This document provides guidance for marketers to plan their holiday email marketing campaigns. It outlines specific steps to take each month from July through October to establish benchmarks, audit forms and content, build communication plans, and test emails. The goal is to drive more revenue during the busy holiday season with advanced planning and preparation. Key activities include analyzing past performance, recruiting subject line teams, meeting with partners, acquiring new subscribers, and creating contingency plans for promotions that may need to change.

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Hear that? It’s the holiday season sneaking up on you! Each day brings us closer to the busiest time
of year for marketers and it will be here before we know it. Advanced planning can position you and
your team for success by driving more revenue with less stress and more joy.
This guide will step through the months leading up to the holiday rush and present steps you can
take to make sure you are meeting monthly planning goals.
July
Establish Holiday Benchmarks
Weekly or monthly reports may already exist for the 2012 holiday season but that may be too broad
of an approach. As a first step toward developing your communication plan, focus on trends within
key holiday promotional periods from last year.
Identify which emails worked best and determine which variables led to success. Note how the
time of the deployment and the time before a major shopping day or holiday impacted conversions.
If promotions varied, discuss the promotions that didn’t connect with shoppers and key-in on how
additional success can be gained from evolving last year’s promotions into 2013. Use this data to
establish open, click and conversion benchmarks and goals for big dates such as Black Friday or
the last day of shipping. Compare your sending patterns against those of other brands by reviewing
Bronto’s “Email Trends & Tactics from the 2011 Holiday Season” report.
• Compare your sending patterns against those of other brands by viewing Bronto’s
“What Just Happened? A 2012 Black Friday Recap and Analysis” on-demand webinar.
Recruit a Subject Line Team
Great minds do not think alike. That’s what makes them great! Build a small team to
contribute subject lines throughout the season. Find the winning subject lines from last
year and analyze the following factors:
Length: Did size matter? Perhaps a shorter subject line helped your mailing
stand out in a cluttered inbox.
Tone: Were the winning subject lines playful, promotional, elusive, or a mix?
Did your subscribers respond to subject lines differently as the countdown to
Christmas approached?
Special Characters: Using special characters like arrows, snowflakes or hearts
can make you remail stand out in a cluttered inbox. Start testing subject lines with
special characters now to better understand how your subscribers will respond.
Special characters can lose impact if overused. Go into the season understanding
which characters resonate with your customers and how frequently they should be
used to gain maximum impact.
2012 Key Holiday Period
Thanksgiving Promotional Period Tues 11/20 – Thu 11/22
Black Friday Promotional Period Thu 11/15 – Sun 11/25
Cyber Week Promotional Period Fri 11/23 – Thu 11/29
Cyber Monday Promotional Period Sun 11/25 – Tue 11/27
Christmas Promotional Period Thu 11/29 – Tue 12/25
New Year’s Period Wed 12/26 – Sun 01/06

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Commit to writing five subject line options for each mailing. This may sound like a lot of work but
this will be helpful on many levels. Not only will you have various perspectives on how the content
should be promoted, but you can also use the options for subject line testing. The remaining op-
tions can also be candidates for remailings should an email underperform.
Partner Collaboration
Many brands and their partners will go into code-freeze in September or October. Meet with your
technology team and your partners to discuss development schedules for the holiday season and
lock down any new integrations, modifications to existing data transfers and other backend pro-
cesses while resources are available. To allow enough time for implementation, these meetings
should be on your calendar in July. Here are a few topics to put on the agenda.
Meet with your Email Service Provider (ESP) to discuss your tentative communication
plan. Discuss your holiday frequency and volume. Your ESP may be able to identify
ways you can streamline your email production, deployment and data exchanges within
the platform.
Confirm that your sending infrastructure is optimized. Determine if you should move to
a dedicated IP. Moving to a dedicated IP could help troubleshoot delivery issues during
the holiday season. Learn more about dedicated IPs and whether you should make the
move in Bronto’s “Improve Email Deliverability with a Dedicated IP” white paper.
This is the time to implement abandoned cart emails if they are not currently part of
your marketing mix. Meet with your shopping cart partner and your ESP to discuss
how to best implement abandoned cart emails while you have time for any required
development. If you are currently sending abandoned cart messages, now is the time
for a comprehensive review to ensure content is up-to-date and data exchanges are
functioning properly and to identify optimization opportunities. Compare your
existing abandoned cart program, or get ideas for getting started, by reading
Bronto’s “From Abandon to Conversion: Why Shoppers Abandon Carts
and What Merchants Can Do About It” white paper.
August
Audit Forms
Document Form Locations: If you don’t already have a list of every form that
collects new email subscriptions, now is the time to document all forms and the
related URLs. This will help to complete updates even after the holidays are
over and to isolate issues during the busy holiday season.
Acquisition: With the ever expanding number of sites that can be used for email acqui-
sition, it is vital to audit the forms to not only verify that they are functioning correctly both
from the user experience and the data capture perspectives, but also to make sure you
are collecting relevant data. Check preference center, opt-in form, and unsubscribe form
functionality. Put yourself in a customer’s shoes and identify if forms are asking for too
much information on specific sites. Visitors to your site may be willing to provide more
information than a browser on Facebook. Discover methods of optimizing your sign-up
forms, check out “Get the Sign Up: Improve the Form”.

