the user that clicking is a good idea.

Here are a few best practices that will ensure your calls to action
are heeded:

• Make sure it looks clickable. Graphic design has been • Never ask anyone to “submit”. While what you’re
trending towards minimalism, but we know that buttons that interested in is a conversion, your visitor’s more concerned
1
look like buttons are more likely to be clicked. about what you promised to give them. Try writing your
CTA copy from your user’s perspective by completing the
• Draw attention with contrast. For better or worse, things sentence “I want to …” with whatever happens after they
that are different tend to stand out — just like Rudolph’s red click the button.
nose. :o) Color your CTA in a way that makes it stand out
against the rest of the page. Complementary colors — like
an orange CTA on a purple page — are a great place to
start!

1
Nielson Norman Group "Beyond Blue Links: Making Clickable Elements Recognizable" (2015)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 22

 Making it work
on mobile

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 23

 Making it work on mobile

Your email campaign 1 Don’t ask for more than you need. Shorter forms are
generally more likely to be filled out, but nowhere is this
more true than on mobile devices; an extra text field or
looks pristine on any dropdown could be enough to convince your visitor that
this just isn’t worth it.

size screen, so of 2 Optimize for speed. Screen space is one limitation, but
bandwidth is perhaps an even bigger one: 16% of visitors
course, your landing will abandon your page if it takes between 1–5 seconds
to load, and that number spikes to 46% if it takes up to

page has to match. 1

ten seconds. So don’t overload your page with data-
heavy videos, images, and scripts.

3 Place contact information above the fold. While

There are a few elements unique to landing adding a phone number worsens the page’s attention
pages that you need to consider when ratio, offering a phone number as a more-immediately-
gratifying option makes sense for many businesses.
making it mobile-ready: But make sure it’s immediately visible when the page is
loaded — making your user scroll for it is a good way to
make sure they never find it.

1
Kissmetrics "How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line" (2011)

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 24

 Email & landing pages,
like two turtle doves

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 25

 Email & landing pages, like two turtle doves

The best email

campaigns and the
best landing pages
have a lot in common.
They speak to what the reader needs.
They’re clear, concise, and totally-clickable.
And they have a single campaign goal.
Rather than a link that brings you to a page on a website, We followed our own advice when
the seamless transition between an email campaign and its creating the campaign for this guide with
an email and landing page.
landing page companion makes your campaign feel like a
seamless, single experience.

Just add a dash of holiday cheer.

THE ULTIMATE HOLIDAY EMAIL MARKETING + LANDING PAGE GUIDE 26

 Are you ready to start optimizing your email
and landing pages? Take what you've learned
in this guide and get started.

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