Christmas in July: Start Your Holiday Planning

It may not be Christmas for the consumer just yet, but it’s definitely that time of year for savvy marketers. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start planning for the 2016 holiday season — and if you’re not sure where to begin, here are some key focus areas to wrap up with a bow:

1) Design your discount strategy

Discounting strategy is critical for every e-commerce business. Within that, it’s just as critical to avoid training your customers to buy only when coupons are available. The best practice here is to not give discounts in your welcome emails. As a buyer, two potential issues come up when I receive a coupon in your welcome email: 1) If my first purchase is with a coupon, I will likely only ever convert when I have one in hand. 2) I can easily exploit this by signing up with multiple email addresses, which artificially inflates your customer database. Reward the behaviors you want your customers to exhibit, like repeat purchases and loyalty. Drive higher margins and AOV with a free shipping threshold or a gift with purchase.

The good news is that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are already considered staple discount holidays. This means that you can target the customers who only look for the “steals,” without impact the Customer Lifetime Value of your most loyal customers. Your loyal customers should always be targeted but the holiday season allows you to expand your audience to discount searchers.

The key is to start planning now what makes the most sense for your business.

2) Plan out your segments

Now is the time to get organized. Identify relevant customer segments before the last minute crunch of November, so you can test now and run optimized campaigns during the holidays. Key segments that you should strategize for:

• Loyalists: The believers. These are the customers who buy consistently, refer your brand to their friends, and post about how much they love you on social media.
• Window shoppers: Those customers that are engaged with your brand but have never purchased. You’ll find them on your email list or following your Instagram account.
• One and doners: Those customers who have purchased at least once from you, but it’s been awhile.
• Gift shoppers: Customers who are looking for something for that special someone. Make sure that you have a checkbox at checkout so customers can indicate that their purchase is a gift. This allows you to include a personalized note to the recipient.
• Discount Divas: Customers who continually purchase discount or sale items. When the first pick of your stock has been cleared by full-price purchasers, this group helps you clear excess inventory at year’s end.

3) ABT: Always Be Testing

This is one of my favorite marketing mantras because it highlights why it’s important to start planning early. Marketers should always be testing strategy to optimize revenues. You can test cadences, tone, or even the creative you deploy.

Here are some ideas to test with each of the segments:

• Loyalists: Call out any loyalty program rewards that this customer can redeem. Another great call to action is to encourage the loyalists by showing them how close they are to the next reward level.
• Window shoppers: Offer a #treatyourself reward, like a gift with purchase to incentivize them to purchase.
• One and doners: Enticing them to buy again might be as easy as offering free shipping. Whatever you do, the key here is to make this group feel valued since they’ve already committed some funds to your brand.
• Gift shoppers: Design inspirational creative that matches their ideal gift recipient with your most popular items.
• Discount Divas: Test various placement of discounts, including the subject line. Call out the discount deadline to promote a sense of urgency.

The holidays will be here before you know it. Prepare for a strong fourth quarter by building a strategy, identifying relevant customer segments, and testing both creative and discount levels to figure out what speaks best to your customer base.

Getting a head start is the best gift you can give yourself this year!

*This post was written by Simon Data’s former Customer Success Manager, Ashley Gammie, who know resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two kids.