For many, the holidays are a time for making spirits bright. For retailers, however, it can easily become one of the most stressful – though lucrative – times of the year.
With holiday shopping sprees and deals arriving earlier each year, brands have to start planning for the rush before the leaves start to change colors. Approximately 30% of people say that they intend to start their holiday shopping between Halloween and Thanksgiving but in reality, 48% of people had actually already begun making gift purchases in August.
So, as we really begin to hit our holiday stride, what can retailers do to surprise and delight their customers with holiday marketing ideas that will increase purchases, ROI, and AOVs?
1. Start with identification.
It’s the same question each year. But many brands still haven’t figured out the secret sauce for driving massive revenue with tactics like triggered email and personalization. This is likely because they’re actually lacking the key ingredient: identification.
Think about it like this: if you don’t know who you’re talking to, how can you market to them effectively? Winning the holiday season has to start with identifying your consumers on all their devices so you can send them relevant marketing messaging across sessions, devices, and browsers.
But what exactly is identification?
True identification means having first-party data that links a consumer’s many devices and that can survive across browsers and sessions. With this link, you can track each visit a device makes to your site, thereby building an accurate view of the visitor’s affinities.
2. Continue with strategic acquisition.
Well-timed email capture techniques that offer consumers something in return for their email can help you identify more than half of your traffic. To do this, examine the behavioral data that your customers offer you.
Are they browsing products without adding to cart? Consider offering a small discount or free shipping in exchange for an email address.
Did they click on an ad about your holiday gift guide and show a bit of engagement? Give them the chance to opt-in today to get even more exclusive deals from your holiday team.
By utilizing these practices, you can spend your ad dollars more efficiently, collate a smart view of your customer, and market to them across their smartphone, computer, tablet, and any other devices they may use — an imperative step, as many consumers use more than one device in the conversion process.
Knowing your customers at a deeper level also helps you use tactics like triggered email.
3. Finish with behavior-triggered emails.
Luckily for your brand, your customers expect lots of deals via email during the holiday season. But that doesn’t just mean batch-and-blast emailing them. You need to pay attention to your customers’ behavioral cues to know what they’re interested in, taking advantage of urgency and scarcity as forms of social proof.
Is something so popular that it’s running out of stock? Is a hit item finally back in stock?
Are your Black Friday sales slashing prices on an item that a customer viewed a few weeks back? Consider creating a few Black Friday email subject line ideas to entice consumers.
If you know which customers have specifically shown intent for those products, you can send them messages for every kind of event that hits your product feed. Some of the biggest game-changer emails we’ve seen are:
- Price-drop
- Low-stock
- Back-in-stock
But, you should be testing this to find what your audience loves and wants to receive. Focusing on these moments will immediately contextualize your relationship with your consumers, a critical step in making your emails stand out when their inboxes are bursting with untargeted chaos.
