Post-Holiday Email Campaigns: Kick Off the Year Right
by Ross Kramer
Published in eM+C Magazine 12/22/2010
Consumers don’t stop shopping after the holidays, so your email campaigns shouldn’t end on Dec. 25. In fact, your post-holiday email campaigns can serve several purposes, including helping rid you of overstock items to make room for new inventory; generate additional revenue as gift cards are redeemed; and, most importantly, further engage your customers to build brand loyalty. Here are some ideas and best practices for your post-holiday campaigns:
Make room for your new inventory
A strategic email campaign sent to consumers shopping for bargains after the holidays can alert them to sales on your website and/or in your stores. To optimize this type of campaign, follow these tips:
- Be specific. Promote items that are similar to the items shoppers previously purchased. People typically give gifts that they themselves like, so use your purchase history data to build targeted email campaigns.
- Announce inventory levels. Don’t promote items with low inventory in your email campaigns because shoppers will become discouraged if they clickthrough your message and the item isn’t available. Use scarcity clauses on your site warning shoppers when inventory levels are low, and give them an easy way to request notification when the item is back in stock. Doing so will help keep your shopping cart abandonment rate low and your customers browsing and buying items that are in stock.
- Waive shipping fees. Holiday shoppers have come to expect free shipping when buying online. Take it a step further by extending free shipping after the holidays, when consumers are redeeming gift cards and exchanging items. This will add to your brand loyalty and help increase sales.
Prompt consumers to redeem gift cards
Shop.org predicts that 75 percent of shoppers will purchase at least one gift card this year, averaging $41.48 per card — up from $39.80 last year. Consider that 61 percent of shoppers spend more than the value of the gift card when redeeming and 28 percent of shoppers make two or more visits to the store or website to redeem the full value of the card. It benefits you greatly to get gift card recipients to redeem the cards as soon as possible. With the increase in gift cards being sent via email, marketers have the opportunity to target many recipients easily.
Engage your customers
You’ve collected more data through your email and web analytics programs during the holiday season than any other time of the year, so use it. A great place to start is with the new members of your rewards program. Chances are they were too busy shopping to take advantage of everything you offer, so send them an email explaining membership benefits — e.g., birthday reminders, wish lists, points programs, etc. When appropriately engaged with relevant messages, your customers will interact and transact.
To learn more about post-holiday email campaigns, download our free whitepaper Post Holiday Email Campaigns: Keep the Conversations, and Conversions, Going.
Ross Kramer is co-founder and CEO of Listrak, an email marketing firm providing marketers the solutions, services and platform to engage consumers in relevant conversations. Ross can be reached at rkramer@listrak.com.