Every holiday season, you expect your customers to open their wallets. During the 2018 holiday season, which ran from November 1 to December 24, consumers spent $850 billion online and at retail stores. If you have an eCommerce business, you probably want to capitalize on the holiday hype and boost your sales.
Many eCommerce retailers start planning their holiday email marketing well before October. You want to spend on marketing before your consumers begin planning their purchases. But it’s never too late to take advantage of the season and drive customers to your website.
Here are some tips for last-minute email marketing campaigns that will help you make the most of the holiday season.
Simplify Your Messaging
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by holiday marketing. You might feel as though you want to promote all of your products or services at once. You have so much to tell your customers.
However, you don’t want to create decision fatigue. Each message should pitch one idea and provide one call to action. Make sure that you include the benefit of buying what you offer.
Play into your target market’s emotions. This is what will ultimately guide them back to you and drive their purchasing decisions.
Deliver Content-Driven Campaigns
People are used to getting newsletters highlighting sales and discounts around the holiday season. But they know that they can do a simple online search to find similar deals.
You need to offer them something different so that their eyes don’t glaze over when they receive your emails. When you use the same marketing tactics as everyone else, you don’t stand out from the competition.
Innovative brands are using a content-first approach to holiday marketing. Personalize the shopping experience by sending out a last-minute gift guide for everyone on your audience’s list. Offer a shopping assistant to guide consumers to the best products.
Refine the Mobile Experience
In 2018, mobile payment volumes broke records on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Mobile sales also increase the week before Christmas.
Make sure that you’re ready by optimizing your site for mobile devices. You should offer a streamlined experience with easy-to-navigate menus, short page-load times and top-notch product descriptions and photos. Plus, the checkout process should be simple. Check out what your competitors are doing and make sure that your mobile site is even better than theirs.
Connect With Influencers
You can take your social media marketing strategy to the next level by using influencers to drive your message home. People love social proof. They’re more likely to buy from you when they know that someone else loves what you have to offer.
Partnering with influencers is a great way to get you noticed quickly. However, influencers are as busy as you are during the holiday season. Make sure that you look for partners that are extremely relevant to your business, and make the collaboration a win-win situation.
Make it easy for influencers to partner with you. Develop branding guidelines and marketing packets that contain everything that the affiliate needs to get going. This will help them roll out the campaign seamlessly and ensure that it corresponds with your brand’s messaging.
Offer Valuable Incentives
During the holidays, many businesses try to create a sense of false urgency. Consumers know the holiday timeline. They don’t need you to add to the pressure.
Instead of relying on insincere advertising, offer incentives that are worth it to your target audience. This usually involves offering a mind-blowing deal. You can add a real sense of urgency by setting a specific timeline for your deal. It’s compelling if you rarely hold sales or never sell a certain product at rock-bottom prices outside of the holiday season.
However, you have to be careful that you don’t devalue your brand. If customers believe that you’re cheap, they might not buy. Create a relationship with holiday shoppers that shows off your value.
Perhaps you can offer last-minute shopping deals for people who waited until the last minute. Sending out timelines and reminders during the holidays can help people understand that you’re looking out for their best interests.
Don’t Forget Your Loyal Customers
Repeat customers spend 33 percent more than new consumers. Therefore, you should direct a significant portion of your holiday marketing campaigns to them.
Some ideas include:
• Sending personal holiday greetings
• Offering exclusive discounts
• Recover lost sales through abandoned cart emails
• Use analytics to evaluate data and personalize your messages to your customers’ demographics
Segmenting your leads is important for sending the right message to the right people. Speak specifically to each group so that you can give them what they really want for the holidays. Some ways to segment your lists include dividing them based on:
• Previous purchases
• Interests
• Frequently viewed content
• Location
• Abandoned cart
Sponsor a Holiday Contest
When everyone is spending money during the holiday season, they appreciate getting something for free. Social contests with a holiday theme are excellent ways to build connections and get your customers excited. They also take advantage of collaborative marketing.
If you bundle the products or services that you’re offering in your giveaway with those of another business, you’ll expand your circle. Make sure that you partner with businesses that have a similar target audience as you to get the most out of this strategy.
This technique builds your list and helps you accrue leads. Then, you can use your other last-minute holiday marketing methods to reach out to those followers and convert them.
Promote Digital Gift Cards
When it’s too late to go to the store or have an item shipped to your house, you still have one excellent gift option. Digital gift cards are easy to buy and instantly accessible.
More than 80 percent of online retailers offer digital gift cards. About half of consumers are interested in receiving and storing gift cards on their mobile devices. Plus, the average buyer purchases at least two gift cards during the holidays.
Toward the end of the season, promote your digital gift cards heavily. If people don’t have to leave their couch to buy from you on Christmas Eve, they’ll be more likely to open their pocketbooks for you.
Use Email Marketing to Your Advantage
Your customers will appreciate any convenience that you can offer during the busy holiday season. Emails that offer instant buying options and high levels of personalization can sway people to purchase from you instead of someone else. Be consistent, and keep the buzz going until Christmas to help your audience stay excited.
Stick to a Theme
Whether you’re reaching out to new or repeat customers, you want to stand out. If your emails and website look the same way that they do every year, your audience may not pay attention. Websites with festive, sparkly content may win out.
Make sure that your designs match the theme of the message. Add Thanksgiving-related components on a Black Friday or Cyber Monday email. When promoting gift guides, use a Christmas or Hannukah theme. Keep the colors and other design elements consistent with your branding, though.