All week long customers have been calling in discussing their plans for sending out holiday email marketing campaigns next week and the week after. Tis’ definitely the season to harness the power of email marketing to spread your message!

One customer posed an interesting question to one of our support representatives. He asked whether it was appropriate to advertise one of his products alongside his holiday wishes. When you really think about it, this is an interesting question.

Does it diminish the thoughtfulness of your holiday eCard if it comes across as a promotional piece?
Do people see your holiday eCard as a promotional piece anyway and expect to see advertising?

Personally, I would keep my product promotion out of my holiday email marketing campaigns. I think there is an implicit brand promotion in your holiday eCard without explicitly highlighting a product. Your holiday email marketing campaigns are a time for you to tell your customers that you are thinking about them and to wish them a happy new year. Doing this scores serious brownie points for your brand and I think you lose out on that if you say “Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Click Here To Buy This Product”.

That being said, there is nothing wrong with putting a link back to your website (… I’d definitely encourage that!) You can even put a message saying you have many new products coming out in the upcoming year to get your customer’s excited.

If you try to do too much in one email, then you run the risk of accomplishing nothing. So, ask yourself, what is the real goal of your holiday email marketing campaigns and you should come up with the exact right answer for what tactic you should adopt.