It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! - iContact · It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! ... buying a Christmas gift for a loved one could very easily be tempted back

2

HOLIDAY MARKETING BLUEPRINT

© 2015 iContact Corp. LLC | www.icontact.com

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!For many organizations the busy Q4 holiday sales period is the pinnacle of the business year. It’s a time to get busy, drive revenues, build profits and plan up for the year ahead. Make no mistake, the opportunity for those willing to put the work in and develop a comprehensive strategy (across all areas of their business – not just marketing) is huge.

A $500 Billion+ OpportunityIn 2013, US consumers spent more than $46 billion dollars1 with online retailers during the months of November and December. This represented an increase of $4 billion (9.5%) on the previous year, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down. High-profile sales events like Cyber Monday, which follows the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, generated a staggering $2.29 billion in sales.2

But the opportunity is so much bigger than the headline figures awarded to e-commerce sales.

Need more convincing? Take a look at these stats compiled over the 2013 holiday sales period:

Average Holiday Spend: The average American planned to spend $786 on holiday shopping. 30% of the population planned on spending more than $1,000.3

Big Spenders: Men between the ages of 31 and 57 spent the most, averaging $332 per gift. Grandparents were the next biggest spenders at $289.4

Mobile Shopping Growth: On Cyber Monday, mobile devices accounted for 31.7% of all online traffic and drove 17% of sales. Tablet users spent $126.30 on average per order, while smartphone users spent an average of $106.49.5

Email’s Share of the Holiday Spend: Email marketing accounted for 16% of all online sales during the holiday period.6 That is 1% higher than paid search and much more cost efficient.

Social Media Is a Slow Burner: Despite the hype, social media (including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram) only accounted for 2% of ecommerce sales in 2013.7

Online Sales Still Small When Compared to Tradition Retail: Online sales only accounted for 7% of the total holiday period retail spend in 2013.8 This means there is still a huge opportunity for traditional “bricks and mortar” retailers and other business to take a slice of the holiday sales pie. Despite this, 47% of consumers say the Internet is their favorite shopping destination.9

1 http://www.statista.com/statistics/191173/us-holiday-season-retail-e-commerce-sales-since-2005/2 http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/12/03/cyber-monday-shatters-online-spending-record3 http://www.gallup.com/poll/165479/americans-holiday-spending-not-shut-down-shutdown.aspx4 https://www.netcredit.com/blog/how-much-does-the-average-american-spend-on-holiday-shopping/5 http://www-01.ibm.com/software/marketing-solutions/benchmark-reports/black-friday-2013.html6 http://blog.custora.com/2014/01/new-from-custora-the-holiday-2013-e-commerce-recap/7 http://blog.custora.com/2014/01/new-from-custora-the-holiday-2013-e-commerce-recap/8 http://www.statista.com/statistics/187471/estimated-share-of-e-commerce-in-total-sales-in-the-us-in-q4-since-2002/9 Source: Deloitte

•

•

•

•

•

•

3



A Time for Generosity: Donations to charities and good causes increase by 42% in the months of November and December, with three times as many people giving during the holiday period when compared to other times of the year.10

Why Email Marketing Matters Most During the HolidaysEmail remains the most cost-efficient method of driving repeat business to your website or offline business. Email marketing’s success can largely be attributed to the fact it is a retention marketing tool. As anyone who has been in business for any length of time will tell you, it is much cheaper to sell to an existing client than to acquire a new one. Because email provides such a low cost opportunity to drive revenue, sales generated via email marketing will be more profitable when compared to those generated by more expensive acquisition marketing techniques, such as paid search or traditional offline advertising. In fact, you could look at email marketing as the profitable component of all of your other marketing techniques.

Organizations that want to increase revenues during the peak holiday period will have to increase their marketing budgets to capture market share by acquiring new customers. With increased competition across all marketing formats, this can be expensive. Many organizations do not have the margins in their products to cover their marketing costs and, therefore, lose money when acquiring new customers. Email marketing helps you deliver a positive return on this investment by maintaining a relationship with expensively won new clients, driving repeat purchases, and generating something called Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Email Marketing Continues to Drive Revenue Long After the HolidaysEmail allows you to maximize the opportunity from customers acquired over the holiday period and win repeat business over many months or even years into the future. For example, a customer buying a Christmas gift for a loved one could very easily be tempted back to buy another gift for Valentine’s Day.

Remember: If you use expensive acquisition marketing techniques to acquire the same customer again and again, you may be severely damaging your profit potential. Everyone wants to be busy during the holidays, but nobody wants to be a busy fool. The moral of this story is to understand your costs and employ strategic email marketing techniques as quickly as possible following a sale or registration of interest.

