5 Things You Can Do Now To Nail Your Marketing And Loyalty Strategy During The Holiday Season
By RJ Horsley, SpotOn
The holiday season is almost here! Don’t check the date or the weather — it’s still summer. But it’s definitely not too early to start planning marketing and loyalty promotions for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and everything in between. This will give you an edge when it comes to competing with “big box” stores. Plus, when you take the time to plan emails and content now, you won’t have to start from scratch during your busiest time of year.
Below are five things you can do right now to make sure 2018 is your best holiday season yet:
1. Create A Schedule
Developing a basic framework for the season keeps you organized and ensures you don’t miss any critical marketing opportunities. Start with blank calendars for October, November and December and fill in all of the holidays, events and days your business will be closed. Use these dates to work backwards to determine holiday promotional timing, and then which emails need to go out when.
2. Take Some Time To Test
Many customers expect small businesses to compete with the deals offered by larger companies during the holidays — especially when it comes to Black Friday. Do you know for sure which promotions bring in the most customers? By thinking about the holidays now, you have time to determine what offers drive sales by testing smaller versions of these promotions. Then, when it really matters, you can confidently roll out the winning strategy.
3. Consider Giving Back
Find a local nonprofit organization that shares the values of your business and brainstorm ways to partner during the holiday season. This can take a while, so time is needed. It’s an easy way to build community and support a worthwhile cause. You can pair a popular item with the charity and offer to donate a certain amount for each one that is purchased. Or donate a percentage of the profits from a specific day to the organization. Making this a part of your holiday marketing strategy can benefit your business long after the holiday season ends.
4. Develop A Variety Of Messages
Remember that it’s a challenge to stay top-of-mind during this busy time of year. Plan to send emails more often with a variety of content that is both relevant and useful. On average, retailers should increase their email frequency to customers by about 50% during November and December compared to non-holiday months. Use special promotions to entice customers into your store, but don’t forget to mix it up by leveraging holiday-related content your customers will find useful, like hot hostess gifts or easy ideas for procrastinators. Also, make sure to send emails with general information, like when your business will be closed.
5. Plan To Reward Loyalty
In the world of small and medium businesses, a one-time customer is a lost opportunity. So having a rewards program in place for the holiday season is important. You want to make sure it’s simple to join and easy to earn rewards. Then, there’s a very good chance that a customer who buys from you during a holiday promotion will return and buy again during other seasons.
There are plenty of things you can do right now to ensure you hit the ground running during the most wonderful time of year. Take the time now to create a schedule, test offers, consider charitable partnerships, develop a variety of messages and plan to reward loyal customers. You get a head start and some flexibility to tweak and improve your strategy along the way.
RJ Horsley is the President of SpotOn Transact, LLC, a cutting-edge payments and software company redefining the merchant services industry. SpotOn brings together payment processing and customer engagement software, giving merchants richer data and tools that empower them to market more effectively to their customers. Prior to SpotOn he was the CFO of AXSY and an investment banker with Financial Technology Partners. Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpotOn; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spotoninc/; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotontransact/.