I am in the full-blown swing of things executing Q4 (OND) campaigns for my clients. In the aftermath of a few really fun speaking engagements and the hubbub of a family trip to Hawaii + my five-year-old starting Kindergarten, I’ve been abysmal at keeping up on sharing valuable content here. Since we are all likely catching up, I thought I’d put together a quick checklist for you.
Three things you can do today that will get you caught up for the holidays.
Start teasing holiday offers in all your marketing communications
Do you offer corporate gifting? Will you be sending a holiday gift guide, or running a shipping special or two? Are you hosting a special holiday shopping event onsite?
There is research out there that suggests many people start their holiday shopping as early as October. I just saw my friend post on her Instagram stories that she was drinking red wine and doing her Christmas shopping online… on October 4!
Even if your editorial calendar is about a completely different holiday or theme, and even if you aren’t actively capturing holiday sales (e.g. corporate gifts, gift cards, holiday concierge, etc.), you can incorporate a simple, straightforward banner that plants the holiday seed in the rich soil of your customer’s brain. At the point of sale, make your holiday offerings a part of an email acquisition script. If your staff has struggled with asking for an email address from your customers in the past, this is a great way to position the “What’s in it for me?” with your new buyer.
“Hey, we’re putting together a holiday gift guide that will be sent out via email in mid-November. I’d love to include you, can I get your email address?”
Your customers are more likely to consciously (or unconsciously) save some of their holiday spending money for you if you let them know you have something special coming.
Give your email template a touch of holiday razzle-dazzle
‘Tis the season for tinsel and bows. These might not be “your brand” but incorporating holiady design elements to your traditional brand template can help create feelings of holiday wonder and delight that spur customers into action.
Think about adding touches of reds, greens, and golds in your headlines or calls to action. Rewrite your customer service footer to incorporate holiday order deadlines and, if you’re feeling whimsical, refer to your customer service team as holiday elves.
I mean, I’ll do it.
You can even create holiday-centric footer navigation that links to customer favorite product categories, positioned as great gifts for the holidays. You can get creative with what you have, here. You needn’t have a spendy website redesign or pay hundreds of dollars for a Hobby-Lobby-esque photoshoot. I wouldn’t even be offended if you used a little holly element for your content divider. You can steal mine! 🙂
Brainstorm ways to delight your customers this holiday season
This might sound like a non-email thing to do, and that’s because it is. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Taking the time to really noodle about what you could do that would surprise, delight, and inspire your customers during the holiday season will help you feel excited as you head into crunch season. It will inject all of your marketing efforts with that same energy, whether you’re thinking about it or not. And it might just yield a few brilliant ideas that you actually implement.
Schedule half an hour for this. It doesn’t have to be a half-day retreat (although if you have that kind of time free, I’m all for you using it for this). Grab pen and paper, and a hot cup of your favorite holiday-themed beverage. Then follow this simple agenda.
First, take a moment of two to inventory your customer touchpoints. Here’s a quick handful to get you started:
Phone
Website
Email (marketing)
Email (business)
Email (transactional)
Social Media
At your physical location
Print
Packaging
Then, write down next to each customer touchpoint some ideas for adding holiday delight. Just do a brain dump, scribbling indiscriminately, with no regard for whether the ideas are operationally feasible or help the bottom line. Take 10-15 minutes on this activity.
CHOOSE ONE. That’s right. You are going to choose JUST one of the ideas – the one that you think has the most impact to the customer and that would bring YOU the most joy to do. Commit to implementing this, and roll it out to your team THIS WEEK. If you don’t act today, you won’t do it. I’m only asking you to choose one, because one is better than NONE and too often we get overly ambitious and don’t execute ANYTHING effectively.
You can handle ONE more thing, right? I knew you could.
SUMMING IT UP
This time of year, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and simply fall back on what you did last year to drive holiday revenue and engagement. My goal with this post was to give you a few simple but high impact activities that will contribute to your enjoyment of a KICKASS holiday and break you out of the “if it worked last year, it probably will this year” mold. So take action THIS WEEK! Prep your customers NOW for holiday offerings in the future by teasing gifts and experiences in all your communications. Add a few holiday design and messaging elements to your existing email marketing template. Enjoy a holiday brainstorm session and choose to implement one SURPRISE AND DELIGHT factor at a key customer touchpoint. These are fun ways to bring the holidays into the here and now, and will help you enjoy deeper customer connections that have a direct impact on the bottom line.
Which of these three items will you do today? Tell me in the comments below!