1. Review your marketing campaign calendar for this holiday season and make certain you have “echo messaging” set up to reinforce your acquisition and retention programs.
2. Cart Abandonment – use seasonal shipping urgency to emphasize your saved-cart message. For example, “We Saved Your Cart! Still time to get your gifts by the holidays!”
3. Product Badges – try product badging to promote seasonal callouts. Highlight best gift offers, limited-time offers and more. “New for Holiday” “Gift Idea” “Hot Seller”
4. Time-Triggered Messages – never forget your best customers. Remind them to re-order replenishment items at common useage intervals – 30, 60, 90 days post purchase.
5. Quick Navigation – help your customers find your “Holiday and Gift Areas” easily. Promote new and seasonal site areas with new navigation.
6. Customer Service Messaging – promote your live customer service assistance throughout your website and checkout process. Make it easy to find FAQ’s by adding quick links or navigation.
7. The Right Information – create a countdown clock to individual day or holiday shipping cutoffs. For example: Ships Today vs. Ships Tomorrow.
8. Service – make it seamless. Highlight synergies between your online and retail locations. Call out closest location, ship to store, easy returns and so on. (Target shoppers within a custom radius on each of your retail locations)
9. Tablets & Mobile – if you already have a tablet friendly version of your website, make sure it’s holiday optimized as well. Use browser detection to show your tablet traffic a “Special Offer for Tablet Visitors.”
10. Flash Sales – use dayparting to target a promotion for a short period of time. Support with badging and promo code display to help move your holiday inventory.
11. New Seasonal Customers – build specific activation programs for this segment, calling out new website functionality by featuring tips and help content for ways to shop your website. Highlight service differentiators and trust factors.
12. Holiday Season Shoppers – (no visits or purchases since last year’s holiday season) offer a “Welcome Back” message, call out any new site features or enhancements since last season and so on. Always highlight your email sign-up to keep engagement high.
13. High Value Customers – thank and reward this segment. Offer them a “Gift With Purchase” or another means of saying thank you or showing your appreciation.
Key Takeaways:
- Review all external and online promotions and tactics.
- Understand your audience mix and opportunities. Identify the top segments to your holiday visitor mix. Each will have it’s own messaging and optimization opportunities.
- Once you have your marketing cadence and calendar outline, prepare resources and asset planning.