Name: Holiday Email Deliverability Strategies that Cut Through the Holiday Flurry
Uploaded: 2025-10-29T18:16:28.184Z
Duration: 1 h 7 min 16 s
Description: Holiday Email Deliverability Strategies that Cut Through the Holiday Flurry

Transcript for "Holiday Email Deliverability Strategies that Cut Through the Holiday Flurry": Hey, everyone, and welcome to this workshop, unwrapping holiday email deliverability, the secrets and strategies that cut through the holiday flurry. I'm Amanda, your host for today's session, and I am thrilled to be here with the Campaign Monitor team. I've spent the past decade helping both b two b and b two c organizations improve their email performance through smart deliverability practices. So today's topic is really one that I'm super passionate about, and I'm really glad that you're all joining as we head into what is arguably the most exciting, most competitive, most thrilling, however you wanna categorize it, time of the year for email marketers. During the holidays, inbox volume is skyrocketing, mailbox providers are getting more strict and cracking down, and we're all vying for customer attention, and it's harder than ever to capture attention. So today, we're really gonna unwrap some strategies, best practices, and just proven techniques that will really help your email program outshine, this holiday season so that you can really stand out. So let's go through the, quick look on the agenda for today. First, we're gonna start by exploring the holiday inbox. What really happens behind the scenes during this high traffic season? Then we're gonna look at both the art and science behind successful holiday email deliverability. We're gonna look at some factors that really influence inbox placement and how to optimize each one. Then we're gonna quickly walk through a month to month holiday deliverability road map, and you'll walk away with a good understanding of what to do October, November, December to really prep and build a sustainable email program. And after that, we're gonna go into my favorite part. We're gonna be sharing six high performing creative campaigns that you can employ deploy yourself this holiday season. We're gonna share why they work, how they improve email deliverability, and when to send them for maximum impact. And finally, we are gonna wrap everything up today and talk about tracking and monitoring your email program all season long, how to interpret the metrics, and really, which are the metrics that matter. So without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in. And before we dive into holiday deliverability, let's just take a second to talk about why emails still matter so much and why it's not going anywhere. The ROI of email marketing continues to outperform every other digital channel for a number of industries as you can see on your screen. And on average, for every $1 spent on email, you can expect between 32 to $45 in return, which is incredible. It's not just a marketing stat that is, you know, shown for fluff. It's just a reflection of how personal and powerful and profitable the email channel truly is. And even as new platforms come and go, email really just continues to be a consistent channel that drives results for companies. And it's really how brands are building relationships with their customers and nurturing loyalty and delivering value. So today's entire session is really about protecting that because when you land in the inbox, you're not just improving your email deliverability, you are really just strengthening one of your most valuable business assets. And now let's talk about the holiday inbox. This is where opportunity meets overload. Between October and December, inbox volume doesn't just go up. It triples. That means your subscribers are waking up to hundreds of new messages every single week, every single day. And the biggest surge is really happening between the Thanksgiving and Christmas rush. That's when brands are flooding inboxes with Black Friday, Cyber Monday offers, shipping reminders, last minute deals, and for good reason because that small six to eight week window of time can account for 20 to 30% of annual revenue for many businesses. But on the flip side, you have mailbox providers, MVPs as we call them, that know what's coming too. And during this window, major MVPs like Gmail and Outlook and Yahoo, they're tightening their their filters and limiting how much mail that they're allowing their, subscribers to receive every day. And it's just it's a way for them to protect from, like, the influx of spam or maybe poor quality email. So on the bright side, when you do do email right, the payoff is massive. And the performance tied to the holiday season, specifically around click through rates on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they skyrocket to 13% compared to the usual 1.2%. So when we think about strong email deliverability, what you do to prep for game time, the Super Bowl of any email program can really make or break your year end success. I love this quote. The marathon is won or lost in the months before you tow the starting line. And I love it in this context because deliverability works the same exact way. The success of your holiday campaign, it's not determined by the week of Black Friday or Cyber Monday or Thanksgiving or Christmas or any other holiday. It's determined by what you're doing and your email behaviors in the months leading up to it. The senders who are following best practices, who are warming up their domains, who are cleaning their lists, and who are building a steady engagement flow, are the ones who are crossing the finish line strong. Now this is one of the most important distinctions to understand, especially during the holidays when inbox competition is at its peak. We have delivery and deliverability, and the two are not the same. So email delivery simply means that your message made it to a mailbox provider, again, like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and that it wasn't blocked outright. So I guess think about it like your email arrived to the post office. That's a great first step, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee that your message reached the mailbox itself. So email delivery on one hand is your email is received by the mailbox provider, and on the other hand, we have email deliverability, and that is where your message ends up once it's accepted by one of those mailbox providers. Does it land in the inbox folder, or is it getting tucked away in spam, or is it getting tucked away within a subfolder within the inbox folder, like a primary, the promotions folder tab? So think about it in