The Holidays Start NOWOkay, you get it. The holidays represent an amazing opportunity for your organization. But the big rush is still a couple of months away, so there is plenty of time to start pulling your plans together – right? WRONG!

The sooner you start planning, the bigger the slice of the holiday pie you will receive. We have included a detailed holiday marketing calendar at the back of this guide to help you plan your marketing activities and ensure you don’t miss out on the biggest marketing opportunities the holiday season offers.

10 http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101217005205/en/Giving-Holidays-%E2%80%93-Charitable-Donations-Increase-42#.VAhCTfldVf0

•

4



The iContact 12-Step Guide to Holiday Marketing Success STEP 1 | Create a PlanAs with any marketing campaign, you will want to create a plan before you get up and running. To begin, you’ll need to ask yourself some key questions about what you want to accomplish this holiday season and create goals for your campaign. Once you have your overall goals, you will need to establish a budget. Knowing your budget and goals will help you create a plan that works for your business.

When creating your plan, you’ll want to think about how email marketing fits into your overall marketing strategy. Your messages and offers should be fairly consistent across your marketing channels, whether online, print, etc. Consider your goals and how each channel will help you achieve those goals. Some channels perform better than others for different goals and audiences. One key advantage of online channels versus print, aside from lower cost, is flexibility. With an email campaign, you can generally make minor tweaks to an offer up until the time you send the email to your list.

While having a plan is definitely important to a successful holiday campaign, having flexibility in that plan can be the difference between a campaign that flops and one that soars. Markets, competitors, and circumstances can all change. What once seemed like a great offer or what worked well in the past may not work this year. If you build in flexibility, you’ll be able to adjust your campaign early and salvage your holiday season.

STEP 2 | Build a ScheduleA key component to any holiday campaign is creating a workable schedule around key holidays and marketing dates. Take note of the dates below for the 2015 holiday season and build your plan around the activities you would like to do for each date. Then, work backward from those dates to ensure you can complete everything in time to reach customers on the right days.

Halloween, October 31: Although many don’t necessarily lump Halloween in with the rest of the holidays, it can be key to kicking off your holiday season. Halloween is big business for many organizations (especially in the retail or leisure industries), and even when there is not a direct link, it’s the perfect opportunity to theme up an email template and have some fun with a special promotion. Almost a full month before Thanksgiving and the “Big” holiday shopping days, marketers who ramp up their campaigns before Halloween stand to maximize their Q4 revenue potential by a number of weeks.

Thanksgiving Week, November 24–30: Many companies start their big sales on the Friday after

•

•

5



Thanksgiving, commonly known as “Black Friday.” Marketing of those sales often begins as early as the Friday before, and some companies, particularly in the B2B space, begin their big sales as early as the Monday before Thanksgiving to get an edge over their competition.

Thanksgiving Day, November 26: This is the last day to communicate your offers to your customers before Black Friday. Consider sending a reminder email on Thanksgiving

Day to keep your offer top of mind for customers as they finalize their Friday shopping plans.

Black Friday, November 27: This is the traditional start of the holiday shopping season and the single biggest shopping day in the United States.

Cyber Monday, November 30: People are back at work after the Thanksgiving break and easing into the week by doing some online shopping.

Hanukkah, starts December 6: Hanukkah involves eight nights of giving, so you may consider sending a series of offers promoting a new gift idea for each night.

Super Saturday, December 19: Super Saturday is the last Saturday before Christmas. Use this to your advantage by creating some urgency in your last-minute shoppers.

Christmas Day, December 25: Christmas Day is the culmination of most of the shopping that has occurred over the past couple of months and is typically a slow day for retail. However, in recent years with the number of mobile devices finding their way under the Christmas tree, there may still be opportunities to target keen shoppers.

Week after Christmas, December 26–January 2: This week presents a great opportunity to clear out remaining merchandise, take advantage of shoppers with holiday money and gift cards to spend, and finalize your planning for the new year. This is also a good time to promote offers relating to New Year’s Eve celebrations.

New Year’s Eve, December 31: This is the last chance to make sales before the end of the year as well as a major day for celebrating.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

6



New Year’s Day, January 1: This is a great day to rest and enjoy yourself before starting your plans for your next 12 months of marketing!

Valentines Day, February 14: Your first big chance to get your holiday email list working for you again.

