We kicked off our countdown to holiday campaigns a few weeks ago. But we know you've been busy (hopefully in planning to close off Q4 successfully!). So we're back with even more tips to help you get ready to meet the first milepost in the sprint to the holidays---Black Friday on Nov. 23rd.
1. Are you ready to capture shoppers left behind by shuttering stores?
With stores like Toys R Us closing their doors for good, and others like Lowe's shutting certain stores, retailer marketers with product overlap need to nab shoppers before other retailers do. Consider ZIP-code targeting to customers near a closing store, highlighting products these closing stores sold and sending introductory offers to your store.
2. Is your messaging tight?
The deals only last one day for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but you want to also nurture customers who will continue buying right up until Dec. 24th. Focus your messaging on these special shopping days around pricing and convenience (free in-store or curb-side pickup, free gifts, last-minute extended sales), and leverage bold type and engaging imagery or animation in your sales emails and ads. But also send follow-up messaging offers to keep them spending, such as a store-wide coupon delivered after Cyber Monday.
3. Are your audiences right?
Segments change so fast during the holidays, you need to be able to quickly assess when audiences are changing cart values or have made purchases. You can work with the data you already have, such as impression exposure, to create a segment based on who hasn’t clicked your creatives to target them at the right frequency. If you have browsing and conversion data of consumers who have made recent purchases, but are still shopping for related products, build them as a segment and target them with upsell messaging. To catalyze prospecting efforts, leverage lookalike modeling of your best customers to find people who exhibit similar interests and behaviors.
Photo from Creative Commons