the holiday context. You're sending out a holiday card. Delivery means that it reached the house, but deliverability is ultimately the gift inside. It made it to the mantle instead of being tucked away and lost in, you know, the pile of unopened mail. So while delivery is about access, deliverability is about trust, and that's where we're here to share how you can strengthen that today. So let's talk about the three pillars that make up strong holiday deliverability. First and foremost is authentication. This is, your SPF records, your DKIM, and your DMARC records, and these are essentially like your digital gift pad tags. They are proving to the mailbox providers that these messages are genuinely from you. They're not an imposter. They're not spam trying to sneak into the inbox. And so when your authentication is properly set up, mailbox providers, can confidently say, you know, yep. This message checks out. And if your from address doesn't necessarily match your verified domain identity, that's that raises some red flags, to MVPs. And so even a well crafted email campaign can get lost in the shuffle. And, you know, it's important to note that Campaign Monitor really makes this authentication super simple and secure. When you set up a custom domain, Campaign Monitor is automatically guiding you through these authentications, to make sure that everything is aligned perfectly with your sending domain. Next, we have reputation. Think of this as your report card. This is built from your history of your email programs, your sends, your spam complaints, and your engagement rates. If you have been treating your subscribers well all year, your ultimate reward is a prime spot in the inbox. And and, again, Campaign Monitor here really does help protect your reputation with smart sending tools that, you know, the best email marketers are adopting, like list hygiene and and how you handle your bounces and how you segment and, suppress contacts that might not be engaging with, your email programs. And then finally, you have engagement, and this is the heart of deliverability. Mailbox providers are looking with a fine tooth comb at how people are interacting with your emails. What are they opening? What are they spending time reading? What are they clicking? What are they replying to? And all of these positive actions are super important, and this tells mailbox providers that, yep, this sender belongs to the inbox because it's the type of content that the recipient wants to receive. Oop, lost my there we go. So, and then finally, we have, consistency. And consistency is the bow that wraps it all together. And the mailbox providers are rewarding senders who are steady and predictable. Whether you're sending, you know, a campaign once a week or you're sending a campaign once a month, However it is, mailbox providers love a steady cadence of emails. So here's where we start to kinda pull back the curtain on the science part of email deliverability and what email providers are actually looking for. And so every time you send an email, these systems are analyzing hundreds of data points. And all ultimately, to answer one question, does this message belong in the inbox or the spam folder? And it doesn't happen out of luck. It's not a lottery system. It's based on your engagement. And so on the left side of the spectrum, you have the naughty list. These are the actions that hurt your sender reputation the most. Things like marking an email as spam or dragging an email to the junk folder, those are huge red flags to MVPs. Even a tiny spike in spam complaints can cause the the mailbox providers to tighten up and block future sends. So in the neutral zone, that's where you have actions that are neither good or bad. They just don't help you with either. Things like opening but not engaging or deleting emails right away or skimming without clicking. Unsubscribes also fall in this neutral bucket. They're not necessarily harmful, but too many could indicate that you're missing the mark or, on on the content that you're sending your your recipients. Then on the right side of this naughty to nice email deliverability list is where we all wanna be. This is positive email engagement, and what the MVPs are looking here are explicit actions that show that your email wants to be received. So replies, forwards, link clicks, or subscribers adding you to their contact list as a safe sender. These are all things that signal to the MVPs that your message is valuable and welcome. You know, a tactic that I love seeing email marketers use here is, you know, if they have a valuable piece of content and you'll see a very similar technique on social, it's, hey. DM me for this piece of content, and that triggers, influx of engagement and, again, tells the email providers that your email belongs in the primary inbox folder. So, the science to, you know, email deliverability really kinda boils down to send emails that people want to open, send emails that people can engage with easily and feel are worth engaging with and sharing, and and really think about making the the content kinda shareable, stackable, and relevant to your senders to your recipients. So let's talk about how do we avoid getting on the naughty list. And the first thing is content filtering. This is the part of email deliverability that happens before your subscribers are even seeing your email. Mailbox providers are using machine learning and natural language processing to scan through every single subject line and every line of content that you sent. And they're not just looking for bad words, they're analyzing the tone and the structure and the intent behind your email. So starting at the basics or language, staying away from spammy or aggressive phrases with free or act now or don't miss out, that could potentially set off alarms because they mimic the behavior of bulk senders, which makes mailbox providers cautious. The same goes for excessive capitalization or overuse of exclamation marks or a storm of emojis. You know, these patterns look less like a trusted brand and more like a mass sender trying to just do anything in its power to grab attention. So instead, we have just on the screen here a couple of, options that you could swap these out for. You know, focus on clear, conversational, and messaging that's on brand. Think of something like a little something on us or a holiday thank you from our team. That feels a lot more human and thoughtful and authentic, than, you know, the language that you see on the other column. And that's the kinda tone that builds trust. Now I will say there is an important caveat here. There is no universal bad language, bad