STEP 3 | Get in Their HeadsThere are four types of holiday shoppers: early birds, prime-time buyers, last-minute shoppers, and post-holiday bargain hunters. Each shopper wants you to speak directly to their needs—from offering deep discounts early in the season to guaranteeing rush shipping at the last possible moment. Once you learn what motivates your shoppers, you will know how to create messages that best connect with them.

Early BirdsEarly birds know what they need, have a budget, and want to finish their shopping before the holiday rush. They are willing to sacrifice the best offers (which typically come at prime time) for access to the best products and services (which may sell out before the height of the shopping season). Don’t assume early birds will pay full price, though; they expect to be rewarded for shopping early, and they love snagging a good deal.

Start sending messages in early October to your best customers and those who purchased from you last year at this time. Focus your promotions on the perks of early shopping (think “enjoy a glass of eggnog while your friends battle for mall parking spots”).

Here are a few offers that will catch the eye of an early bird:

Time-sensitive discount (e.g., 30% off before November 1)

Exclusive free gift with purchase

Exclusive event or early access to new products/services

Advance purchasing (e.g., customer thank-you gifts that can be ordered by administrative professionals early in the season and shipped to their customers closer to the holidays)

Prime-Time BuyersPrime-time buyers check gifts off their lists between late November and mid-December. They have several weeks to make buying decisions, and competition is fierce among businesses vying for their attention, especially during peak shopping times, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If you decide to throw your hat in the ring, you want to reach your contacts’ inboxes well before Thanksgiving. If you are a B2B company, send your messages the Friday or Monday before Thanksgiving; this will give contacts plenty of time to read them before they leave the office for vacation. If you are an e-commerce company, send messages early in the Thanksgiving week to promote your online sales.

•

•

•

•

•

•

7



Insider TipIf you are an e-commerce company, consider running a sale that starts as soon as the clock strikes midnight on Black Friday. Armchair shoppers and those looking for a break from family will thank you (in sales).

Prime-time buyers are not as frazzled as last-minute shoppers, so any old marketing message will not win their notice. Focus on creating offers, text, and designs that stand out.

Last-Minute ShoppersSome people work best under pressure. These are your last-minute holiday shoppers. They want to find great gifts, but mostly they want a no-nonsense buying experience, helpful service, and guaranteed rush shipping. These shoppers are most receptive to marketing messages; every passing hour lowers the barrier to sell.

The following tips will help you win business from last-minute shoppers:

State how many days are left to shop before the holiday

Provide last-minute gift suggestions

Promote electronic gift cards, the last-minute gift of choice for many shoppers

Highlight the last days to order for guaranteed holiday delivery

Promote any mobile apps that make last minute shopping easier

Post-Holiday Bargain HuntersOne size doesn’t always fit all, which means many people will be back in stores after the holidays to exchange gifts they have received. Others will be looking to use up their newly acquired stacks of gift cards. Use email and social media to promote your end-of-year deals and to update shoppers on what you have in stock.

Try these promotions targeted at post-holiday bargain hunters:

Talk up products and services for the New Year (from champagne and dresses for New Year’s Eve to gym memberships and closet organizers for resolution-setters).

Offer free financing to get people in the door before the start of the New Year. You will pay tax on any inventory you have as of January 1, so you want to clear out as much as possible before the New Year begins.

Let your shoppers know you understand their needs. If you own a travel agency, for example, you might advertise discounts on real vacations now that the in-laws have left town.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

8



STEP 4 | Be SelectiveEvery shopper loves a good deal, but think of your messages like a menu in a restaurant—too many dishes to choose from, and nothing looks appetizing. Too many deals and a potential customer may walk away overwhelmed, confused, or, at worst, irritated. Promote just one offer per email and social media message, and segment your list accordingly. If you have a range of complementary products, focus on a hero product and promote additional items with less-prominent links.

STEP 5 | Keep in TouchUnlike distant relatives who may be content with receiving your family’s holiday newsletter once a year and not much more, your customers need constant attention during the season. Marketing noise is at its peak, and your brand needs to be sticky to make it onto your contacts’ shopping lists. Think about increasing the frequency of your email and social media messages during the season. As long as your messages are relevant and interesting, your subscribers will welcome the additional touches.

STEP 6 | Focus on BenefitsHoliday shoppers are more likely to open emails that have enticing subject lines. Keep these four characteristics of winning subject lines in mind:

1. Be Useful: Great marketing always solves a problem for its target audience. Your marketing could solve problems for your subscribers by simply offering great products at great prices or delivering great content that helps your audience make an informed decision.

