Have you ever forgotten the obvious items you needed for a holiday? It’s a rhetorical question of course. Who hasn’t started out for the beach looking for a shop that sells sun cream at a price which won’t make you turn red in the face? This is a gap that email marketing can fill. 

I’ll run the risk of being thought of as having a beard and admit to attending a three-day folk festival in Yorkshire over the long weekend of 17-19 May. It was a long way from where I lived, making it five days for me, and there was no opportunity to return for the essential items that I, and others, had forgotten. So I had a list.

My penchant for lists makes me the butt of jokes from friends. Whilst the derision I’m subject to can irritate, I get my own back when friends ask, ‘Did you bring any plasters with you? We seem to have run out.’ I hope I look suitably smug when I ask, ‘What size do you need?’ I’ve brought the lists to perfection over a number of years. There’s got to be an opportunity to support an email marketing campaign by providing lists for subscribers to check through.

If you sell anything useful for holidays, from flights to insect repellent, why not have landing pages set up giving advice to those off on holiday. It doesn’t even have to be for strange and exotic locations, especially if the suggestion that the Brexit impasse has given rise to an increase in ‘staycations’ is correct. 

If you make the list easily downloadable they will see your strategically placed logo on the form every time they refer to it. You can use what you list to your advantage. 

You should highlight those products you sell, and suggest they compare the prices with those they anticipate at their destination. You will naturally send the marketing emails in good time for them to order the items, but be aware that some people will check the list very near their departure time and so realise they are missing essential, or even luxury, items too late to go to the shops.

Your subscribers will want to know whether you can deliver the items in a hurry. If your systems can cope, give them a deadline. Next day delivery if ordered before 3pm is very tempting. You might feel it necessary to have an additional charge for such rapid delivery, and those who have suddenly discovered what is not there will probably be willing to pay the additional sum. 

You can still offer ‘free delivery’ if they don’t mind waiting that extra day. How about pointing out that you can deliver to their holiday address if they are leaving first thing in the morning? How grateful they will feel for you relieving that pre-holiday ‘have I got everything’ panic.

I like lists. They save me having to think. A lot of my friends have asked for copies of my lists, and a couple have even suggested additions. Now there’s a blog idea.