Shopper behavior demonstrates that it’s never too early for marketers to start gearing up for the holidays. According to Bazaarvoice, 21% of shoppers begin gift shopping in August, rising to 54% in October. With the last quarter of the year accounting for 25%-30% of annual sales, marketers need to start planning their holiday campaigns earlier than ever before to drive awareness and demonstrate why customers should shop with them.

Make the Customer the Main Focus

Salesforce reports that 80% of customers say that customer experience while shopping is as important as the products and services on offer. Preparing for the holiday season is a vital part of a good customer experience, and proactive service is valued.

Sweetwater, an online music retailer, is a great example of providing value to customers and building trust. Their customer service executives get to know their customers personally, almost like a corner mom-and-pop store, to provide recommendations and technical expertise.

Leveraging customer data and factors like the number of days left to crunch time can help you determine where a customer is in their buying journey and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly. For example, early shoppers are likely to make carefully thought-out purchases, balancing factors like price, discounts, and time to delivery for big-ticket items. Last-minute shoppers are more likely to make impulse purchases and look for bargains.

Omni Channel Presence

Holiday shopping is as serious as it gets. Customers look for items on their laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. They bounce from e-commerce websites and social media platforms to mobile apps in search of their perfect present. Customers aren’t averse to receiving hot (relevant) deals via push notifications, SMS, or email, either, as long as they have consented to such communications. Mobile shopping is particularly important, according to Adobe, with 51.1% of online sales coming through smartphones in 2023.

Marketing campaigns need to leverage the various channels where the target audience prefers receiving their holiday-themed promotions. Social media posts and videos are a great way to reach out with high levels of engagement, with 36% of shoppers in 2023 actively engaging with such posts.

Don’t Ignore Artificial Intelligence

The role of AI cannot be ignored. Generative AI can create personalized promotions, product recommendations, product descriptions, and a whole lot more. It can allow marketers to drive conversions by showcasing personalized offers to customers exactly when they need them.   To do so, however, marketers need to have data profiling, cleansing, validation, and monitoring steps in place. This allows AI to help marketers build rich customer profiles based on behavioral data signals as well as transactional data to create bespoke experiences for their customers.

AI is still new enough to be exciting. Salesforce found that 54% of shoppers are interested in using generative AI for gift ideas. A great AI experience can help increase lead generation as satisfied customers tell their friends.

You can also use AI to help customers with self-service options that can resolve simple issues faster, letting your human customer service agents deal with more complex issues.

Loyalty & Payment Options

The holidays are all about togetherness, and showing customers that their loyalty is valued can go a long way. 63% of customers prefer purchasing from stores where they can earn and redeem loyalty points.  Reward their loyalty by creating personalized offers for their loyal customers.

Payment options are important to customers during the shopping season. Shoppers used the “Buy Now, Pay Later” option heavily on Cyber Monday in 2023, increasing the previous record by a whopping 42.5%. Letting customers know what payment options are available via marketing campaigns can drive conversions.

Post-Holiday Marketing

The period after the holidays is crucial to remind customers why they enjoyed shopping with you. Follow-up emails for reviews, smooth returns, and exchange processes, or even customized discounts will matter. Customer data collected can (and should be) used to drive retention after the holiday rush is over. Consider retargeting campaigns to upsell or remarket products.

Holiday marketing is a mixture of providing value and making the customer feel like they are family. If you need help creating that perfect holiday campaign, 4ThoughtMarketing is here for you. Get in touch with our marketing experts today.