The holiday season countdown is officially on! Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Hanukkah, and Christmas are all around the corner, bringing big marketing opportunities and one of the most lucrative times of the year. November and December drive 40% more e-commerce revenue than any other month and October to December 2016 accounted for 29.7% of overall US box office revenue. Holiday marketing isn’t just for retailers; any business, including cinemas, can create and execute effective seasonal marketing. 

Using festive-themed campaigns at this time of year is a great way to thank your loyal customers, boost sales, re-engage lapsed loyalty members and generate engagement across your channels. Email marketing is one way to spread holiday cheer and achieve these goals. The key is ensuring your messages are timely and personalized to encourage an action. Finish the year with a bang by taking inspiration from these email campaign ideas and tips we’ve put together below.

Seven Seasonal Campaign Ideas

1. Ecard
This campaign should be on every marketer’s list for the end of the year. It’s a brilliantly quick way to communicate with all of your guests, thank them for their loyalty over the past year and remind them to keep visiting you during the festive season. An ecard also gets the receiver into the holiday spirit and can help to build a strong positive association with your brand.

2. Gift guidance
Everyone needs a little inspiration when it comes to their holiday gift list, and sending a gift suggestion email is a great way to get customers to purchase something from your company. Gift cards and memberships make excellent gifts, so ensure these are easy to buy and give to friends and family.

3. Treat yourself
Targeting your loyal customers with a special holiday campaign can help to ensure you keep a strong connection with them. Suggest they ‘treat themselves’ this season, and give them an exclusive offer. This will make these guests feel special, and is a great way to inject some fun into your campaigns.

4. Wrap up the year 
A data-driven campaign highlighting your members’ year at the cinema is a clever way to surprise and delight them. You could feature information such as numbers of movies watched, favourite cinema or number of points earned. 

5. Holiday movies 
Usually this time of year brings out multiple movies centered around the holidays. You could send a campaign promoting these festive movies, maybe with a special offer or concession discount to entice them in. The holidays can be stressful, but seeing movies isn’t. 

6. Last minute shopper
There is always an opportunity to target those last minute shoppers. Most gift cards and memberships don’t require shipping, and make easy last minute gifts. Send out your email in the last few weeks before a big holiday, create a sense of urgency in your messaging and create a clear and easy call-to-action for people to make a purchase. You could even include a calendar countdown in your email to increase this sense of urgency.

7. Post-holiday blues
You know the feeling; you’re over socialised, overfed and overdrawn, so what is there to look forward to now? A post-holiday email with an enticing offer can be the pick-me-up that your customers, and potential loyalty members, are looking for. A reported 43.1% of shoppers will be looking for post-holiday deals online, so sending a targeted email promoting any special offers or deals is a clever way to capture this audience. Plan these campaigns now to stay ahead and be timely once the new year rolls around.

Holiday Marketing Tips

As with any email you send, there are essential tips to consider in order to run a successful campaign. Follow the tips below to optimize your holiday campaigns.

• Sleigh bells ring, and so do cell phones. Making sure you create a responsive email for mobile is always important, but even more so at this time of year. 69% of holiday email opens happen on a mobile device, so if you’re including a call-to-action in your communication it’s vital to optimize your email for mobile.
• Check your list, and check it twice. Ensure you carefully plan and consider your campaign schedule. Be aware of all the key holiday dates and plan your campaigns in advance and around these dates. This is especially important for any last minute campaigns you’re planning on sending out.
• Deck the halls. Adding some festive decoration with images or animation is a quick win that can inject some fun into your regular communications and catch people’s attention. These campaigns can be a great time to add a GIF, adding some humour and festivity. Find out more about using GIFs in our animation in email blog. 
• Seasons greetings. Get creative, and have more fun with your tone by tweaking your subject lines and copy. Play on a popular phrase or holiday song such as, ‘What we’re thankful for this Thanksgiving’. This is also a great opportunity to experiment, adding some fun and relevant emoji in your emails. Just remember not to stray too far from your brand and tone to ensure your communications are still recognizable to your audience.
• Get all your baubles in a row. If you're running any holiday campaigns on your social channels, highlight this in your emails and encourage participation and sharing. Similarly, if you create any festive themed content such as a blog post, make sure to share this in your emails.

To Wrap Up...

With the end of the year in sight, it may be tempting to begin winding down your marketing efforts. However, this season can be one of your most successful times of year and a great way to boost annual ROI. Engage your members and potential members with fun, sincere-yet-strategic, targeted communications to maximize your marketing campaigns until the end of the year and beyond. Don’t be a Grinch this holiday season - spread some festive cheer!