Business > Merchant Voice

How I maximize my holiday promotions

The critical holiday selling season is almost here. Here are five items that I’m focusing on to get the most of my holiday marketing activities.

Offer coupons for additional info. Offer shopping coupons for street addresses, updated information, and referred customers. If you want to maximize your holiday sales, this is the time to obtain more information on your shoppers and to grow your list.

Why not create individual discount coupons for those who provide their full mailing addresses, or who update their contact details or who refer you friends and family to your newsletter list?

Contact international buyers now. Invite international prospects to shop now to take advantage of sea mail (or surface mail) shipping deadlines.

For example, Australian merchants that export to most European countries and to the U.K. and U.S. can let customers know they have until 28 September 2016 to use the sea mail option. Unfortunately, there are many African, Central American, and South American countries whose sea mail deadlines from Australia have already expired.

U.K. merchants have a shorter lead time, being geographically closer to Europe and the U.S. U.K. surface mail deadlines aren’t available until October 2016.

Canada’s surface mail deadlines start from 1 October.

Unfortunately, the United States Postal Service eliminated international surface mail in 2007 as — ironically — a cost-cutting measure.

Check your customers’ names. Create a closer relationship with your customers by using their preferred names in your messages. Check recent emails or messages from your customers. See if they may have changed their surname via marriage (or divorce), in which case you can update your records.

Or they may have begun using a nickname in their correspondence. If, for example, a repeat customer you have listed as a “Katherine” has begun signing her name as “Kath” on live chat, text messages, or emails, consider updating it in your system to make it a bit more personal. Alternatively, add it to your notes section if you use a customer relationship management system.

Promote loyalty. Do you have a loyalty program? Why not reward your shoppers for completing their online shopping with you?

Apart from dollars or percentage-off offers, consider offering your best customers exclusive Black Friday discounts, free shipping, a free-gift-with-purchase, free gift-wrapping, or anything that can make buying Christmas gifts a bit more affordable.

Create product offers using shopper and product insights. Create a series of holiday product selections using timing, demographic, and psychographic insights.

Personalized or customized products require more time to produce than off-the-shelf items. Compile these product ranges for the start of your holiday email series, giving your customers maximum time to order them before the deadline.

Personalized products are often purchased by customers well ahead of the holidays — usually by women! These customers are not necessarily price-conscious. But they value being considered a “thoughtful gift shopper” and will pay more for the “right gift.” They regard personalized gifts more highly than generic ones.

Create a range of products that can be bundled for a special offer around Black Friday. These could be, as examples, a mobile phone with a spare charger and protective cover, a leather handbag and leather conditioner, a rose de-thorner and fragrant hand cream, or a cushion cover and cushion insert.

You can often pitch your most expensive items in mid-December — as long as you guarantee last-minute delivery or in-store pickup — to most male consumers, as they typically shop in the final days before Christmas.

Target your youngest customers who prefer to send an e-gift card to their friends and family the day before, the day of, and even the day after Christmas.

Elizabeth Hollingsworth
Elizabeth Hollingsworth
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