word list. I think truly, deliverability is all about balance and context. If your audience is expecting terms like sale or free or holiday deal from your brand and they keep opening and clicking and engaging with your emails, those words are not necessarily going to hurt your inbox placement. I think a simple rule to follow is, you know, you know your audience best, use language that matches your brand voice, and monitor the engagement metrics as you go. Now the next thing, you know, we covered language. Let's kinda shift to the structure of your emails because formatting really does play a big role in email deliverability too. Mailbox providers are, again, scanning the content just for not just for words but design and code structure of the email. And so the way your email is actually built, also signals if it's a reputable sender. So first up is image only emails. If your entire message is just one big image with no text, that's a major red flag for MVPs. Filters can't necessarily read images, so they can't verify if the content is legitimate. So that's why we believe always follow the sixty forty rule. 60% text, 40% imagery, that gives the mailbox providers enough context to really understand the message that's coming through. The next thing I wanna cover is links. Too many links, broken URLs, or using link shorteners like Bitly or, you know, some native ones, can also trigger some spam filters because, believe it or not, they're common tactics that are used by malicious senders. So, as part of your email QA process before you send any email out, always test your links, make sure they work, and keep them to a reasonable number. I would say, you know, about two to four e links two to three really max for an email campaign. Now alignment really matters here, and I think this is about, making sure that you're from and you're reply to addresses are are matching. If they don't match your sending domain, then mailbox providers start to get suspicious, and that could look like a spoofing technique. So keep your identity consistent from top to bottom that's builds trust. And and finally, I think this is probably the most important thing to hit on is optimized for mobile. 70% of holiday email campaigns are opened on a phone. So if your message does not render well, or it's just a bad experience for the reader, it can really hurt your engagement metrics. And so I wanna call out you know, Campaign Monitor does a really, really great job of helping you make sure that your email campaigns are prepped and polished. You can use the inbox preview, and that feature will show you and allow you to see what your email is gonna look like across devices, across if it's a dark mode or light mode or different domains and different clients so you can fix issues, potential issues before they become bigger problems that impact deliverability. Alright. So if there is one takeaway that I want you to remember from this workshop about deliverability. It's it's this one. It's not about rules. It's about relationships. And at the end of the day, subscribers engage with what feels familiar, what feels valuable, and most importantly, what feels relevant to them. When people are looking forward to hearing from you, the mailbox providers are taking notice. Next up with that that supports that is consistency, not just with your audience, but with filters too. I think, you know, again, the mailbox provider is remembering and sees your your, you know, track record of your tone and your cadence and your authenticity. So really think about email deliverability like you're nurturing a plant or nurturing a friendship. You know? The more genuine and respectful and consistent you are, the stronger the relationship becomes and the more forgiving it becomes. If you do have a slip up here or there, they're more forgiving, and the mailbox providers are more forgiving and will automatically write you off as a bad email sender. So over the next few slides, we are going to unpack four key steps, that really kinda help you build this relationship, and grow your audience the right way that is gonna really help you last beyond the holiday season. So opting in contacts, you know, this time of year specifically, think about it like, you know, every new subscriber, needs an invitation to the party. You know, you only want the guests that you invite to the party to actually be there. And it's really here about quality over quantity. Quality subscribers lead to stronger engagement, which leads to a higher inbox placement and just a healthier holiday season overall. So the way that we can, you know, opt in context in a healthy way is, first and foremost, using sign up forms on your website, your blog, your social channels to really capture interest when it's fresh and hot and there's a lot of momentum. And, you know, offering content downloads like holiday guides or checklists or gift lists, high value content isn't going to really encourage meaningful opt ins. And, you know, when you think about, other ways that you can opt in, newsletters are a great way to do this. You know, really thinking about how can you create a newsletter to make it feel exclusive or special and, you know, providing a lot of value within a newsletter. Webinars and events are a great way to opt in contacts, especially this time of year too because they're attracting, you know, super highly engaged audiences who are already trusting your brand. And so, you know, again, webinars, workshops, holiday events are just natural lead magnets that you could really, adopt for this time of year. And, the other thing, you know, to remember, if you're in the, you know, b to b space, you know, you can also try some in product prompts. Let's say putting a, you know, an offer within your dashboard board or your home page or your platform or your solution or your tech solution, to encourage sign ups where your users are engaged the most. So, you know, I think the thing to remember here is, you know and it's it could be a hard pill to swallow for some businesses is that one engaged subscriber is worth way more, in comparison than a 100 passive ones. And so quality is what really begins and and grows your reputation. These are just a couple other, features and how Campaign Monitor can help support you build your contact list through embedded forms. These are a great way to create a seamless kind of branded experience. You can design these forms right in Campaign Monitor, and then, you know, add them to your website, a blog post, your home page, your pricing page. And then pop up forms is also a great way to capture attention, in the moment too. So, again, you can use Campaign