What’s behind a successful Bank Holiday email? Published April 25, 2016 Hurrah! The May Bank Holiday is upon us! For many of us this means three days off work and a chance to catch up on house work, go glamping or simply fit in that game of football you’ve been planning for weeks. But what do bank holidays mean for your email marketing campaigns? Firstly the weather might well play a big role in how your campaign will perform – will people be stuck indoors re-watching the new Game of Thrones on repeat (and therefore likely to be flicking through their emails) or spending their weekend in the sunshine (potentially checking their email on the go or not at all)? If you suspect the sun will be out over the bank holiday then we suggest investigating how your email renders on different mobile devices, as your subscribers are likely to be out and about checking their emails remotely. It is also worth considering that weekends and bank holidays might not be the best day to send emails due to the general reduction of internet activity when people are busy with family and friends. So how does this affect each industry? Let’s have a look. Retail It’s not rocket science that people have more time over a three day weekend to shop online, but what about in the run up to the bank holiday? Offer your customers special content or offers to use on the bank holiday weekend to build interest and drive customers to your website or shop. Bear in mind that both out-of-stock and overstock inventories can cost retailers thousands of pounds so it’s critical to ensure that your supply chain is tuned into your marketing during the holiday shopping season. Banking and Financial May is the beginning of the financial year, thus providing you with a golden opportunity to give your subscribers the chance to read about options and products that could boost their savings and investments or save them money. It’s not often that the financial services get a chance to communicate with such highly-engaged readers (who also have slightly more time on their hands with the long weekend) so use this time of year wisely! By publicising the products and support you offer which focus on customer service and improving your customers’ financial situation, you automatically remove the hard sell but promote brand trustworthiness with this customer-centric approach. Travel By utilising your customer history you can set up a campaign to promote long weekend breaks in the run up to the weekend or sell a longer holiday during the weekend for those who were left behind at the family BBQ. One of the best ways to create clear and compelling email campaigns is to apply data to personalise messaging. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to put their data to good use and instead send messages that are generic and therefore of less interest to recipients than they could be. For instance, if you know your customers have just been on holiday over Easter, it’s unlikely they’ll be planning to go abroad over the bank holiday too, so use their purchase history to send targeted messages that foster higher engagement and purchase rates. For more tips on how the travel industry can put email marketing to good use, pop along to this blog here. B2B It’s a busy time of year, and business is booming, so why not use the long weekend to send subscribers something off piste and fun? Thanks to email marketing overload, attention spans are short during the holiday season, so to cut through the clutter, email marketing campaigns must be clear, compelling, and a little different – quirkiness doesn’t hurt either to catch your subscribers’ attention. Everyone looks forward to a long weekend and spirits are higher before one, so a catchy, comedic subject line or a more tongue-in-cheek call to action can really grab a reader’s attention. If you want to try something a little different, this could be the perfect opportunity to run an A/B test campaign and see if this new approach fosters more engagement for you. Find out more about how B2B specific email can work successfully by reading our proof that B2B marketing does work blog. Final Thoughts The May bank holiday is the ideal opportunity for any industry to celebrate, sell products and services, or remind their valued customers what they are made of. However, timing isn’t everything – if you’re noticing a dip in your open rates, maybe other factors are contributing to the decline. Here are seven sure fire ways to increase your open and click through rates.