Targeting Holiday Season Shopper with the right content and context can create the right appeal for deal seeking holiday season shopper. Here are some tactics brands can target and engage Holiday Shopper with prior to prime shopping season.
Flash Sales
hhgregg has organized sales through the November month offering deals and discounts specific to a category. Holding a Flash Sale targeting with online sale for a limited period is a good way to announce the oncoming seasonal offers to give consumers an idea of the deals that are likely to come their way.
Content Marketing
Blog posts are the second most important source of information that consumers trust after factual data. Blog posts are seen as a source of information beyond the discovery channels such as Mobile and Social Media. According to Blue Nile Research that conducted an online research to understand shopper attitudes and purchase behavior among 528 respondents across B2B and B2C consumers, the B2C consumers quoted blog posts to be second most important source of information.
The questions that were administered were probing and gave a qualitative feel to the survey.
Creating content posts that are engaging for your audiences could pose questions that evoke a response creating brand resonance. Reese’s post on Twitter reminds audiences about the unique taste, extending the same to Black Friday sales can help audiences remind about the offers.
User Generated Content for endorsement can help build trust for the data driven consumer.
Cross-Channel Presence
As high as 72 percent B2C Consumers interact with more than three brands prior to making a purchase decision and requires brands to be present with compelling content where the audiences are likely to be looking for brand content. It is important that your brand site has the announcements and offers that are relevant for the seasonal shopper, for consideration.
Comparison Shopping
Offers that are available across different retailer sites are likely to be compared with audiences choosing what they find to be of most value or the ones that answer their queries. Therefore designing offers that schematically solve the consumers dilemma by making the offers most suitable for the consumer are likely to resonate better. Targeting with the buyer persona creates better resonance, answering shopper queries in a more compelling manner.
What channels do you use to interact with a brand before making a purchase?
Search and Brand sites are the most preferred channels for interaction with brands for information, that consumers choose to collect information prior to making the purchase. Creating a customer experience that takes away the stress from the seasonal shopper can help engage audiences.
Showrooming
According to comScore the key trend last year on Thanksgiving and Black Friday was showrooming.
“44% of smartphone owners say they have engaged in showrooming behavior, where they enter a brick-and-mortar store and “touch and feel” a product only to eventually transact online. As smartphones equip consumers with information on products and allow then to easily find the lowest price, it is increasingly likely that the consumer ends up completing their purchase someplace other than at the register in-store. This escalation in showrooming behavior was ultimately a significant driver behind the pronounced channel shift to online, with huge year-over-year growth rates on Thanksgiving and Black Friday”.
Engagement ideas that encourage shoppers to walk-in in the preceding weeks creating ad recall and awareness for your brand’s offers at the time of purchase.
Contests
Organize contests that appeal to the shoppers’ instinct. Start with identifying the real Shopper intent.
Unboxing Video
Include Unboxing video in your emails featuring best-selling products. Create a weekly emailing schedule that requires audiences to look forward to the next offer announcement, to keep them engaged for Black friday Door Buster Deals.
Unboxing video is trending on Google with Search showing a clear upward trend in seasonal shopping months.
Discovery Ideas
Haul Videos are a way audiences look for discovering about new ideas and offers. Publishing Haul Video featuring your products can build awareness and increase interactions with your brand posts on social media.
Changing your site design for better product discovery can help audiences choose the gifts and decide on their purchases in a stress free manner.
Disruption
Disrupting your audiences purchase path with messaging targeting audiences with relevant location-based offers can bring in engagement from consumers that are loyal to other brands.
Encouraging audiences to compare deals throughout the month with an assurance of the best price, can make sure that your loyal consumers are assured of best prices.
Unlocking New Offers
Banking on the shopping sentiment , Retailers have launched unique engagement strategies with Branded Digital Properties. According to BGR, “Rather than focusing on a single weekend in November, many retailers are extending their sales and special deals to cover the entire holiday season, well beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Walmart is one of the companies kicking off holiday shopping in early November, and the retailer on Friday announced a new Season’s Best Online Special promotion that will run every single day throughout the rest of the holiday shopping season”.
Walmart
Walmart’s new Branded Digital Property Season’s Best Online Specials engages early shoppers with newer offers every day leading to the sale event.
“These daily online specials are special buys and rollbacks, which means the price is discounted for at least 90 days while supplies last. No highs-and-lows, no gimmicks, no subscription fees. Walmart is committed to making shopping easier every day — not just one day — for customers this holiday season.”
Amazon
Amazon features a Daily Deals section right through till the Black Friday unlocking new deals every day. While engaging early season shoppers, the countdown preps audiences for Black Friday sales event.
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