Every year, the holidays seem to generate more food, more parties, more travel, more spending, more advertising and now, more email. Recent surveys indicate the biggest increase in holiday marketing for 2006 will be email, which means consumers will be inundated with messages all vying for their attention. For companies banking on the last two months of the year to deliver a big portion of annual sales and profitability, doing email right is an absolute must.

Your Holiday To-Do List

What can you do to maximize the season’s powerful potential? For starters, don’t wait. Lay the groundwork with these important steps:

1. Pick a test partner.If you don’t already use a deliverability service provider (DSP) for testing, pick one now. There are a number of good companies that can help you test messages before you send them out. The two most popular are Pivotal Veracity and Return Path.

2. Make it readable.An HTML readability program will allow you to confirm your emails will appear the way you want them to when opened.

3. Be sure with seedlisting.Most DSPs offer email seedlists containing recipients at a variety of domains so they can determine what percentage of your messages land in inboxes, and identify where and when deliverability problems may be occurring.

4. Protect yourself.Spam, scams and fraud are rampant. Monitoring programs can track domains, IP addresses, URLs and brand names to ensure they are not used by unauthorized parties.

Secrets of Savvy Holiday Marketers

Email marketing during this crucial time of year is more than just adding a seasonal image or greeting to existing campaigns. Pull out all the stops with these winning tactics:

• Stick to the subject.Create subject lines that stand out and appeal to recipients’ current needs. Keep it short, make it urgent and focus on benefits.

• Don’t follow the crowd.Test different days to send your messages. If the entire world is trying to get their messages to customers on Monday because it is the beginning of the week, maybe you should try sending on Wednesday.

• Make it personal.While most stores and TV ads would make us think everyone celebrates Christmas, this obviously is not the case. Email is the one mode of advertising that can be personalized, so if you have the information to customize your messages, use it.

• Be responsive. One study showed 88 percent of customers expect their online inquiries to be resolved within 24 hours. Make sure you’re geared up for holiday traffic spikes so you can fill orders and respond to customer requests quickly.

• Make a suggestion. Put existing data to work to leverage customers’ previous purchases and create remarketing messages that could drive additional purchases.

• Remember to be relevant. Timely, non-selling content could make customers more receptive to your promotional messages. Consider a timesaver newsletter, weekly holiday recipes or super shopper tips.