Monitor or and build up a pop up form. You can set it to appear at a certain time or a certain time of the scroll or when a, you know, contact is about to exit, and it's agreed for a timely offer as well. So all of these options just really work beautifully to to build trust through consistency and and pop ups on the other hand are driving action when it's when it's hot, striking while the iron's hot. So the next key thing is having a warm welcome. When someone subscribes to your email program, they are at peak curiosity. And those first few emails that you can send play a huge role in determining where your messages land. The inbox, promotions, spam, and a thoughtful welcome journey, it doesn't just build trust and engagement. It it gives the mailbox providers a first kind of signal that, yep, the sender belongs here. And on average, the open rate for welcome emails is 68.6% compared to about 19.7% for regular campaigns. That's a massive opportunity to make a great first impression. And, you know, think of your welcome series as a as a conversation starter and not just a one and done campaign. You know? The first email might be your handshake. It's warm. It's genuine. It's on brand. Then you're setting expectations, how often they will expect to receive email, what kind of content you're gonna be sending. And then think about really delivering value. Maybe it's an exclusive offer or a high value content or a surprise gift. You know, each one of these touches, again, is showing that the mailbox providers that your emails are consistently being engaged with, and that grows your deliverability over time. Now welcome journeys don't just happen after an initial sign up. And and timing really matters here. We just put a couple of ideas here. You know, obviously, your post sign up, sending a welcome journey immediately after within the hour, while your brand is fresh in your mind is a really, really impactful way to do it. After someone downloads a piece of content, follow-up, we say within twenty four hours with maybe related blogs or resources, how can you always think to yourself, how can I help my recipient continue their experience with my brand and not just have it be a dead end, and an abrupt stop? And, of course, you know, after a purchase, send a thank you note that adds value, maybe share tips on how you can use the product. If you're hosting a webinar or an event, follow-up with, you know, key takeaways or, resources or, you know, the presentation material that you covered. And so, you know, these timely behavior based sends are are inbox goals, and that's what keeps your message off off of the naughty list. So here's what, you know, automation journey looks like inside of Campaign Monitor. What you're seeing is a prebuilt welcome journey, and it's just a simple automated flow that makes it easy to send the right message at the right time. And, you know, the examples that you see on the other side of your screen are just, you know, ways that you can, add value within the welcome journey. So you can see there's an offer and incentive. We we thank them for subscribing. We're providing some kind of content or value. Maybe it's a helpful guide or a blog post or an intro to your brand story. So this is where we're shifting from a transactional message into a relational message. One that I love to see, the example where it says, you know, it's great to meet you and it's thanks for signing up. These are right off the gate inviting your subscribers to manage how they are going to receive, email content from you. So the first one is inviting them to customize their experience. It allows them to select, how often they wanna hear from you. And then this the ops the example on your screen says thanks for signing up with the green button. I love this one because it highlights and sets the expectation on how often, a subscriber is going to hear from you. And in this case, it's weekly. So all of this happens, you know, pretty automatically through Campaign Monitor, drag and drop. It's a super easy, beautiful automation builder. And, you know, I think what's really great about campaign monitor, it's super easy to launch and you can just drag and drop, these pre built journeys right into your email program. So respecting your subscriber's preferences. This isn't just good manners. It's one of the smartest things that you can do for deliverability and, honestly, one of the most underrated things that people do for deliverability. We are heading into a world where subscribers, really anybody that consumes anything from a business, they want to feel in control. We're gonna get to a world where we're we wanna customize the way we call up, you know, a company and engage with them. So we wanna feel a great control. And when we feel like we have the power, that's when subscribers stay engaged and and loyal to the brand. And mailbox providers see that behavior, and they actually reward senders that give their audience the gift of choice. And so, you know, something that, you know, I hear a lot of email marketers say is like, oh, I don't want my my subscribers to unsubscribe or, you know, they get really hyper focused on the unsubscribes. I'm here to tell you that unsubscribes are actually healthy for your email program. They help you maintain your list hygiene, and they help reduce the spam complaint. It's far better to lose a subscriber that's not engaged than keep one that's dragging all of your metrics and your deliverability down. Now that said, obviously, if you see your unsubscribe rate creeping up, that's a good time and signal to kinda reevaluate your email program or how you're collecting your contacts. You know, it's really important to make sure that your opt ins are explicitly opted in and they're clearly aligned with the type of content, that they expect from you. So that's where topic level choice really comes in here, giving your subscribers the ability to select the content, that interest them to make sure that they're only receiving what's valuable. Letting your subscribers set their own rhythm. Some want weekly updates, some want daily emails, some wanna just check-in during the holidays or when you have, an exclusive offer or an exclusive of event. So, you know, giving your subscribers flexibility when it comes to frequency and giving them an option to opt down, you know, send me fewer emails can really save relationships and keep your your spam complaints low. Now, finally, you know, when someone unsubscribes or updates their preferences, confirm it right away. A simple thank you or confirmation email that shows that you've respected their decision. The last thing you want is for