Business owners and shoppers alike want to save time during the holidays. Shoppers are shopping online to avoid crazy crowds, shipping products themselves and gift wrapping. Business owners need to think about saving time as well so they can make the most out of these few short months. Here are 10 ideas to help you save time with your email marketing so you can start to bring those customers and sales in the door fast.

Schedule Weekly Emails Now – Whether it be online or on paper, get a calendar going now and input when you’ll be launching your email marketing campaigns. Then stick to your schedule.

Do 5 At Once – Set aside 2 hours when you’re least busy and bang out a bunch of emails! Create one holiday template and use it over and over. Save time by copying your campaigns instead of starting each one from scratch, then just simply change the products you’ll be offering.

Get on the Early Bird Bus – As much as  you’ll have last minute shoppers, your loyal customers could get to you early, if you give them incentives. Get a jump on the season and start marketing now, your competitors are!

Promote “Top 10 Best Sellers” List – People want to buy what’s hot, so let them know what’s hot with your products. This makes it easy for you and saves time for your shoppers too.

Promote “Top 20 Under $20” List – These days people are looking for hot deals, quick gifts and stocking stuffers, so make sure you let them know what’s hot in their price range.

Extend Your Customer Service Hours – People will be shopping at all times of day and night so if you’re around to help out all the better. Try a live chat solution if you can’t “man the phones” live. Then tell your customers in your emails that you send out.

Get Holiday Social! – And I’m not just talking about going to parties! Offer email, Facebook and Twitter-only offers to each audience. You might find that you’re getting more people signing up for your email list or more social media followers because of this.

Work the Last Minute Crowd – Stay open later, ship up to the last minute and offer gift baskets. This is another time saver for your customers so make sure you send out your “Last Minute” deals in an email and let them know when you’ll guarantee shipping by or when you’ll be closing your doors so you can celebrate too!

Use All of Your Email Real Estate – Include offers in your confirmation and thank you emails after someone purchases. If they’ve had a positive experience with you, they’ll think of you when they have another gift to buy.

Send Your Customers a “10 Ways We’ll Save You Time This Holiday Season” – Just like we’re doing here, you can do this for your customers. If you’re doing all of these things (or a few of them), why not send an email campaign preparing your customers for what you’ll be doing for them to save them time this holiday season.

If you’ve got some ideas for how you’ll be saving time for you or your customers we’d love to hear them!

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