2. Be Ultra-Specific: Focus on one product, service, or piece of content per email. Too many choices and your subscribers may become overwhelmed and confused, resulting in them abandoning your campaigns. Once your subscribers start ignoring your emails, it will become increasingly difficult to win them back.

3. Be Unique: What makes your organization different from your competitors? Do you have a unique selling point (USP)? Perhaps you can offer free shipping or better pricing on a popular item. Or perhaps you can deliver unique insight into a particular trend or industry that helps position your organization as a thought leader, therefore giving you a clear advantage over your market.

4. Create Urgency: Limited offers or flash sales encourage your subscribers to make buying decisions straight away, resulting in fewer potential buyers walking away while they consider other options.

STEP 7 | Get SocialEmail marketing and social media are perfect bedfellows. Place your brand in front of millions of people flocking to social media during the holiday season to check out friends’ pictures and post about their travel plans:

9



Post offers and gift ideas on Facebook and Twitter.

Encourage your fans and followers to talk about your brand, and surprise a few who say nice things with rewards, such as gift cards or special discounts.

Attract new fans and followers by including social media links in your holiday emails.

Reward your fans and followers with giveaway campaigns.

Gauge your contacts’ needs by asking questions (e.g., “What’s the best holiday gift you have ever received?”) and running polls.

STEP 8 | Learn What WorksThe holiday season is short, which means time spent on campaigns that miss the mark can be especially costly for your business. Whenever possible, split test your subject lines, offers, and email designs.

Split testing essentially involves taking an element of your email marketing campaign (such as a subject line, call to action, or design element) and testing it against an alternative version. You can do this by sending each test campaign to a 10 percent subset of your list. You can then monitor which test email yields the most positive results and hit the remaining 80 percent of your list with the most successful email. When split testing, it is important to remember you should only test like against like (for example: subject line against subject line or call to action against call to action). Remember to take note of your successes and failings, and be sure to implement your findings into future campaigns.

STEP 9 | Measure Against Your GoalsOnce you’ve done the hard work of setting your holiday marketing goals (perhaps increasing brand awareness or revenue), don’t forget to check in periodically to make sure that your campaign is meeting the mark. Choose the metrics that tie to your goals, and track them regularly. For example, if your goal is to increase your brand awareness by generating traffic to your website, track your email click-through rates. By the same token, don’t focus too much on metrics that are not related to your goals. If you want to increase revenue, and you’re performing in that area, don’t sweat lower email open rates.

Historical data can also be very helpful as you measure against your goals. If you had similar holiday marketing goals last year, compare where you are today to where you were at the same time last year. If you are underperforming, consider revisiting some of your more successful promotions from last year.

•

•

•

•

•

10



STEP 10 | Correct Your CourseIf you measure against your goals and find that your campaign is not getting you the results you would like, don’t be afraid to correct your course. You know what is best for your business, and being flexible this holiday season is a must.

If you need to turn your holiday marketing campaign around, consider the following strategies:

Try out new and different offers.

Reconsider the “winning” subject lines and designs from previous split tests, and overhaul your email communications accordingly.

Think about whether the holidays are really the right time for you to try to compete with big-box retailers, especially when it comes to price. If your holiday marketing campaign is costing your business too much and doesn’t look like it will be successful or even sustainable throughout the rest of the season, abandon course. Sometimes it’s best to cut your losses and focus on the time of year when you are most competitive.

STEP 11 | Grow Your ListDuring the holiday season, shoppers are visiting websites and stores that may not be on their radars during other months of the year. If you can convince these shoppers of your business’s value in their everyday lives, the holiday season can be a time of tremendous growth for your lists.

These shoppers will be harder sells, but with the right messages, they may become some of your most loyal repeat customers. Entice them to sign up for your lists with special discounts for the immediate season. Include sign-up forms on your website, on your social media pages and at the check-out of your physical store locations. Once a contact signs up, send a welcome email with a list of all the great perks they will receive as a subscriber, and follow up with messages that have been highly successful for you in the past.

STEP 12 | Remember the BasicsThe frenetic pace of the holiday season will keep any marketer, new or experienced, on their toes. Don’t forget the basics; your holiday email and social media marketing campaigns will benefit from the best practices that inform your campaigns during other times of the year.

Cleanse Your ListsTake time to cut cold contacts from your lists. Hard-bounce email addresses and contacts who have ignored your emails for a significant period of time can safely be removed. Sending to disengaged contacts or email addresses that no longer exist can be both expensive and damaging to your sending reputation.