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Preference Centers: These forms are primarily accessed from links within an email.
Make sure all outgoing emails, including triggered messages are linking to the most up-to-
date preference center and that the links are functioning properly. On the form itself, confirm
that all subscription and unsubscription options are available and that data values are
properly populated.
Forms for Mobile Devices: Test function and usability of forms on smartphones and tablets.
Ensure that the forms render properly, correctly capture data points and are easy for the
potential subscriber to use. The holidays will bring increase in-store traffic. Customize forms
for mobile devices and plan to promote them in your stores to increase subscriber acquisition
and help the customer to take advantage of both in-store and online shopping opportunities.
Review Last Year’s Communication Plan
At this stage, you have already reviewed mailing data from the 2012 holiday season and penciled
in a few ideas for your 2013 communication plan. Now, go back in time and review what you had
originally planned to send last year. Find the gaps between your intentions and the reality of what
was sent. Did you veer off course because of underperformance, technical issues, or resource
limitations? Read more about events that could take you off plan and how to get back on plan
here: “Uh-oh... Black Friday isn’t going so well. What do you do?” Factor those deviations
into your 2013 holiday communication plan development.
Build the 2013 Holiday Communication Plan
It’s time to plan your roadmap for holiday success. A well-built communication plan should include,
at a minimum, the following elements:
- Send date - Mailing name
- Day of week - Subject line options
- Promotion information - Goal, actual, and difference for open, click, and conversion rate
- Segment to be mailed - Goal, actual, and difference for revenue
Use this sample 2013 Holiday Communication Plan (Excel file) to get started. Do not
delete rows for days when you are not mailing. The spaces will provide a visual representation
of time between mailings. Although numerous reports will be generated throughout the holiday
season, documenting your mailing plan will help you track progress, measure performance,
troubleshoot issues, as well as provide a record of the season when you start planning for
the 2014 holiday season.
Promotional Contingency Plan
Everyone hopes to see green going into the holiday season, but consumer behavior is a moving
target, so disappointment is always a looming possibility. The unexpected need to switch promotion-
al gears mid-season can be frustrating. From designing a new email creative to implementing the
promotion in your commerce platform, resources will be needed and the task will be stressful.

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Avoid the chaos and minimize stress, by preparing back-up promotions or variations on what
isn’t working. This could mean switching from a dollar discount to percentage off or including free
shipping, a free gift, or a gift card with the existing offer. Have alternative email creative ready to
go should your numbers not meet your goals. Have the promotions set up on your commerce
platform so they can be implemented when needed. An ounce of prevention could save your
holiday numbers.
Establish Remailing Strategy
You may have included remailings in your communication plan, but you should also be prepared to
remail other messages throughout the season. Since the majority of retailers will significantly
increase mailing frequency this time of year, it is important to be strategic about your unplanned
remailings. Sending too many messages to your subscribers could result in increased unsub-
scriptions and abuse complaints which may lead to your mailings being blocked. Determine
which mailings in your communication plan would be good candidates. Perhaps a “Free Ship-
ping Ends Today” mailing could be remailed as “Free Shipping-Hours Left.” Consider excluding
subscribers who have already purchased and those who have not opened the first message
from the campaign, leaving only those who have either opened and/or clicked but not pur-
chased. This group of engaged subscribers has shown interest and the reminder may help take
them to the next step in the purchase funnel. Learn more remailing strategies on the Bronto
Blog: “Remailing: It’s Like Printing Money!”
September
Reengagement and List Cleaning
Getting your emails into the inbox is always important, but it is essential during the holidays.
With the annual increase in email traffic resulting in subscribers dealing with overstuffed in-
boxes, it is important to make sure you are sending your messages to a clean and engaged list.
Start by determining levels of disengagement and inactivity within your subscriber population.
Look for subscribers who have been on the list for a period of time (or have received a certain
number of emails) and have not opened or clicked. Adjust these variables until you find signifi-
cant populations of subscribers who have stopped interacting with your emails. With two months
before the major holiday madness, you have time to either reengage the subscribers or remove
them from your list. Send a multi-message reengagement series that tells these subscribers
they are missed. Offer a small incentive for them to open, click and convert. If the first messages
are ignored, send one last email notifying the subscriber that they will be removed from your list
if they do not take an action. In addition to decreasing blocking risks, trimming the deadweight
from your list before the holidays begin will give you a better view into the engagement of active
subscribers. Learn more about developing a reengagement campaign in the “Will You Stay Or
Will You Go Now? How to Successfully Run a Make-Up or Break-Up Campaign” Bronto
Blog post.

