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This year the holiday season is going to be an even more crucial time for retailers. So much so, it’s imperative for marketers to devise campaigns that don’t get lost in the flood of the inbox. To up their game, brands should focus on tailoring the experience to each subscriber.
Global holiday sales in 2020 hit a whopping $876 billion, so there’s a lot of sales revenue up for grabs.
Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all messaging
Through a mix of best practice and customer-data tactics, you can get a lot more bang for the buck – personalized email marketing generates around 122% ROI (Instapage, 2019). You can’t batch and blast the same message to everyone anymore. Because today, more than ever, customers want that personal touch that makes every experience – whether on-site, in the inbox, or on mobile – a breeze. In fact, 90% of U.S. consumers find personalization ‘very’ or ‘somewhat’ appealing. And during the holidays that’s no exception.
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In this section, we’re going to dive into five future-proof tactics that will help you smash your engagement targets this holiday season. Through leveraging your customers’ data, you’ll be able to meet them in the moments that matter most to them.
Key Marketing Terms
First thing’s first: let’s dissect a few personalization terms that we’ve applied to holiday marketing and will come in handy when reading this content.
Dynamic Content: The ability to populate content in email campaigns depending on the preferences, demographics, or behaviors of the individual subscriber.
- i.e. Marketers can deliver various location-based content depending on the subscriber’s exact geographic location.
Artificial Intelligence: The automation of gathering customer insights for decision-making, via an algorithm or machine learning engine, to improve marketing effectiveness.
- i.e. AI-powered recommendation engines can automatically analyze user behavior across touchpoints, recommending relevant products based on available data.
RFM: The recency, frequency, and monetary value of customers’ purchases can be used to segment audiences and tailor the experience.
- i.e. Filtering your high-value customers – those whose total spend is over $500 – and enrolling them into a VIP program can cement their loyalty and drive even more value.
Advanced Personalization: This allows you to use Liquid markup language to create targeted and relevant content both on landing pages and in campaigns.
- i.e. Populating images or even products that reflect the current weather conditions in the subscriber’s location.
1. Dynamic Content
Our first tactic is dynamic content, which should always be your first step towards more personalized holiday content. Start with gathering the necessary data to tailor your promotional content – i.e. age, gender, location, etc.
You can do this either through the sign-up process or preference center – or preferably, both. The best thing about a preference center is that you can gain deeper insights into your subscribers after they’ve signed up, with the promise of delivering more tailored, one-to-one marketing. Ask them about their interests, what they like and dislike, and anything else that will help you curate more relevant messages – like message frequency and channel preferences.
Relevancy during the holiday season is super important. Not only are you competing with countless other brands, but consumers are even more time-poor and will only engage with messages that resonate. To get the first sale, plus recurrent orders, you need to reach out at the right time and on the right channel – and that’s why preferences matter.
2. Segmentation
Segmenting your lists is one of the most effective marketing tactics out there. Rather than tailoring individual email campaigns based on a subscriber’s data fields, segmentation pools customers into relevant groups instead. Then, you can curate messages and build programs that fit the qualities and characteristics of the particular audience.
Keep your segments razor-sharp: The devil’s in the data
Here are a few effective holiday segments that will drive you more sales and revenue:
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Big Spenders
It’s no secret that your highest spenders probably spend most during the holidays. These shoppers will spend a lot once or more, maybe around Black Friday or the weeks leading up to Christmas. They’re easily identified by hitting a minimum average order value (AOV) or customer lifetime value (CLV), depending on your specific criteria. You can pull in your customers’ order history from your Magento, BigCommerce, or Shopify store to easily segment on this very basis.
What to send them?
- Exclusive early bird or sneak-peek offers
- Discounts in exchange for a minimum spend
- Bestsellers and other product recs
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Frequent Purchasers
Your repeat buyers are already loyal and react favorably to your marketing communications. It’s important to nurture these customers throughout the whole year, with promotions, content, and incentives, and then reward them extra-specially during the holidays. Use your order frequency data to see which customers fit into this segment.
What to send them?
- Timely transactional notifications that trigger another browse
- Product recs based on previous or popular purchases, plus browse behavior
- Extras like free delivery or guaranteed delivery by Christmas (Weds, December 23rd)
Psst! Don’t forget you can layer this segment with other valuable filters like demographic- and preferences-based criteria, just to make the message resonate even more.
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Recent Spenders
Shoppers who’ve just placed an order with you probably still have your brand on their minds. Take Black Friday as an example – there’s no time to lose! Hit them with a surprise promotion days after and get them to spend some more, again. After all, the holidays are only just beginning.
As well as order recency data, remember to use any relevant insight at your disposal. For instance, basing the content on the customer’s last purchase always works a treat – plus, offering a time-limited discount can help seal the deal too.
What to send them?
- Discount on next purchase
- Cross-upsell campaign
- Refer-a-friend scheme
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Wishlist-Makers
If a browser or shopper creates a wishlist for your brand, they’re already pretty engaged. They have a high propensity to buy with you and have already saved the items they want. That’s great news for your business in the holiday sales-making department. As a marketer, it’s your job to ensure these saved items turn into orders.
Remember, these advocates are more likely to refer your brand to their friends and family. So it’s important to keep them informed of new offers, promotions, and inventory updates.
What to send them?
- Multichannel remarketing ads
- Stock alerts on favorite products
- Irresistible CTAs like refer-a-friend or product recs
3. Product Recommendations
Product recommendations drive an astonishing amount of online revenue compared to other marketing activities – 24% in fact. Every marketer should invest in product recommendations, both in email campaigns and on landing pages, this holiday season for this very reason. They’re so effective because they’re highly relevant to the needs and wants of consumers who are engaging with your brand – through both order history and behavioral data.
