Christmas time is gift time. Many retailers are already in the middle of preparations to close the current year with a high-turnover Christmas business. Targeted customer segments are already being created for online campaigns and personalized incentives are planned. Anyone who applies these systematic approaches to letters, postcards, etc., and delivers personalized Christmas mailings in a better segmented manner, will add a particularly profitable channel to their Christmas campaigns.

What makes the direct mail channel so special

With direct mails, almost 100% of existing customers can be addressed without the need for explicit consent (opt-in). This has not changed even with the current DSGVO. In addition, a Christmas card on the home desk lasts several weeks and even converts last-minute shoppers just before Christmas.

If you send your most loyal customers relevant gift ideas as personalised Christmas cards and round them off with a personal message, high conversion rates are guaranteed. Since the willingness to buy is particularly high at the most festive time of the year, personalized Christmas mailings are a profitable addition to cross-channel campaigns, especially for customer reactivation.

Christmas mailings can be used particularly profitably in the following use cases:

Gifts, gifts and more gifts

As every year, Christmas time is all about presents. Whether at the last minute or weeks before – every customer has his own philosophy when buying presents. The challenge for companies is to address all customers with relevant content at the right time. Those who rely solely on email marketing have little chance of meeting these requirements. Because Christmas emails quickly get lost in the crowded inbox or the necessary opt-in for addressing is missing.

After three days at the latest, the incentive to buy has disappeared from the scene or the email is untraceable. Anyone who wants to reach last-minute shoppers and early birds alike should supplement their marketing mix with print Christmas mailings. A personalised Christmas card creates relevant incentives, expresses exclusivity and lasts on the kitchen table at home until there are only a few days left until the festive season. Thus, companies successfully convert even the last-minute shopper at the last minute.

Example

You are an online retailer for high-quality accessories and have created a top customer segment for the Christmas business. This segment is also divided into female and male customers. To reach all top customers with relevant gift ideas, you decide to send personalized Christmas cards to these segments. 

The female top customer segment receives the message “Surprise him! Here is your exclusive Christmas discount of 20% on your next order. This is how giving presents is fun.” The male top customer segment receives the message “Make her happy. Here is your exclusive Christmas discount of 20% on your next order. This is how giving presents is fun.” On one design you can see elegant men’s watches, on the other high-quality women’s jewellery.

Advent calendar as a bestseller

For Germans, the Advent calendar belongs to the Christmas season like the Christmas tree and gingerbread. But it has no longer stopped with colourful pictures and small chocolate bars for a long time now. Companies use this traditional bestseller to strengthen the brand awareness of their customers already in the Pre-Christmas period. From wine tastings to toys – everything is allowed when it comes to Advent calendars.

It is important that the calendar creates a feeling of exclusivity through high-quality content. Then customers are also happy to buy Advent calendars that cost more than 100 euros. Personalised Christmas mailings offer an ideal opportunity to draw the attention of top customers to this year’s quality calendar with individual incentives.

Example

As an online perfume retailer, you decide to sell two exclusive Advent calendars this year, each with 24 different fragrance samples for men’s and women’s perfumes. In order to boost the success of this venture until December 1, send your top male and female customers a personalized Christmas postcard in October, including a pre-order discount of 15% for the respective calendar.

Christmas time is winter sports time

Germans love winter sports. Consequently, the willingness to buy winter sports equipment is particularly high at Christmas time. Many companies therefore have great opportunities for seasonal peak sales. If you can identify which customers are winter sports fans from the purchasing history of recent years, you can reactivate them extremely profitably with personalised Pre-Christmas mailings. Sales of skis, snowboards and the like thus quickly reach their annual peak.

Example

You run an online shop for sports accessories. The winter season is just around the corner and you want to increase the sales of your winter sports segment during the season. Your segmentation shows which customers have bought ski and winter sports accessories in recent years. 

This year, you will send a personalized postcard to the high value customers of this segment with the message “Your exclusive 15% discount for the next order of our winter sports equipment. Have fun on the slopes!” The visual language shows people skiing with top equipment.

Special sales and sales events

Even stationary chains have to advertise for customers at Christmas time with personalized incentives, because not everyone buys their gifts on the Internet. Christmas mailings, for example, are a great way to attract customers from the region to the department store with discounts on typical gift items. But a postal invitation to the weekly Christmas market in the mall can also quickly lead to a full parking lot.

Example

As the operator of a department store chain, you decide to lure customers into the department store during the Christmas season with a particularly christmassy atmosphere. So you build a small winter village consisting of several stalls and offer typical gift articles as well as hot drinks such as mulled wine and punch. 

To make this effort worthwhile, send a personalised Christmas greeting as a letter to all residents of the region with the message “It’s very christmassy here! Come by and enjoy mulled wine and punch in our winter village during your shopping tour. When you hand in this card you will receive two hot drinks free of charge”.

The time is now – Christmas mailings must be planned well in advance

Early planning is necessary so that the Customer Journey for the Christmas business can be supplemented with print touchpoints as efficiently as possible. Many companies already create concrete segments to send personalized Christmas mailings with as relevant content as possible. The personal messages as well as the relevant designs for letters, postcards, self-mailers, etc. must clearly reflect the Christmas theme and at the same time create relevant incentives.

Because the following also applies to the postal channel: the more relevant the content, the better the conversion rates. If the customer feels addressed by the message and design of a Christmas card, the chance of a purchase is particularly high. This is best achieved if Christmas mailings are operated as systematically as the online channels. Many companies also use 1:1 image personalisation, for example to print individual product images per customer on letters and postcards.

The New Years resolutions are sure to come!

And even if for some retailers there should be nothing for the Christmas business. Don’t worry – the New Years resolution will come for sure! Those who are already planning segments for health, fitness and nutrition topics can start the new year successfully with personalized mailings in January.

optilyz offers you a simple solution to implement your direct mail campaigns. With our platform, direct mails become an integral part of your marketing mix at no extra cost. Just contact us!