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New Subscriber Acquisition
If you followed this guide and audited your forms last month, you are well positioned to put them
to work! Feature your email sign up form above the fold on your site. Highlight any incentives a
new subscriber will receive to encourage the opt-in. More aggressive tactics would be running a
sweepstakes or using a pop-over sign up form for new visitors to your site. Dedicate Facebook posts
and tweets to communicate the value of becoming an email subscriber and call out any exclusive
email offers that are available to new subscribers.
Improve Subscriber Data Profiles
Use this opportunity to also build out a more complete data profile of your existing subscribers by
sending a dedicated message asking subscribers to update their preferences. These campaigns are
often coupled with a one-time discount or a giveaway for taking the action. If you have added key
data points that will be essential for the holiday season, focus on asking the subscriber to update
those specific data points.
Develop Daily,Weekend Summary and Weekly Reports
It’s time for a fire drill! Everyone on your team and those that you report to will want insight into the
performance of the holiday email campaigns. Be prepared by developing daily, weekend and weekly
reports now. Use actual mailings going out this month to build the reports. Share the reports with the
team to determine if additional metrics should be added. A few dress rehearsals and an approved
report format will help make this less of a chore when everyone on the team wants to see numbers.
Be sure to include a screenshot of the emails in the report. Everyone will appreciate being able to
match the metrics back to the visual. Get more info on what you should include and how to calculate
the data in the “Helpful Formulas for Email Marketing Analysis” Bronto Blog post.
October
Review Transactional Messages
The beauty of transactional and triggered messages is that they require very little attention throughout
the year. This often means that these messages can be ignored. Revisit your transactional and
triggered messages to make sure all customer service information, such as contact information and
return policies, is up to date. Make sure the sending information like From Name and From Address
match your non-triggered messages. Send tests to ensure the message renders properly and that
all links are functional. Don’t forget the general rule that 80% of the message must relate to the
transaction and 20% can be used for marketing purposes. Learn how to optimize your transactional
messages in Bronto’s “Put the ‘Act’ in Transact” white paper.
Create Emergency Contact List
This document should include everyone on your team and related vendors as well as the reasons
they should be contacted, especially outside of business hours. Having this information organized
before the holiday rush can help to decrease panic in a crisis situation and allow you to more
quickly resolve issues. Download a “Holiday Emergency Contact List” (Excel file) template and
get started today.