your contact to, you know, start emailing you, contact you, and and, you know, wanting that confirmation. It just gives a peace of mind, that they are being listened to and their preferences are being respected. And I think I mentioned this at the top of the call, but consistency is the the bow that ties it all together when it comes to deliverability success. And when your audience knows what to expect and, again, looks forward to your emails, you're building trust within the mailbox providers. And so let's start with personalization and relevance. Relevance drives engagement, and there's a study that shows that a personalized subject lines actually increase open rate by 26%, and personalized click through actually performed 202% better than just a generic one. And so what this tells us is targeted messages are the ones that get noticed. And Campaign Monitor love this because they make personalization so easy. You can, use dynamic blocks and tags to make your content super hyper personalized, and, you know, swap out sections of your email based on certain behavior or data. And so I think the next thing to hit on when it comes to consistent value is making sure that your email program has a healthy mix of content. The best senders don't just show up one time of year when they have something to sell. They are staying in touch throughout the year with value, with stories, with education, with inspiration, with appreciation. And, you know, a good kind of rule of thumb is to mix a promo email with, you know, your value driven emails. And, you know, doing that through the holidays, as an example, is mixing maybe a an offer with a stress saving tip or gratitude message so that you have that push and pull and that healthy balance of, content. And it's not just the same type of email that eventually maybe might make your contacts fatigued. So finally, you know, consistency is, you know, plays a big key role here, in terms of, you know the the reason why is because mailbox providers love predictability. And so if you suddenly, you know, triple or double your send volume in November and December, mailbox providers see that as risky behavior. And so when we think about holiday deliverability. That's when you have to start thinking about ramping up gradually ahead of a holiday season, and then making sure that you have a steady rhythm of emails, and that really is what is gonna signal stability in your email program. Okay. So let's talk about your road map to holiday deliverability success. October, November, December. So October is your prep month. This is when you're warming up your inboxes. You know, I think the biggest mistake that I see is email marketers waiting until November to ramp up. And, again, the marathon starts in the months before the towing line. So mailbox providers really need to see that healthy engagement before peak season hits. So, you know, making sure that you're warming up your domain, gradually increase your send volume week over week. The last thing you wanna do is go from, say, I don't know, 10,000 sends to a 100,000 sends overnight. Those spikes are going to immediately trigger a red flag for the MVPs. This is when you're prepping your list. You're cleaning your list. You're removing, you know, contacts that haven't engaged in 90, a 180 a year, and making sure that, you know, you're focusing on your best engaged, contacts and you have a segmented strategy. You know, this is not a one size fits all approach and, really being super intentional about how you interact with your best, highest engaged contacts and your coldest, least engaged contacts. So really baking that into your holiday campaign process. And then finally making sure that you have all of your authentication in place. All of your records should be aligned and passing. This is a time to test test test test, your email rendering, what it looks like on dark mode, light mode, what it looks like on mobile versus desktop, so that, you know, your emails are really do look great once you're able to get to the volume that you're looking for. So November, I think is the test of deliverability resilience in my opinion. You know, inboxes are being flooded with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promos. This is where segmentation becomes your superpower. You wanna send again your highest volume campaigns to your most engaged subscribers first. The ones that are opening and clicking and interacting with your engage with your content. You wanna avoid, you know, batch and blast sends, at large quantities and really stagger your email sends and throttle them over time. That helps your, you know, IP and domain kinda stay under the threshold limits and reduce potentials for spam spam spikes. This is where your AB testing, your email program, your subject line, your offers, your content, the timing, is really key. There's a lot of studies about different timing for email campaigns, and I think this is when you're really kinda honing in on, how to optimize so that when we get to that end of the month, when we're hitting Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the holiday season, you're performing at peak performance. December is all about sustainability. This is not only setting the tone for your year end deliverability health, but your next year deliverability health. And, you know, once the dust settles and the flurry of the holiday is over, this is where we, again, need to make sure that we're shifting years into that relationship based messaging, sending appreciation emails, a simple, you know, thank you for being part of this journey. You know, these are the types of messages that are gonna help you maintain engagement when, you know, inboxes quiet down. So this is another time to, you know, use this time to clean your list again. Don't go silent after the holiday flurry. Do not drop your email sending volume to zero after the holiday season. Mailbox providers are gonna see a sudden dip in your email activity, and that will signal inconsistency. So if you are going to reduce the number of your emails, do it gradually, and so it's not done just one time overnight. Okay. So before we jump into some specific examples, you know, there's kind of four ingredients, if you will, that really, just make up, the recipe for a successful holiday email campaign. So we covered a lot of these, but just wanted to recap. Build trust. Make sure that these are email programs that and content that your contacts want to receive, and that are aligned with your brand. Personalize. Go beyond just a first name personalization. Really tailor your message, and your offer and your content based on what your audience