Holiday campaigns are the ultimate stress test. A successful season requires precision and agility, especially once campaigns are live. Even if your holiday campaigns are locked in, there’s still time to optimize and improve performance, ensuring long-term value well beyond Black Friday. Based on billions of promotional emails sent through Marigold during the 2024 holiday season and industry best-practices, here are the last-minute adjustments that protect performance, and turn seasonal pressure into long-term value.
Build flexibility into every holiday campaign
At this stage, agility matters as much as planning did a few months back. Customers expect real-time accuracy. Use dynamic content and real-time updates, which make it possible to replace sold-out items, adjust pricing, or spotlight new offers without rebuilding campaigns. Personalization at the moment of open has become more common, helping messages stay relevant even as conditions change.
Preparation matters on the team side as well. Many brands establish decision guardrails in advance of the peak season. They define who is authorized to adjust campaigns, what metrics trigger those decisions, and how quickly changes should be made. This structure prevents performance dips when the market shifts.
On that note, be ready to pivot. If shipping timelines change, communicate quickly to protect customer trust. The brands that succeed mid-flight are the ones with connected tools, seamless data flow, and a team empowered to act fast.
Avoid inbox overload during peak season
Anticipate inbox congestion between Thanksgiving or Black Friday and New Year’s. Higher send volumes are likely to impact your click-to-conversion rates, so protect returns by keeping the path from click to purchase as simple as possible.
The holiday calendar is a lever that can be adjusted once campaigns are underway. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the week before Christmas, December 26, and 31 are anchor points for most programs. Yet engagement often fluctuates around these peak moments due to high send volumes.
Cap Black Friday sends at two, this limits overexposure and keeps spam complaint rates lower. You can also lean into quieter days, which may produce above-average engagement as inbox competition eases. Boxing Day and New Year’s campaigns frequently perform well, especially for retailers with international audiences.
Weekends are another variable to watch. When a peak date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, moving part of the plan earlier in the week often results in stronger performance. Even small shifts, such as staggering send times by 10 to 15 minutes, helps messages avoid inbox congestion.
Many brands choose to batch send by region or segment rather than launching globally all at once. This reduces strain on systems and limits the risk of delays. Live dashboards should be active so teams can monitor key metrics and respond in real time. Clear monitoring roles and escalation paths help campaigns adapt quickly, while contingency campaigns provide backup options if results fall short.
Catch holiday campaign issues before customers
Quality assurance and monitoring are vital for keeping campaigns on track. Every launch should be checked for working links, images, personalization, and rendering across devices.
Mobile matters most, since the majority of customers will open on their phones. Run QA to ensure emails scale gracefully from desktop to mobile, and test across popular devices and clients to prevent abandonment.
Ensure your SMS is pointing to mobile-friendly landing pages. As mobile messaging evolves, many retailers are also using RCS to deliver richer, branded experiences alongside email and SMS.
Testing should continue after launch, so utilizing quick A/B tests on subject lines, calls to action, or send times can generate incremental improvements that matter during peak season.
Keeping a run log of adjustments made during the season allows teams to review what worked and what did not. Enterprise brands such as VF Corporation, which owns The North Face, Vans, and Timberland, use approaches like market-based batching, continuous monitoring, and preplanned contingencies. Combined with robust technology, this approach ensures stability even when traffic surges 100–200% above normal during peak season.
Extend value post-purchase
The post-purchase experience shapes whether seasonal shoppers return after the holidays. It’s the time to show appreciation, which often leads to strong open rates. Transactional emails such as order confirmations, shipping updates, and delivery notices reassure buyers while reducing strain on customer support teams.
Returns and exchanges can also provide valuable signals. They are opportunities to trigger recovery campaigns or referral offers that encourage continued engagement. Looking ahead to January, the season often brings an influx of first-time buyers and new sign-ups. Early-year re-engagement campaigns and loyalty incentives can convert them into long-term customers.
Conclusion: keep your holiday marketing flexible and focused
Even if your holiday calendar is locked in, there’s still plenty you can do now to adapt, protect performance, and prepare for what comes next.
By staying flexible in-flight, making small timing adjustments, tightening QA and monitoring, and prioritizing mobile-first execution, you can keep campaigns on track through peak season and turn holiday buyers into long-term customers.
See how Marigold helps brands stay flexible and perform through every peak →