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Content Evaluation
For this exercise, open your email in your email client and evaluate the following areas:
Scanability: Now that the email is open, immediately close your email client. What do you
remember about the email? That’s about as long as many subscribers will give for you to
communicate your message. Were you able to comprehend the content? If not, optimize the
above-the-fold space of your email and consider a font size or imagery that can be understood
in a quick glance.
From Name: Are the From Name and Form Address accurate and up to date? Don’t forget to
check triggered and transactional messages.
Pre-header: Are you optimizing the pre-header area to include super subject line copy that can
be viewed in the inbox before the email is opened? Are you linking to a browser-based version
of the email?
Alt Text: Do you have alt text for images? This is especially important for new subscribers
acquired during the holiday season who will not see images by default in their first email.
Image to Text to Ratio: Are you balancing the amount of images and text in the email content?
This will provide a better customer experience for subscribers who are unable to see images.
Calls to Action: How captivating are your calls to action? Avoid using “click here” multiple
times by making action words clickable like “Find your size” or “See the specs.”
Social Calls to Action: Is the function of social icons clear? Ask yourself if a subscriber would
know if the Facebook icon in your navigation would result in liking your brand, sharing the
email, or sharing a specific item. Clarifying the expectation of what happens post-click can
result in greater adoption of your social links.
Mobile-Friendly Design: Your customers will be using a mix of traditional computers and
mobile devices to research products, plan shopping trips and actually purchase during the holi-
days. Your email designs should render and function in the mobile inbox to ensure a positive
and productive customer experience. Find out how you can optimize your email messages in
the two-part blog post “Tablets Are Taking Over! Are Your Emails Ready? - Part I | Part II”
Fine Print: Make sure the following are up to date:
Legal info Phone number
Privacy policy Unsubscribe included in every email
Postal address
Learn more ways to optimize your creative in the “Find Your Email Inspiration: 4 Creative
Tactics” blog post.
Test of Email Content
Create email accounts with the top ISPs and subscribe to your email program. See how your welcome
email looks with images turned off. Send multiple messages to each account and make sure content
is rendering correctly and that all links are functional. This test should be completed in all of the top
web browsers on both PC and Mac platforms. As many subscribers will view your email on a mobile
device, also check rendering and functionality on mobile phones and tablets. To save you some time,
use this “Holiday Testing Grid” (Excel file) to comprehensively QA your email content.
Happy planning and happy holiday marketing!
1-888-BRONTO1 bronto.com

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USPS - US
Mail Type 2013 Deadline
Parcel post®
12/14/2013
Letters Cards 12/20/2013
Priority Mail®
12/21/2013
Express Mail®
12/22/2013
CANADA
Mail Type 2013 Deadline
Letters Cards (First Class) 12/09/2013
Prioritly Mail International®
12/13/2013
Global Express Guaranteed®
12/17/2013
Global Express Guaranteed®
12/20/2013
EUROPE
Mail Type 2013 Deadline
Letters Cards (First Class) 12/09/2013
Priority Mail International®
12/13/2013
Express Mail Guaranteed®
12/16/2013
Global Express Guaranteed®
12/19/2013
APO/FPO/DPO
Mail Type 2013 Deadline
Parcel Post®
Service 11/13/2013
Letters Cards (First Class) 12/09/2013
Prioritly Mail®
12/09/2013
Express Mail®
Military Service 12/17/2013
FEDEX - US
Mail Type 2013 Deadline
FedEx Ground®
12/13/2013
FedEx Home Delivery®
12/18/2013
FedEx 2Day®
12/20/2013
FedEx First Overnight®
12/23/2013
FedEx Priority Overnight®
12/23/2013
FedEx Standard Overnight®
12/23/2013
FedEx Express®
12/23/2013
UPS - US
Mail Type 2013 Deadline
UPS Ground 12/18/2013
UPS 3 Day Select 12/19/2013
UPS 2nd Day Air 12/20/2013
UPS Next Day Air®
12/23/2013
2013 Holiday Season Important Dates
Shipping Deadlines Holidays and Events
* Dates may change. Confirm dates wtih the service provider.
Showing last date to ship to ensure receipt by Christmas.
October
10/08/2013 Columbus Day
10/14/2013 Thanksgiving (Canada)
10/31/2013 Halloween
November
11/03/2013 Daylight Saving Time Ends
11/11/2013 Veterans Day
11/27/2013 – 12/05/2013 Hanukkah
11/28/2013 Thanksgiving Day
11/29/2013 Black Friday
December
12/02/2013 Cyber Monday
12/21/2013 First Day of Winter
12/25/2013 Christmas Day
12/26/2013 Boxing Day
12/31/2013 New Year’s Eve
January
01/01/2014 New Year’s Day
1-888-BRONTO1 bronto.com
About Bronto
Bronto Software provides a cloud-based marketing platform
for retailers to drive revenue through their email, mobile
and social campaigns. The platform is used by over 1000
organizations worldwide, including Party City, Armani
Exchange, Timex, Samsonite and Gander Mountain. Bronto
is listed as the leading self-service email marketing provider
to the Internet Retailer Top 1000. Bronto is headquartered
in Durham, NC with an office in London, UK. For more
information, visit bronto.com.