Gifts, outfits, greeting cards and other goodies. The Christmas count down is in full swing. Consumers are filling the aisles of retailers and shopping online to get the best deals. They’re engaged, have their wallets open and are ready to spend money on the holiday essentials.
Marketers who apply smart marketing strategies will come out ahead and see an increase in sales from the holiday season.
So what’s the role of email in this Christmas frenzy?
The benefits of email on holiday shopping
Email increases engagement: Email provides an opportunity to engage with your customers. With access to multiple data insights on consumers (your customers), we as marketers can create communications that are relevant to each one. The time has come where we’re speaking to our customers on a 1:You level, which is a holistic customer experience strategy that’s personalised with the best choice for individuals across all interaction points.
It’s an influential channel that supports an omnichannel strategy: As an email marketer, it’s difficult to think of how we talk to customers outside of the email channel. Oftentimes, we’re focused on episodic communications. But if we take a step back and think about our view of data outside the email world, we can understand how consumers are engaging with brands holistically.
Recently we partnered with our client Coach to help them drive more personalisation in conversations. The emails that Coach’s customers received encouraged both online and in-store purchases.
As a result, there were lifts in website and in-store traffic, as well as overall order values. And, Coach was able to make a connection between the email subscriber to their in-store experience, creating higher consumer engagement.
Email creative enhances the shopping experience: Digital creative can enhance the customer’s shopping experience and create a 1:You relationship.
The first step retailers have to take when planning for their holiday email campaigns is designing a dynamic email template that allows for personalisation of messaging using a variety of data points. Think of the template as a flexible journey where you can change the creative and messaging based on the individual and their previous brand interactions. This means your email template should be built on a modular framework, which in turn will create flexibility for your marketing needs.
Building this modular system takes time, but the efficiencies that come into play, like automation capabilities, bring the Christmas shopping experience to life.
Going beyond the single-focus campaign
Most marketers begin their Christmas campaign planning in Q2, but it’s important to think beyond the holidays during the planning stage. Retailers that are engaging in multi-promotional campaigns during this season see positive results.
It’s important to keep in mind that the holiday shopping season is a very short marketing window. So don’t just think about ways to integrate your Christmas promotions and messages in your campaigns leading up to this shopping period. Think of how you will continue to create personalised, 1:You, campaigns for your customers in the new year too.
To sustain and increase brand loyalty, real-time technology is key
As part of these multi-promotional efforts, marketers are leveraging existing, targeted data segments (loyalty members, past purchasers, ancillary purchases, etc.) to connect with their engaged customers. They’re shifting away from customer acquisition strategies and focusing on how they can increase the value of their existing customers while enhancing brand loyalty. The right technology is critical.
Many marketers are applying real-time marketing (point of sale) as part of their digital marketing strategy. Once you have a consumer who’s interested in your product and ready to make a purchase, you need to capture their attention at this moment because it’s an opportunity for increased sales.
But if you snooze, you lose. It needs to happen in real-time, which you can do by applying the right technology and data.
The data-driven insights provide marketers with the knowledge of the offers they should deploy, while the technology drives the delivery of the data. When thinking about your real-time strategy during the holiday and beyond, plan your knowledge – the relevant content – and leverage your technology to deliver content that takes your marketing campaigns to the next level.
Capture your Christmas share-of-wallet
Additionally, think of wallet share opportunities to incorporate into your marketing strategy. For example, if you’re a retailer selling shoes and bags, target the promotional offer to 20% off a pair of shoes and a €10 voucher towards their next purchase with no minimum purchase required. It’s like getting €10 for free. Consumers love “freebies,” so it’s a great way to introduce new products and services that help to drive additional sales to your brand.
Further, when consumers perceive your brand to be a retailer of multiple offerings, it creates a “one-stop-shop” mindset saving them time – and time is money after all.
If you’d like to talk more about creating personalised email marketing campaigns for your customers, get in touch.