Retail Marketing: 5 Ways to Activate Customer Data for the Holiday Season
With Black Friday approximately six weeks away, now is an ideal time to figure out how to activate customer data for the holiday season. If you properly activate customer data for the holiday season, you’ll not only increase your Q4 sales—you’ll also increase customer lifetime value heading into the new year.
So with that said, here’s Zeta’s gift to retail marketers for the holidays—five amazing, data-centric tips that will help you capture consumer attention in the best possible way during the most important time of the year.
Prospects and customers are consuming your content, but what is the data saying about that consumption?
These are the questions you should be asking of your data.
When you have the answers, activate them by developing a holiday-specific promotional campaign that emphasizes the right products, services, and offers to spark an uptick in holiday-season sales.
Do you know your “power buyers” from your “bonus buyers”? If you don’t you should.
Activate your customer data this holiday season to isolate your most valuable customers, from those with wandering wallets, just passing through. Create marketing campaigns that cater to these “power buyers” so you capture as much of their holiday shopping cart as possible.
Remember that shoppers will be working with much tighter budgets this holiday season (you can read all about it in the Retail Marketing Guide available on the Holiday Hub). That means fewer dollars up for grabs for your brand. Don’t waste your resources marketing to broad consumer audiences to win wandering wallets. This is a holiday season for efficiency, Zero-in on the individuals most likely to deliver the biggest bang for your marketing buck— your “power buyers”—and hit them with enticing, customized offers.
Social media can provide marketers with a number of data-based insights. But this holiday season, there’s one insight to pay attention to and activate upon more than any other:
What are people talking about as it’s related to your industry?
Mine comments and threads across the main social platforms to see what’s on everyone’s mind as it relates to the products and services you and your competitors offer. Use consistent talking points and other social signals as a foundation for a seasonal marketing campaign that’s truly relevant to what’s on prospective buyers’ minds.
Even in an era where more retail has moved online than ever before thanks to COVID-19, millions of holiday shoppers will do their retail buying in traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts.
For retail marketers like you, it’s possible to activate existing customer data to predict:
Blend those predictions with a true, omnichannel marketing campaign for the holidays to better capture this key consumer segment.
For brands that offer quality products and services, a lapsed customer is rarely lost forever—it’s just a matter of reigniting their interest with the right spark. To that end, activate data on former customers who haven’t engaged with your brand in an extended period of time (6+ months).
Are there any patterns or similarities you can see across the pool of past clients?
Is there any reason you can identify as a cause for their dwindling engagement?
If you can identify any patterns or root causes, create marketing campaigns designed to counteract the reason these old shoppers went away. For example, if you can identify that many of your these former customers stopped buying when your brand ceased carrying a certain product, create an email marketing campaign that reengages this audience by:
Marketers who activate customer data for the holiday season will obtain deeper insights into the wants, needs, and behaviors of prospective customers than those who don’t. That extra insight will lead to more effective campaigns that drive increased holiday sales, which are more important this year than any other year since the Great Recession. To see how Zeta can help your brand understand customer signals, identify your most valuable consumers, and connect with them through personalized marketing in the right moment, please contact us.
So with that said, here’s Zeta’s gift to retail marketers for the holidays—five amazing, data-centric tips that will help you capture consumer attention in the best possible way during the most important time of the year.
Tip #1 – Make the most of content-related data
Prospects and customers are consuming your content, but what is the data saying about that consumption?
- Can you see what types of content people are engaging with?
- What devices they’re using to consume that content?
- How about frequency—how often are people interacting with the content your brand produces?
- Are people consuming content that’s related to a particular problem that can be solved by your products and services?
These are the questions you should be asking of your data.
When you have the answers, activate them by developing a holiday-specific promotional campaign that emphasizes the right products, services, and offers to spark an uptick in holiday-season sales.
Tip #2 – Identify your “power buyers”
Do you know your “power buyers” from your “bonus buyers”? If you don’t you should.
Activate your customer data this holiday season to isolate your most valuable customers, from those with wandering wallets, just passing through. Create marketing campaigns that cater to these “power buyers” so you capture as much of their holiday shopping cart as possible.
Remember that shoppers will be working with much tighter budgets this holiday season (you can read all about it in the Retail Marketing Guide available on the Holiday Hub). That means fewer dollars up for grabs for your brand. Don’t waste your resources marketing to broad consumer audiences to win wandering wallets. This is a holiday season for efficiency, Zero-in on the individuals most likely to deliver the biggest bang for your marketing buck— your “power buyers”—and hit them with enticing, customized offers.
Tip #3 – Find the needles in the social haystack
Social media can provide marketers with a number of data-based insights. But this holiday season, there’s one insight to pay attention to and activate upon more than any other:
What are people talking about as it’s related to your industry?
Mine comments and threads across the main social platforms to see what’s on everyone’s mind as it relates to the products and services you and your competitors offer. Use consistent talking points and other social signals as a foundation for a seasonal marketing campaign that’s truly relevant to what’s on prospective buyers’ minds.
Tip #4 – Capture the digitally disconnected
Even in an era where more retail has moved online than ever before thanks to COVID-19, millions of holiday shoppers will do their retail buying in traditional brick-and-mortar storefronts.
For retail marketers like you, it’s possible to activate existing customer data to predict:
- Who these brick-and-mortar buyers will be.
- What kind of offers and promotions they’ll respond to.
- When they’re most likely to go out and do their holiday shopping.
Blend those predictions with a true, omnichannel marketing campaign for the holidays to better capture this key consumer segment.
Tip #5 – Activate customer data for the holiday season to rekindle smouldering fires
For brands that offer quality products and services, a lapsed customer is rarely lost forever—it’s just a matter of reigniting their interest with the right spark. To that end, activate data on former customers who haven’t engaged with your brand in an extended period of time (6+ months).
Are there any patterns or similarities you can see across the pool of past clients?
Is there any reason you can identify as a cause for their dwindling engagement?
If you can identify any patterns or root causes, create marketing campaigns designed to counteract the reason these old shoppers went away. For example, if you can identify that many of your these former customers stopped buying when your brand ceased carrying a certain product, create an email marketing campaign that reengages this audience by:
- Introducing them to the similar replacement product that you do carry.
- Explains the net benefits of the replacement product versus the original product you no longer carry.
Need help to activate customer data for the holiday season?
Marketers who activate customer data for the holiday season will obtain deeper insights into the wants, needs, and behaviors of prospective customers than those who don’t. That extra insight will lead to more effective campaigns that drive increased holiday sales, which are more important this year than any other year since the Great Recession. To see how Zeta can help your brand understand customer signals, identify your most valuable consumers, and connect with them through personalized marketing in the right moment, please contact us.