actually cares about. Respect the cadence. Don't just flood your contacts inbox just because it's q four, just to check the box and say that you did. You know, really be thoughtful about sending a consistent rhythm of email campaigns. And finally, blending emotion and value. I think the best holiday emails really connect and give readers something useful, whether that's a deal or, inspiration or gratitude. And I put this expert tip in here. I love this one because oftentimes you see email marketers, you know, set their email campaigns to the fifteen, thirty, or the hour mark. When you're thinking about e b testing your email campaigns, try testing off times, like, 07:37 or 06:34 versus 07:30 so that we can avoid the rush of emails that are sent on those, you know, on the hour, on the half hour. Okay. So let's go into, our kick it off with one of our most engaging holiday strategies out there, the interactive holiday series series. Excuse me. So think of these as your, you know, twelve days of deals, your giveaways, your countdown, your video series. These campaigns work because they build anticipation. One of my favorites is this example here of a, like, a digital advent calendar because this keeps subscribers coming back day after day. And what's great about this approach is that it not only drives clicks and engagements, but it's also building trust with mailbox providers. When they're seeing a consistent flow of opens and engagement, that steady pattern reinforces a great sender reputation. And, you know, the results speak for themselves. Interactive content, can really generate a two x higher click rates, and they can boost open rates by 73%. And when you add video to your email programs, that can boost your click rates by 300. So it's a fun way to engage your audience. It's great for your metrics, and it's a perfect way to stay top of mind throughout the year. And we also are showing you, hand in hand, side by side, some templates that you can quickly customize and then drag into your, email program from Campaign Monitor. So this one here is twelve days of deals every day. We're gonna feature a different type of deal depending on, the persona. Okay. So moving on, next one up is one of the most simple and most powerful holiday email strategies. Again, I think one that's super underrated or one that is not done thoughtfully, and that's the thank you email. It goes without saying, you know, gratitude emails are are building goodwill and long term trust with your contacts. They're not just about selling. They're about really appreciating your audience, and and that type of sincerity actually pays off. You know, emails that express thanks, see a 27%, open rate when that thank you is in the subject line. And a study show that 80% of consumers are actually more loyal to brands that show appreciation. And so, you know, I think these messages perform so beautifully from a deliverability standpoint because they foster, you know, high engagement, low unsubscribes, low spam complaints. These are just all signals of a strong reputation. This is also super great way, and and email that you can personalize. You can remind your subscribers how long they've been with you or what you've achieved together with your company. And I think the best time to send these is around Thanksgiving, and in the New Year. I would just avoid that black fly Friday, cyber Monday rush, when the inboxes are super flooded. Up next is personalized gift guides. These campaigns perform incredibly well because this hits on relevance, and relevance is what drives engagement and boosts email deliverability. So when you are helping contacts, your people find exactly what they're looking for or inspire them with ideas, You're positioning your brand as a true partner, as a true trusted adviser, not just another, you know, salesperson that's hitting their inbox. And you can really get creative with how you segment this. You can segment by behavior, by demographic, by purchase history. So in this example, you know, gifts for him, gifts for her, for the tech lover, for their interests, your hobbies. And, again, the proof is in the pudding. Personalized emails drive a six x, higher transaction rate, and 75% of shoppers actually expect brands to personalized offers. So this is the expectation that your contacts have. And the sweet spot for these campaigns is November through mid December. You know, I think the key is it's early enough to inspire, you know, as they get into holiday shopping mode, but not so late that they can't take advantage and that there's shipping cut offs and that get in the way. Alright. So recipe number four. Another great way way to close out the year for the holidays is a year in review campaign. And these are perfect campaigns that you can use to highlight milestones or achievements, or maybe it's a roundup of your most loved content from the past year. And they help build connection with your contacts because they are reminding your audience what you have accomplished together. And, you know, people love a feel good story, and people love to see their impact and their progress. And, they like to see what a brand that they have an affinity to has accomplished. And, they also trigger signals to the MVPs that are favorable for deliverability. Like, they spent a long time reading the email. They share. They forward. They might reply and say great work to the company. And so for sending this type of email, we're always thinking about, you know, before Thanksgiving or wait until after after the Christmas holiday, when the inbox noise kinda slows down and people are catching up. This is also, you know, a little bonus tip, a great way, and a perfect moment to invite your subscribers to update their preferences for the new year. Okay. So moving right along, you know, I think this is one of the most effective and appreciated holiday send. This is actually one of my my favorites that I love receiving in my inbox. I'm calling it the last minute helper because, boy, has it really helped me, in times. And these are about meeting your subscribers where they are. They're stressed about timing. They're don't know what to get. They're looking for, you know, inspiration. They're high urgency. You know, I think the important thing is that you you wanna come off and strike a helpful, not frantic tone because you wanna kinda assert that confidence for your subscribers. And so focus on being helpful. Shipping reminders, sending some cutoff dates, you know, that just kind of reminds subscribers that they have to, you know, make a move and take action before it's too late. Digital gift alternatives, the example that you're seeing