Grab your marketing calendar and let’s gear up for the biggest time of the year — Q4. Mobile commerce continues to grow at an exponential rate and you need to make sure your digital marketing strategy supports that. With everyone’s phones close to their bed side, Email and SMS are two channels that get your current customer’s attention first. Here’s what to do to make sure these two channels are your revenue driving dream team this holiday season.
Start Scaling Your Lists NOW
Leading up to the retail Super Bowl, you’re going to want to increase your list growth efforts. Especially if you recently launched your SMS marketing program.
Bump up that welcome offer
To really bring the dough home, increase your welcome offer beginning of Q4 to make it more enticing for new visitors who land on your site. A 5 to 10 percent increase will do just the trick. If you’re trying to capture new visitors’ emails and phone numbers at the same time, then you’ll definitely want to increase your offer by 10% depending on what you’re already offering. Collect as many new subscribers as possible during Q4 because that proactive christmas gift shopper is looking for a star studded deal.
Target returning site visitors
Don’t forget about your returning site visitors, they’re not chop liver! If they’re already subscribed to your emails but not texts or vice versa, now is the perfect time to incentivize them to sign up for your SMS marketing program. Test a floating button or tab on the site to see what converts best.
Convert email subscribers to sms subscribers
Take your most engaged email subscribers and send them a campaign promoting your SMS program. If they’re already heavily engaged with your emails, you’ll be able to hook them with a simple “Join our NEW VIP club” campaign that directs them to sign up for texts. Tell them why they would want to be a part of this. It could be early access to sales, new products, or a giveaway. Whatever you plan to hook your email subscribers, make sure it’s worth their while.
Lead Gen Ads
The holidays are approaching quickly, it’s time to start thinking of a growth strategy that will scale your Email and SMS lists. Towards the end of October and that first week of November, start your Lead Gen Ad to encourage users to join your holiday sale waitlist. Giving them early access to your biggest sales of the year is an offer they can’t refuse. Don’t take a shot in the dark, utilize your top customer email segments to create a lookalike audience.
Give Your Loyal Customers The VIP Treatment
Let’s face it, no one loves your brand more than your loyal customers. They’re the first to open that email you sent or click through a link you texted them. Leave it to your VIP customers to spearhead your holiday sales.
Better offers
Your VIPs will take an extra 5% bump and run with it any day. They’re the all-stars of your Email and SMS campaigns. Make it special and exclusive for them, let them know that they’re saving more just for being a VIP.
Early access to sales
When you’re giving VIP customers early access to your sale, it’s like adding fuel to the fire. Let them take the lead, between order volume and their average order value, you’ll see a great start to your holiday campaigns. Just simply letting them know that they’re the FIRST to see this sale is rewarding. Make it known in your email subject lines or the first few words in your SMS campaign.
Channel Exclusive sales
Switch things up between Email and SMS only sale campaigns. Three day flash sales or a free shipping weekend will definitely catch their attention.
Stand Out In The Inbox(es)
Fun fact, 58% of users check their email before checking social media or the news.
Optimize your campaigns for success. Start testing and figuring out what will make your subscribers convert.
Timing is everything
With big retailers moving completely online, you’re going to have to fight a little harder this year to make sure your email is seen. Customers are immediately shopping for the best offer in the subject line of an email or in their text messages. Know your customer and monitor your open rates to figure out the best send times. Compare last year’s data and figure out where you need to make adjustments to your send strategy.
A/B testing
Do your subscribers get excited about percent off or dollars off? Do they prefer hero products featured in a sale email or do they click through and convert with just a simple postcard email? Do your sms subscribers convert more in MMS or SMS campaigns? If you can’t tell me the answers to at least one of those questions, we need to do some a/b testing! Now is the time to start testing creative, send times, and content leading up to a month full of cyber sales.
Do your research
Find out what your competitors did last year, analyze their creative. How, you ask? There’s this amazing tool called MailCharts, it will give you all the tea on previous email cadence and creative from some of your top competitors. It also doesn’t hurt to subscribe to your competitors’ email and sms lists. See what they’re doing and look at ways on how to do it better.
Conclusion
Are you feeling a little more prepared? I hope so! Having an Email and SMS marketing strategy in place will set you up for success in Q4. If they don’t see your email, they will DEFINITELY see your text. Make a list and check it twice, because consumers are looking for the best buys.