Although the end of the holiday shopping season may seem like a good time to put your feet up, RESIST. You need to maintain marketing energy in January or risk the post-holiday slump. We put together some tips to help you transition back to earth after the holiday rush.
Market to the New Year Attitude
Be sure to address the seasonal self-betterment trends in your post-holidays marketing efforts. New Year’s resolutions undeniably influence consumer spending behavior; in fact, 68% of consumers plan to spend upwards of $500 to keep their newfound commitments. Here’s how to use New Year’s resolutions to draw consumers to your products.
Jump on the ‘New Me’ Trend: Capitalize on the ‘New Year, New Me’ mentality by encouraging consumers to get new stuff in January. Educate your audience about new trends or launch a new product or line extension. Banana Republic kicked off the new year with a ‘20 Pieces for 2020’ collection.
Boost your sales with great content and early bird specials, and make your offer time-sensitive to nudge on-the-fence buyers to take action.
Help Consumers Save Money: 49% of consumers made a decision to save more this year, and the same number will take advantage of post-holiday sales. Throw a January winter or clearance sale to move inventory, and offer value by creating bundle offers. Highlight how much consumers can save in your promotions, either by percentage discount or dollar amount. Include free shipping to sweeten deals and create a sense of urgency with ‘limited time only’ dates.
Highlight Self-Care: Consumers are committing to prioritizing self-care in 2020. Research what your audience’s 2020 self-care goals are and think about how your product can help them reach those objectives. Focus your marketing on how your products can contribute to a particular self-care goal. Walmart encourages consumers to reach their health goals in 2020 by offering healthy living essentials at low prices.
Increase Your Customer Engagement
If you don’t engage consumers in January, there’s a good chance they’ll forget about you. 80% of consumers forget about brands in three days. Keeping customers engaged increases loyalty and revenue. Stay top of mind during the post-holiday season with these strategies.
Reward: Reward customers who bought from you during the holidays with personalized offers based on their purchase behavior. Give discounts for products that complement holiday purchases or recently viewed items. Consider allowing these purchases to count as points for members of your loyalty program.
Wish Lists: Send reminder emails informing customers that items on their wish list are on sale. Use your wish list data to identify products customers are likely to buy and determine your pricing decisions accordingly. Send reminder emails when wish list items go on sale or come back in stock.
Remarket: Leverage remarketing campaigns to convert consumers that interacted with your brand during the holidays but didn’t make a purchase. Segment your audience by behavior and market to them based on how they’ve interacted with your brand. For instance, you can send discount offers to individuals who browsed a product page multiple times but didn’t make a purchase. Combine remarketing with retargeting to boost your bottom line.
Leverage Loyalty Marketing
Loyalty marketing can help strengthen your relationships with consumers and influence repeat purchases. 52% of consumers will buy their favorite brand even if it’s cheaper and more convenient to buy a rival product. Use the following loyalty marketing strategies to bring in some post-holidays sales.
Engage Your Biggest Advocates: Set up a referral program to motivate your brand advocates to recommend you to their circle. The lifetime value of a referred customer is twice that of a non-referred customer. Offer double-sided rewards and multiple reward types to salute different referral behavior.
Use Your Loyalty Program: Offer new customers a coupon, upgrade, or discount in return for signing up to your loyalty program. Ensure the program is easy to join and reward members for behaviors across every channel so points can be accumulated fast. Try to make the redemption process as easy as possible.
Usher in the Chinese New Year
If your target market includes Chinese consumers, don’t sleep away the Chinese New Year. Celebrated in February, Chinese New Year celebrations raked in over $149 billion in 2019. Follow these tips to bring in some sales.
Stand Out with the Right Products: Create limited products featuring the Chinese New Year color (red) or this year’s Zodiac sign (the rat) and make them available in select stores or online only. Consider collaborating with Chinese influencers or other brands to reach a wider audience. Gucci teamed up with Mickey Mouse to launch rat-themed collections for the Chinese New Year.
Use WeChat: With over 1 billion active monthly users, WeChat is one social media platform you must include in your Chinese New Year digital campaign plan. Partner with WeChat influencers to connect with your target audience and use the platform’s mini-programs to increase engagement. Last year, Selfridges’ WeChat mini-program asked users to take a personality test and offered a New Year’s outlook based on their answers.
Get Your Messaging Right: Create emotional campaigns to connect with consumers, focusing on themes of joy, health, and happiness. Use local insights to develop a deep understanding of Chinese consumers, and familiarize yourself with cultural practices and taboos so that you can accurately and inoffensively communicate your message.
Two More Quick Ideas
If you don’t have time to set up a huge marketing campaign, beat the post-holiday blues with the following quick ideas.
Incentive Returns: More than half of shoppers will return any unwanted gifts or holiday items within a month after receiving them. Accept online returns in-store and offer returns discounts, gift cards, or other forms of currency to encourage impulse purchases. Since 65% of shoppers will return gifts in store, equip staff with the tools to make the right offers and salvage a sale or upsell.
If you’re a pure play brand, consider partnering with other stores to allow in-store returns. Kohl’s, for example, accepts Amazon returns in all its stores.
Celebrate Blue Monday: Blue Monday is known for being the most depressing day of the year due to post-Christmas blues. Celebrate it with gusto to spread some cheer and put some money in your pocket. Starbucks used Blue Monday to highlight its Monday £1.50 latte promotion. Your campaign should be designed to lift your customers’ spirits and give them something to smile about.
Keep it Moving
January is a slow month for consumers and you need to market smart if you want to start the year right. When offering discounts, be crafty with pricing. Use data to customize and personalize offers and promotions.
We hope these tips help you wrap up Q1 with a strong bottom line.
Cheers to a profitable 2020!