Marketers, wake up and smell the holly.
Christmas Day is more than four months away, but you should already be planning your holiday campaigns.
In a study released last week by email marketing solution Campaigner, a third of the 564 retailers surveyed said that prepping for the holidays before September resulted in an overall successful 2016. Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said that, of any holiday marketing tips, creating marketing content and promotions before September were the most helpful.
Here are a few holiday marketing tips to help you plan for the frenzied Q4 shopping season now:
1. Incorporate video into your early brand awareness efforts. This is one of the easiest holiday marketing tips to take action on because this time of year stirs up feelings about family, giving and love, and video is the perfect medium for evoking an emotional response. Tell a story about your brand or your customers, not necessarily your products.
2. Consider secondary calls to action, such as “Subscribe to our blog,” to collect email addresses and remarketing pixels to drive lower-cost engagement for prospecting.
3. Be smart about segmenting. Consider mobile in-app, contextual and search in addition to custom segments such as last-minute shoppers and standard segments based on user presence in stores.
4. Don’t forget about last year’s customers. It’s one of the simplest holiday marketing tips that marketers miss. It’s always important to refill the funnel, but shoppers from last season are likely to be interested in purchasing from you again. Pixel loyalty emails, create segments based on purchases made last year and target users with personalized ads.
5. Hold back on the discounts. You want to use the holidays as a chance to get shoppers hooked on your brand. Here again video can be powerful along with client testimonials and brief case studies.
It’s holiday marketing tips like these that can really make the difference between a successful Q4 and a dud season. What are the best holiday marketing tips you recommend?
Photo from Creative Commons