Consumers long for a personalized experience online – 44% are actually willing to switch brands for it – and product recommendations can deliver just that.
Here are the top product recommendations to smash your holiday sales:
- Promote your bestselling brands
Bolster your finest brands and first-class product lines. Promoting popular items to subscribers and existing customers is a great way to drive interest and spark some FOMO. People love to know what most customers are buying – so show them.
- Trending: what’s hot and what’s not
You can combine your bestsellers with the most-viewed products for a super-relevant product recommendation set. Customers can see what other customers are browsing and buying most, incentivizing them to do the same.
- Most viewed: make the most of your behavioral insight
This recommendation is great during the holidays when certain products or categories go viral. Showcase your most viewed items overall, or those that match some predefined criteria: i.e. the most popular Secret Santa gifts under £20.
- Personalize the buying experience with ‘also bought’
Like eCommerce behemoth Amazon, you can recommend products off the back of a customer’s purchase. Showcase what other products customers also bought and maximize those holiday sales across the board.
- Suggest relevant ‘lookalike’ items
Order data gives your brand countless possibilities, including the ability to accurately predict the kinds of products customers will buy. Lookalikes empower you to recommend products with similar attributes to previously purchased items – i.e. oak, velvet, green, etc.
- Predict the best next buy
This is the secret to holiday success: predicting what customers are going to buy next based on what similar customers went on to purchase next, too. By anticipating customer needs, you’ll be able to deliver hyper-relevant products when people respond to it most.
4. Display Ads
Observing a potential buyer get close to converting and then leave your site is the ultimate frustration for marketers – especially during the holidays. It’s like when someone flirts with you on Tinder and then ghosts you. How rude, right?
But the majority of first-time visits won’t convert, that’s just a fact. It doesn’t mean you should give up on the lion’s share of your traffic. Don’t blame your existing marketing either; put measures in place to remedy the potential loss.
So, how do you tempt them back?
Your seasonal campaigns shouldn’t just rely on email to resurface that intent but include other marketing channels like SMS and retargeting ads. The latter, when done right, can be highly effective in driving sales that didn’t happen in the first place. Remind customers why they were interested, whether it’s a sale, discount or offer, or product. The key is to use the right data and make your ads relevant and hassle-free.
While customers want personalization (61% expect tailored experiences), if you get it wrong it’s worse than doing no personalization whatsoever. No other channel highlights this better than ads; you don’t want to be relentlessly targeted with ads for handbags after having purchased one days before. Marketing should be smarter than that, and you can be too.
What are the benefits of retargeting ads?
- Relevant retargeting brings existing customers back to your site
- Drives more sales during and after the holiday season
- Increases brand awareness over the holidays and for the whole year
- Improve cost-effectiveness and marketing ROI
Repeat marketing works if you use the right data. Create seamless, hyper-relevant retargeting ads based on past browser behavior or order history, making the offering irresistible. You can retarget users on specific visits they’ve made or existing customers on related products and content.
5. RFM Personas
RFM is the methodology used to create those segments in the earlier part of this cheatsheet: big spenders, recent spenders, repeat spenders, etc. But more widely, you can use RFM to categorize customers into personas. Below we’ll go through some personas you can build and which RFM data you need, plus how you should be targeting them during the holiday period.
What is a persona?
A customer persona is a shopper who consistently exhibits certain purchase behaviors which distinguish them from other customers. Using RFM to ascertain these behaviors, you can treat your customers differently and tailor the experience one to one.
Champions: These are your advocates, your big spenders who always come back.
RFM data: Monetary spends, such as CLV or AOV.
How to target: First dibs on new products, plus exclusive offers on high-value items.
Loyal: Your core, loyal customer base whom you can always rely on.
RFM data: Monetary spend, such as minimum CLV or AOV, and order frequency.
How to target: Preview of holiday offers and extra loyalty points on select products.
Recent: New or returning customers who could lapse if not nurtured fast.
RFM data: Last purchase date.
How to target: Loyalty program invitation (plus triple loyalty points after next buy).
High potential: Promising customers who return but could spend a bit more.
RFM data: Last order date, number of purchases, maximum AOV or CLV.
How to target: Minimum spend incentive (i.e. free shipping) to increase AOV.
Need nurturing: Customers that are at risk of lapsing and require nurturing.
RFM data: Last purchase data and/or number of orders.
How to target: Editorial holiday content and attractive Black Friday offers.
Inactive: Dormant customers that need to be re-engaged.
RFM data: Last order date.
How to target: Exclusive holiday discount or the option to unsubscribe.
Up Your Holiday Marketing Game To Get Ahead
Personalization helps you build more valuable customer relationships ahead of the holiday season and all year round. You’ll be surprised how many of your customers engage with your campaigns weeks, even months before placing an order. Personalizing your campaigns ups this engagement, which is even more important this year as more people will be making more of their purchases online. They’ll be expecting the same personalized level of service they receive offline, online.
You can 100% achieve this with dynamic content, product recs, segmentation, display ads, and RFM personas all supercharging your marketing campaigns!
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dotdigital is a leader in multi-channel marketing automation technology. dotdigital Engagement Cloud is the platform of choice for businesses seeking to engage customers across all touchpoints. The platform’s features empower 4,000+ brands across 150 countries to acquire, convert, and retain customers. Users can connect customer data, surface powerful insights, and automate intelligent messages across email, SMS, social, and more. dotdigital is a global company with over 350 employees, serving companies of all sizes and in all verticals for over 20 years.
To learn more about dotdigital or to talk with one of our eCommerce Consultants about your holiday plans, contact us today!