With the holiday shopping season just days away from full swing, marketers are getting ready to generate 25-40 percent of their yearly sales. With that much at stake, savvy marketers are doing everything they can to maximize the success of their holiday marketing campaigns.

The good news is that holiday cheer is easy to come by if you follow a few key tips to ensure high returns on your marketing investments now and well beyond the holiday season.

Coupons are a Gift Buyer’s Best Friend

It's no secret that consumers are planning on tightening their wallets this holiday season. But that doesn't necessarily mean you'll be left out in the cold. Consumers are hungry for deals, and offering up big discounts, incentives and coupons will go a long way in making the fourth quarter a jolly time of the year for you and your customers.  This season, shoppers across the economic strata are seeking bargains.  In fact, RetailMeNot.com recently reported coupon site usage was increasing most among users with the highest incomes and college educations. Likewise, Mintel also found the highest levels of online coupon usage among the affluent.

As you continue to fine tune your holiday campaigns, be sure to include coupons that can be redeemed online or in-store. According to a recent study by the e-Tailing Group, "buy online for pickup in-store" is becoming a popular routine among shoppers as it provides them with flexible ways to use coupons. Whether on a Web site, in an email or on a social networking site, marketers can link their coupons to a micro-site, to a shoppers' club or anywhere else...the sky is the limit.

Spread Holiday Cheer with Free Shipping

A favorite offer for all direct marketers, free shipping has long been relied upon to fuel online sales, especially around the holidays. Now it is mandatory. If you are not playing the free shipping card, you have already seen many of your online sales diverted to brick and mortar alternatives or to other sites that are shipping for free. Offer free shipping now, and continue to use it liberally throughout 2010.


Understand the Mind of the Holiday Shopper

During the holidays men are likely shopping for jewelry and handbags while women are typically purchasing items like electronics and tools.  Besides Scrooge, everyone is looking for the perfect gift for their loved one and not thinking about themselves.   It makes sense therefore to modify your usual segmentation and targeting strategies to account for this.  I especially like categorizing content/merchandize such as “Gifts for Her,” “Gifts for Dad,” etc.


Gift Cards: Gift That Keeps on Giving

Gift cards extend the holiday shopping season well past the New Year, when many shoppers redeem them. Branded gift cards can attract new shoppers into stores and Web sites that may not have previously been a customer.  Retailers could also see a boost in profits since consumers typically spend more than the card’s face value.  According to a study by The Tower Group, a financial services consulting firm, the majority of shoppers who receive a $50 gift card—the most popular denomination—spend 20% more on their purchase.  Be sure to highlight gift cards as an option for indecisive holiday shoppers looking to make a quick purchase. 


Keep Testing 

Some marketers diligently test all year long and then try to apply learnings to the holiday season and expect lifts in performance.  This is not a wise strategy.  It is especially important to continue optimizing message creative, offers, calls-to-action, segmentation, etc. to determine the best ways of breaking through the clutter.


Get in the Holiday Spirit

Copy and creative that is festive will resonate with holiday shoppers.  Use words and images that are related to the holidays to catch the attention of shoppers who are in the frame of mind to look for holiday sales and offers.  However, avoid solely focusing on the holiday and not your product or service.  If you’re going to the trouble of crafting seasonal creative, just adding a reindeer or New Year’s streamer won’t move the needle. Always incorporate your strongest call-to-action and modify the copy to add urgency. In my experience, testing out single creative variables rarely creates enough separation in performance to drive meaningful differences.


Seek Out Quality CPA Deals

Marketing budgets are being slashed across the board, but marketers who can efficiently drive ROI positive leads will likely be able to marshal additional resources. Performance based deals have always made good sense to me, and make especially good sense in an environment where every dollar counts. As always, ensure that you work with quality vendors in the space.


Think Outside the Inbox

Email is a great channel for driving holiday sales.  According to comScore, email accounted for 16 percent of all referred dollars in 2008.  But simply sending an email message is not enough.  Test out sending messages that alert recipients to in-store events, special holiday hours, new holiday merchandise and holiday sales.  While most shoppers dread the trip to the mall, others prefer the offline shopping experience for buying gifts. Nurturing this experience through email can prove profitable.  The inclusion of printable coupons allows one to track the program and quantify results.


Manage Message Frequency

During the holiday season almost all marketers will increase the frequency of their emails. This usually makes good sense since consumers make so many more purchases during this time of year.  But senders who go overboard on messaging may find themselves dealing with a holiday hangover of list attrition.  Be careful about increases in frequency and carefully monitor for signs of fatigue - unsubs, complaints, drops in response rates, etc.


Decorate Transactional Messages

Just because a consumer has made a purchase or signed up for something in the past few weeks does not mean they have fulfilled their holiday wish list, nor does it mean that they won’t be making purchases into the New Year. Make sure to leverage the open power of transactional messages and include up-sell and cross-sell promotions.


Cater to Last Minute Shoppers

Many holiday shoppers will be waiting last minute to purchase gifts as they hold out for sales or make sure they have enough discretionary income.  Remember, a week before the holiday is not too late to reach a potential customer.  Keep in mind the dates that saw the biggest online holiday spend the past few years:

2006 - Wednesday, December 13th - $666.9 million
2007 - Monday, December 10th - $881 million
2008 - Tuesday, December 9th - $887 million

Plan Beyond the Holidays

With so many tactical issues to address, the rush of the holidays can be overwhelming for many email marketers.  In their efforts to reach holiday shoppers, many fail to plan for the days after December 25th.   It is important to think carefully about leveraging the increased action around the holidays to increase the long term value of your programs.  For example, take advantage of increased media spend in other channels to build your list - including opt-in forms on landing pages.


Nicholas Einstein is the Director of Strategic & Analytic Services at Datran Media.