The holiday season is right around the corner! With November and December representing over 20% of annual revenue (1), we’ve laid out a few quick wins to make the most of the season!
Here is the first of our two-part article.
1. ENCOURAGE YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMERS TO SHOP
We often hear sending the right message at the right time and at the right place is crucial for content relevance. Segmenting your database by consumer behaviour is crucial, especially during a period where inboxes are overflowing with commercial emails.
- Re-activate last year’s holiday buyers: identify this segment using their purchase date(s) and send engaging emails with a language that speaks to them such as, “will we see you this time?”
- Identify your high spenders: send an exclusive offer to those who are most likely to convert revenue. Simply calculate your consumers’ lifetime value (LTV) to identify them.
- Extend your offer: Consumers are more likely to shop if there’s a sense of urgency, so extending an offer for a limited time can help increase conversion and revenue. For example, last Black Friday we sent emails with an exceptional promotion that was extended each time, only targeting those who had not opened or clicked previously. The result? Revenues skyrocketed.
2. Get new customers
With so many people looking to buy, it’s the perfect time to grab new customers!
Nowadays, social media outlets such as Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and even YouTube have been able to incorporate Buy buttons that help drive revenue.
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- Buyable pins with Pinterest (US only for now): with buyable pins, users can find what they need by searching for certain types of products. This is a particularly important channel to incorporate in your strategy if you’re a beauty, fashion or apparel retailer and are targeting mostly women.
- Shop now with Facebook ads: there are multiple Call-to-Action buttons you can use in your ads besides “Shop Now.” For instance, you can show multiple products to entice customers to shop on your website with a Carousel Ad. Facebook also allows you to use Audiences, where you can target the kind of customers you wish to attract. Instagram has the same types of feature offered for audience targeting, as well as a Shop button.
- YouTube TrueView: YouTube now allows you to display product details and images, as well as a “Shop Now” button, all integrated in your video ad.
“Sending the right message at the right time and at the right place is crucial for content relevance”
Create a dedicated seasonal campaign with AdWords, using extensions to tailor ads to the occasion:
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- With Black Friday being promotionally-driven, use callout ad extensions to incentivize people to buy. If you’re offering free shipping or any other incentive, make sure to mention it.
- Since it’s the holidays, make sure you tailor your ads to gifting. Since shoppers may be looking for inspiration, promote gift category landing pages in sitelink ad extension to encourage them to visit your website.
Read part two here.
AUTHOR
Rym Benchaar | Lead Strategist
(1) RJ Metrics Ecommerce Holiday Trends