on your screen here is reminding them that they can still have time to do a digital gift card. And, the other thing that I love is, shipping reminders. Actually, shipping reminders themselves can drive a 40% higher click through than just a standard promotion. So when we're thinking about these last minute helper type campaigns, the ideal window is five to seven days before shipping cut offs, and evening hours. That is when, you know, the anxiety of gift buying and gift giving really starts to peak. So, you know, coming in as the brand to help contacts kinda take that exhale, is great for deliverability. And last but not least, the trusted Black Friday, Cyber Monday promo. If you are a b to c company, this is the Super Bowl of email marketing. You know, even if you don't consider yourself, you know, a brand, that has maybe an offer to give, maybe you're not in ecommerce, or, you know, in a good service. This is this is still important to have presence in the inbox during this weekend. It's it's essential for visibility. The key strategy here isn't volume. You know, you want to really focus on segmenting your list and throttling your sends to avoid spikes and spam. The other thing is really focused on the personalization here. You know? Again, it's not a one size fits all message. You know, target based on your customer's purchase history, their interest, their engagement. We always say, you know, kinda recommended cadence is five to seven days before the Black Friday, Cyber Monday, you can start kinda teasing what, you know, offers that are coming down the pipeline. Send your main promo through that weekend, and then close it out with a final reminder that lasts twelve to twenty four hours. A very common technique is an extension of the Black Friday, Cyber Monday sale. Again, that's that's a tough one because, you know, oftentimes, contacts are so flooded with the invite that they might not take the action. So having that extension for them is also super helpful. And, again, we share this, but, you know, I think it it's important to hit on it again that nearly 70% of Black Friday purchases happen on mobile. So make sure that your email designs, your call to, you know, call to actions, your, your checkout flow even, it really looks just as good as it does on the phone as it does on desktop. So really, think of this as kinda like your grand finale where all of your hard work comes into play. Now, you know, we covered the six, you know, tried and true holiday campaigns, but I think, you know, just like baking holiday cookies, you know, the secret isn't only in the recipe. It's, it's really about keeping an eye on on what's happening in the oven. So I wanted to quickly hit on the metrics that matter this season. And deliverability and engagement can really shift fast during the holiday season, so it's really critical that you keep a pulse on these metrics, because these are the signals that tell you if your program is thriving or maybe there are some indicators, that you need to pay attention to. So, you know, think of these metrics like your holiday lights, you know, when one goes out, it can have an impact on the entire strand. And so I really want you to keep your eye on these indicators on daily and weekly basis throughout the season. Your spam complaint should stay under point 1%. If you start creeping higher, that's your first sign to really pause and investigate. Unsubscribes should really aim to keep them below 1%. You know, if you see a sudden jump in your unsubscribes, that just might mean that your content or your frequency or your cadence might be off. Bounces, keep these under 2%. And finally, track your engagement metrics, your opens, your clicks, your click through rates, your conversions from your email channel. Those are your strongest signals that your messages are are reaching the inbox. Now don't forget, Google spam complaint threshold is point 3%. So even a small uptick can have a big impact and a lasting impact for MVPs like Google. So to dig deeper and kinda give you that layer, you know, I highly recommend that you have access to postmaster tools. The screenshot on your screen is what a Google postmaster tool looks like. A lot of them, like, Google and Microsoft offer them for free. You could access Google Postmaster tools, verify and set up your domain, and you'll be able to see on a dashboard, what your domain reputation looks like, your complaint rates, and your spam filtering on the actual, MVP level. So these are tools that, you know, really help you kinda spot dips, identify if issues are, you know, specific to domains and help you take action. Alright. So, you know, the best campaigns and the healthiest metrics, deliverability dips can still happen. And the key here is not to panic. I think think of this section as your deliverability kinda triage guide, a way that you can, you know, take a quick pause to assess what's going on and get your emails back on track. First and foremost, you do want to pause any large sense. So you wanna kinda stop sending any big blast, but caveat to that, keep your automations running, your welcomes, your nurtures, your trigger based automations. These are your most, you know, reliable email campaigns. They help keep your engagement warm while you assess what's going on. Check your authentication. Make sure, you know, your SPF, your DKIM, your DMARC are aligned in passing. Then you want to, you know, check within your CRM or in your postmaster tools for any spikes in your spam complaints or any dips in reputation. And I always like to pair that information side by side to the email campaign so you can start to see a trend on if a specific message or email campaign is what triggered that spike. So you always wanna look at those hand in hand with your CRM and the postmaster tools. And from there, you can start to kind of analyze the performance at a whole, but then also take it a layer down and and look at it by domain. And, you know, I've seen it happen many times before where you might have a dip on Gmail or Yahoo, but the rest of the MVPs are unaffected. And that's an important time where you wanna segment out those, domains and build a reengagement plan around those. And that kinda takes me to the next step is, segmenting your contacts, and sending your best email campaign to your highest engaged group first. Then you can gradually start to kind of scale back up over the next few days once you are assessing all of your email metrics. So when it comes to deliverability and and recovering, if you do take a dip, it's all about momentum and consistency and, being able to assess where you're at. And Campaign Monitor, you're