The holidays are over, but you’re not done with your holiday marketing yet! January is the time to measure your success and plan for the coming year. We’ve compiled a list of things you can do to wrap up your holiday marketing and start the new year out right.
Tip 1: Wrap up your holiday marketing performance stats for next year
Each year, you should be keeping track of your holiday marketing metrics like number of orders, average order value, email click-through rate, ROI, and more. Decide which metrics you want to track year-over-year, and keep your reports so you can easily access them in July or August when you start planning for the 2016 holiday season. Knowing the historic information of how your marketing channels performed each year during the holidays will help you take smarter actions and better allocate your marketing budget.
Of course, conclusions you draw from your holiday marketing results don’t just apply to the 2016 winter holiday season. Use holiday shopping trends to influence all major holidays that are relevant to your store’s target demographic. For example, look at how many of your sales came from mobile devices during the 2015 holiday season. The eCommerce industry saw a huge increase in mobile shopping last year, so if mobile makes up a low number of purchases for your store, you could be missing out on sales.
Take a look at your site on mobile devices and test out your checkout process. Is it a smooth experience, or does it cause frustration (eg. slow loading times, unresponsive page layouts, too many steps to purchase, etc)? Asking yourself this question and removing friction to checkout can increase mobile shoppers to your site (and increase overall sales). This is just one example of lessons you can glean from your holiday stats.
Tip 2: Keep your holiday customers engaged with post-purchase emails
There’s no better way to keep building relationships with your customers than through a series of personalized emails. While social media is a great way to nurture relationships, email provides a direct one-to-one opportunity by customizing your messages based on demographics and purchase history. It also still delivers the best rate of return of any marketing channel.
We suggest building a 3 part email nurture campaign based on holiday purchases. For example, if a customer purchased a big ticket item, such as a coat, you could send a follow up email that contains user-generated content to show how other customers who purchased that coat are wearing it. This uses social proof to reinforce the idea that the item they purchased was an excellent choice. Next, send an email offering tips and tricks for taking care of their coat. Finally, your next email could offer styling tips for wearing the coat, and then add in recommendations for complimentary accessories. The key to success with this email campaign is to naturally follow-up with customers and avoid a hard sell. Get the idea?
Tip 3: Use demographics and purchase behavior to run personalized upselling campaigns
Coats need gloves. Skis need boots. Computers need protective cases and charges. Necklaces need matching earrings. The recurring sale of complimentary goods is often even more profitable than the sale of the original item. Upselling is important — that’s no secret. But if you’re not segmenting your upsell emails based on previous purchases and demographics, your campaigns won’t pack a punch.
We suggest you segment your customer base by customers who have received your product as a gift (e.g. through wishlists, registries, etc), and send them an email campaign that drives additional revenue by suggesting coordinating/complimentary goods.
Tip 4: Don’t let those gift cards slip through the couch cushions
If you offered digital and/or physical gift cards for your store this year (and we hope you did!), there are likely many recipients out there waiting to use their credit at your store. From hectic holiday schedules and fatigue from shopping, customers will likely forget to use their new gift cards after the holidays. Don’t wait for them to come to you; send segmented emails to your customers based on purchase history and demographic data and show them targeted offerings.
That’s a wrap! We hope you enjoyed the Holiday 2015 Checklist series and found the tips useful. Where do you go from here? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to get more eCommerce tips, tricks, and free resources throughout the year!
