It’s never too early to start creating your holiday email marketing plan. But we’re here to help you get prepped for a fantastic holiday season. So let’s jump right in…

To begin, take a look at the calendar and the holidays, and decide which ones will work best for your business and customers. Think about the products or services you want to feature in your holiday emails and anything special you want to do around them. For example, some offers or promotions like Thanks for Being Our Customer, the 12 Days of Savings, a Holiday Gift Guide, or something that works well for your business.

After you plan out which holidays you want to focus on, plot out when you want to send your emails, keeping in mind that plenty of other businesses will be mailing too. Last year VerticalResponse sent more emails on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving than on Cyber Monday, containing a mix of Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials. We also noticed that Cyber Monday extended well beyond the one day, so maybe 2013 is the year of Cyber Week.

You may want to use an online calendar, the marketing calendar in your VerticalResponse account or a paper one to keep track of your mailing days. Whichever method works best for you, plan the dates and times you want to send each of your holiday marketing emails, so you know what your deadlines are for creating each of them.

You can start hinting at the specials that will be coming in your emails or newsletters now; a teaser image for a sale or special gift section of your website, or a note about what’s to come soon. And if you need to create images or landing pages, keep in mind the amount of time required to make them and the dates you plan to send your emails. By the beginning of November you should start sending out Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday themed emails.

At this busy time of year having a plan for your holiday email marketing can help save you time and effort all through the holiday season allowing you to focus on your business and your customers.

Make sure you check out our free Everything Holiday resource that can help you make the most of your holiday email marketing. It’s got a handy email subject line generator, holiday themed call to action buttons, useful guides and a lot more to help you this holiday season.

Is your holiday email marketing plan ready? Any other tips you would add? Share in the comments below.

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