able to, assess within the deliverability insights dashboard, and help you pinpoint where dips are happening, whether it's by domain or segment or send type so that you're able to take action fast. Alright. So, couple just last kinda closing thoughts. You know, the these are screenshots of the Campaign Monitor dashboard, and these are the metrics that, are really important to track, throughout the holiday season and really all year long. And our goal is to really make it easy for you to see performance in real time. And, you know, you wanna be able to kinda stack your campaign results against your benchmarks, based on the past performance, and that's how you're able to spot these patterns early. You'll be able to see if it's a gradual dip in engagement or if it's a sudden spike based on unsubscribes or spam complaints. And if you do see something unusual, you're able within our dashboard to really kinda double click right into those details and drill down by campaign or by segment or even by domain. So, you know, I think staying agile during the holiday season is is really key. And, you know, we're also here to equip you with all the tools and the insights to monitor and track your deliverability. So what you're seeing here is the deliverability dashboard, and you're able to monitor email deliverability by domain. So instead of just seeing your overall email engagement, you can drill down with how you're performing at, you know, MVPs like Gmail and Yahoo and Outlook. So as we wrap things up, you know, I really want you to all remember that deliverability doesn't start and end with the holidays. The brands that treat deliverability as a year round strategy, they're keeping their list healthy, they're sending consistently, they're engaging with intention are the ones that are entering q four strong and see their messages really make it home all season long. At Campaign Monitor, we're a leading email marketing platform trusted by thousands of b to b and b to c brands, to create, send, and optimize campaigns that really build relationships and drive results. Everything from beautifully designed templates to advanced personalization features, and a really robust analytics and automation, all to help you set you up for success. And we also offer a library of free resources like our holiday email marketing checklist or the deliverability triage guide. And you'll be receiving all these resources as well as if you'd like to check them out, visit our resource library, campaignmonitor.com/resources, and you'll be able to peruse through, all of these resources made available for you. And, of course, we also have deliverability experts who are always on standby to support you whether you need, you know, guidance on authentication or, recommendation on reputation recovery or, you know, we have, knowledge based articles and experts that are here to help you. And, you know, we have really built our reputation, around success so we can help you build yours. We have a 99% delivery rate, decades of industry experience, and we're really here focused to help you build trust and transparency so that you can land in the inbox, not just during the holiday season, but all year long. So with that, I wanted to just open it up to some questions. I think we have enough time to take just a handful of questions, and we can close it out. Okay. So, this is one that we get quite frequently, and this is about this is. Okay. So what's one small tweak marketers can make to instantly improve deliverability? Okay. So one of the simplest, I think, most overlooked tweak that you could do is is make sure and tighten up your from name and your, from address. Make sure that it's clear and consistent and recognizable to your subscribers. I would say on a technical standpoint, check your authentication. You know, any even a small mismatch between your sending domain and your authentication records can trigger a red flag. And then I would say the third part of this is your content. Go back to what you know works. Take a look at your best five to 10 email campaigns and recycle your best performing campaigns from earlier in the year or last holiday season, because, you know, that really just proves to the mailbox providers that you're a trusted sender, and it'll help you kind of save time during the holiday season. Just go back to what you know works. Alright. So, how can I tell if a deliverability issue is happening, and what should I do first? Okay. So I think the first red flag that you'll typically see is, a drop in open or your click rates, just your engagement metrics for your email program, or if you have a sudden spike in bounces or unsubscribes or spam. That's your cue to, you know, start to peel back the layer and look a little bit deeper in tools like Google Postmaster or within Campaign Monitor's deliverability dashboard. And so, again, if you see that spike, I wouldn't make immediate action until you have verified that this is truly a problem. And then from there, I would pause your large sense. Keep your automations running until you diagnose the problem and come out with a plan and a solution. And, you know, the best thing to do is begin to segment your list and really focus on your best performing emails to your highest engaged, and that will help you, you know, create that recovery plan. Okay. Here's the last one that we'll cover. This is a good one. What's the number one mistake brands make with deliverability during the holidays? I think the biggest mistake is treating deliverability as a holiday only concern. You know, many brands start kinda scaling up their volume or reengaging their cold contacts right before q four, and that can tank your sender reputation. So, again, focus on your, you know, best practices ahead of, ahead of the, holiday season. The best approach is to warm up early, build consistent engagement in September and October, and keep your list hygiene, tight. Test your campaigns before your high volume periods, to make sure that you're gonna get in that inbox before it gets too crowded. Alright. Well, with that, we thank you so much for joining our session today. We're here to help you, and we're here to empower you with the tools to take your email program to the next level. So visit us at Campaign Monitor. Explore the resources that are available to you. Give us a a holler, and and remember, you know, the holiday is a exciting and thrilling time of year. Really focus on creating that plan and and being agile so that you can make tweaks and pivots to your email program to make sure that you're landing in the inbox. With that being said, thank you so much, and we hope you have a wonderful day.