Automate Your MessagesSet up autoresponders to automatically deliver a predetermined series of messages. These can include welcome messages to new subscribers, online course invitations, or carefully crafted sales messages. Autoresponders are a great way to nurture contacts early in their relations with

•

•

•

11



you, especially if you offer a product that includes some type of free trial. Just be sure that your autoresponders are not sent on the same day as your holiday messages; reaching out to a contact too frequently can result in an unsubscribe.

Opt for TextMake good use of real text (not graphics) at the top of your emails. A graphic-heavy email will appear blank until the recipient has selected to download the graphics. Real text is always visible. Don’t feel like you can’t include holiday-themed graphics in your message at all, just do it smartly. And always remember to create a text-only version of your message. This is especially important because many of your contacts will be away from their computers and will depend on their smartphones while traveling for the holiday.

In SummaryThe 2015 holiday marketing season represents a huge opportunity for online and traditional businesses to maximize their revenues toward the busy end of the year. A successful Q4 can also help you build your marketing success into 2016 and beyond. This is a short-lived opportunity and you need to take action now. Could your organization afford to wait another year for such a lucrative opportunity?

Make sure your holiday marketing story this year is a story of success. Start using the tips and tricks in this guide today, and guarantee your business a very happy holiday season

HOLIDAY MARKETING CALENDAR

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY



O C T O B E RSUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY


2423

1716

29

313028272625

2221201918

1514131211

10987654

321302827

29


HALLOWEEN!

Build marketing plan for Halloween, identify products/services to promote, start building campaign creatives and preparing lists.

Launch first Halloween campaign targeting Early Bird shoppers.

Launch second Halloween campaign focusing on specific products or services.

Launch a campaign to promote last minute shopping opportunities, then follow up with another wishing your subscribers a happy Halloween with some tips to make their Halloween party go off with a bang.

HOLIDAY MARKETING CALENDARN O V E M B E RSUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAYSUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY


2423


29 5432130

2827262522

21201918171615

141312111098

765321 4

BLACK FRIDAY

Make sure all your new subscribers collected over the Halloween period have been uploaded into your lists and segmented accordingly. It is also time to build your marketing plan for Thanksgiving and beyond.

It is time to ramp up the number of campaigns you send in preparation for Black Friday. If you’ve previously been hitting a list on a monthly basis, consider scheduling weekly posts.

As competition increases in the run up to Thanksgiving, you really need to take an aggressive approach to get your name out there. Consider running a daily deal in the run up to Thanksgiving.

Consider sending a reminder email on THANKSGIVING DAY to keep your offer top of mind for customers as they finalize their Friday shopping plans. Be prepared the next few weeks are going to be busy ones.




SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAYSUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY



Rest and enjoy yourself before starting your plans for your next 12 months of marketing! Take the time to do a little admin and start analyzing your successes and failures from 2015. Make sure you record your findings and store in a safe place to help you implement an even more successful holiday sales period in 2016.

January 18: Time to get romantic and start thinking about Valentines Day campaigns. Valentines Day, February 14: Your first big chance to get your holiday email list working for you again.

This is the last chance to make sales before the end of the year as well as a major day for celebrating.

CHRISTMAS DAY is the culmination of the holiday shopping season and is typically a slow day for retail. However, with the number of mobile devices as gifts increasing, there may still be opportunities to target keen shoppers.

Time to target ultra-last minute shoppers by focusing on digital products and gift vouchers.

Hanukkah involves eight nights of giving, so con-sider sending a series of offers promoting a new gift idea for each night.

SUPER SATURDAY is the last Saturday before Christmas. Gain an advantage by creating some urgency in your last-minute shoppers.

Last chance to grab attention of last minute shoppers. Drive urgency with strong subject lines detailing shopping days before the holidays.

Begin a countdown to Super Saturday, focus all your efforts on your biggest selling items.

People are back at work after the Thanksgiving break and easing into the week by doing some online shopping.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Look out, 2016!30/31292827

26252423222120

19181716151413

1211109876

543213029

D E C E M B E R

During this incredibly busy shopping period, your subscribers will expect you to increase your number of sends. Don’t forget to make sure any new customers/subscribers are constantly being added to your lists and segmented accordingly.

Clear out remaining merchandise, take advantage of ‘holiday money’ and gift cards, and finalize your planning for the new year.

This is also a good time to promote offers relating to New Year’s Eve celebrations, but more importantly, New Year’s day offers.

HANUKKAH

BOXING DAY

Documents

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! - iContact · It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! ... buying a Christmas gift for a loved one could very easily be tempted back