Plan a holiday email marketing campaign in 20 minutes

• Email gives customers who agreed to hear from you a reason to come back. If you worry about bothering people or don’t know what to write, start with a relevant holiday offer.
• Build your campaign around one problem, one solution and one offer. Think about what your product or service helps customers do—and what makes your offer worth acting on.
• Plan four emails in 20 minutes, even if it’s your first campaign. Start about 14 days before your deadline: introduce the problem, explain the solution, share the offer and send a final reminder. Give customers a way to buy in every email.

The holidays are coming, and small business owners have a lot to juggle. You need to post on social media, update your website and somehow find time to tell customers what you have planned.

Where do you start? With a simple holiday email marketing strategy.

When I’m working with business owners, email is often overlooked. Some say they don’t want to bother people. Others just don’t know what to write. And some just don’t like sending emails.

But think about a restaurant you like. They send you an email showing you that dish you wanted to try—and that brings you back.

If you have customers who have agreed to hear from you, email can be especially effective. You can put a relevant holiday offer directly in front of people who already know your business and give them a clear way to act.

In 20 minutes, I can help you plan a four-email campaign around one customer problem, one solution and one offer. You can then easily turn that outline into emails. Here’s how to start.

Answer these five questions first. One sentence for each is enough. We’ll use a catering business as an example; the details below are hypothetical.

• What is my goal?

Example: Sell holiday dinner packages for pickup.

• Who am I trying to reach?

Example: Local customers hosting a family holiday dinner.

• What problem do they have?

Example: They want to host but do not want to spend the whole day cooking.

• What outcome do they want?

Example: A meal they feel good serving and more time with their guests.

• What offer can I make?

Example: Order a holiday dinner package by the deadline and receive a complimentary dessert.

The offer could be a bundle, a discount or something extra with a purchase. Think about what makes what you offer valuable to your customer. For our host, the benefit is having dinner taken care of. The dessert adds another reason to order. Choose an offer you can afford and deliver on as promised.

I use a four-part email sequence to provide structure to a campaign: the problem, solution, offer and offer again. You’re giving customers four reasons to consider the same purchase, and each email gives the customer a different reason to consider the same purchase.

Sales tip: Give customers a way to buy in every email. The first two can link to the dinner package; the last two emphasize the promotion. Within each email, use one primary call to action and repeat it where it’s easy to find.

When I write emails, I use the AIDA copywriting framework: attention, interest, desire and action. It helps me move from the subject that catches someone’s attention to the step I want them to take. I specifically detail the following for each email in the campaign:

• Attention: What will make this customer stop and read? Name the challenge in your subject line or opening.
• Interest: What information will keep them reading?
• Desire: Why will that matter to them? Show how it gives them more time with guests.
• Action: What should they do next? Link directly to the order page.

Work backward from your offer deadline. Aim to start about two weeks before it ends, with the problem and solution emails in the first week, three or four days apart. Send the offer announcement and final reminder within a couple of days of each other, with the reminder arriving before the deadline. That keeps the offer fresh in the customer’s mind.

Write all four send dates beside your outline. Make sure customers have enough time to act and that your ordering deadline allows you to fulfill their purchases. Use urgency that is real, such as a catering cutoff or an actual promotion end date.

I use AI tools to help write my emails and then go back and adjust them to make sure they sound like my brand voice. Knowing the framework and what I want each message to accomplish helps me give it direction. You can use your outline the same way, starting with one email at a time.

Try this prompt with the answers you wrote during the exercise:

“Help me draft the first email in a four-email holiday campaign for [business]. My goal is [goal]. My audience is [audience], and their challenge is [problem]. They want [desired outcome]. My product or service helps by [solution]. My offer is [offer and terms]. This first email should address the problem and introduce my solution. Use attention, interest, desire and action. Keep the language clear and conversational, with one call to action: [action and link]. Suggest a subject line and preheader. Use only the facts I provide.”

For each remaining email, change the instruction to match its job in your outline. Review the AI-generated drafts yourself and check that every detail, promise and offer term is accurate.

Start with your existing customers and give them a reason to come back. Even if they don’t need what you’re offering right now, they may know someone who does.