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The holiday season is undoubtedly the biggest time of consumer spending in the entire year. If you play your marketing cards right, you’re likely to experience an influx of new customers buying from you for the first time. For all the revenue the holiday season creates, those new customers are the true prize that can help your business grow – if you can convince them to stick around.
Plenty of articles will tell you how to optimize your marketing to get as many customers as possible during the holidays; today we’re looking at what you can do AFTER the season to retain their business and further build your customer base.
Don’t Stop Advertising Once the Holidays are Over
Many advertisers will make significant cuts to their ad spend once the New Year has come and gone, assuming that less people will be interested in buying. That might be true, but slowing your marketing will decrease the headspace you could potentially occupy in your consumers. It generally takes over 100 impressions before consumers convert; don’t knee-cap your effectiveness by slashing your post-holiday ad spend.
The most effective budget for programmatic advertising is one that remains consistent. Ad spend may run high or low depending on market variables, but a relatively consistent pace permits flexibility without sacrificing long-term effectiveness. Maintaining your budget through and after the holidays will also let you fill the void left by other advertisers slowing down their efforts.
Make Sure Your Customer Service is Great
An increase in customers means an increase in things that could potentially go wrong. Products break, services fall short of expectations, and your business needs to be ready to address any possible concerns. While never enjoyable in the moment, these situations present another opportunity to strengthen your customer base. Around 89% of people who have a positive customer service experience will buy from that business again.
Re-Target to Re-Engage
With less ads to sift through, people are more likely to remember yours when placed at just the right time and place – especially if they’ve bought from you before. Once the holidays are over, some of your budget and efforts should be shifted over toward retargeting, or reaching out to customers who have already engaged with your business. These consumers fall into three main categories:
Completed a Purchase
It pays to show your appreciation to those who have already trusted your business enough to spend money. “Thank you” emails, loyalty discounts, and cross-promoting similar or complementary products are great ways to establish an ongoing relationship.
Abandoned Their Cart
Studies suggest that online shopping carts are abandoned around 70% of the time. They are lost for many reasons: high shipping costs, unclear return policies, lengthy checkout process. Nevertheless, the fact they had an item in the cart suggests you have something they want. Reaching out with an offer for free shipping or further discounts just might be what puts them over the edge to convert.
Visited Your/Your Competitor’s Website
Audience engagements from a website visit are easy enough to count, but it’s harder to know exactly what they saw or read. Additional information or a small discount can reignite interest; programmatic platforms now have the ability to reach out to consumers who have landed on your site, related sites, and even competitor’s sites.
Use Your New Data to Create Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike audiences are people who follow similar online behaviors as your current customers, but who might not fall into the same affinity groups. The holidays offer a wealth of new prospects and data, and you can use that data to expand your target audience.
When building a lookalike audience, focus particularly on people who have made it to the bottom portion of the sales funnel, i.e. those who are close to converting. Examples include those who have watched a video to completion, who currently have items in their online cart, or who have visited your site multiple times. These groups are called your “seed” audience from whom you can build a lookalike audience profile.
You can further narrow the lookalike audience by choosing a seed group with specific parameters; for example, your seed audience could be everyone on your email list who opened your last message, or who watched a video on your social media page to the end. There is a wealth of options to try and room for you to get creative depending on how you place your pixels.
Start Planning for Next Year
It’s never too early to start preparing for success in the holidays; stock up on inventory, plan out promotions, setting holiday hours, and especially setting up your marketing strategy. Whether you’re a programmatic veteran or just starting to dip your toes, Genius Monkey is here to help you optimize and maximize your advertising.
Are you ready to enhance your marketing and decrease your cost-per-conversion? Genius Monkey is the programmatic platform you need with an expert team to guide you to success. Find out how you can evolve your marketing to the next level by contacting the Genius Monkeys today!
