Holidays are a busy period for retailers. As businesses bank on the festive season to make up for lost sales, it is also a golden opportunity to add in new customers. The pandemic has accelerated e-commerce growth worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia with a major shift towards online shopping.
According to Statista, retail sales in Southeast Asia are expected to grow faster in the coming years, with a projected market volume of US$217.5 billion by 2025. The holiday season is a demanding one for retailers, but it needn’t be stressful. Let’s talk about key tips on how to build a successful cross-channel marketing campaign to drive more sales.
When and how to use each channel
With customers being active on multiple channels, businesses can’t solely resort to email. It is crucial to have other channels in play. Results show companies with strong cross-channel strategies retain 80 per cent of their customers, compared to 33 per cent of those without. A successful cross-channel marketing strategy is knowing when to use each channel. Recognising the content goal and seeing where it fits best, based on each channel’s capabilities.
For example, if you’re running a flash sale, SMS is an excellent option to connect with customers directly and fast. But, if it’s an advent calendar-style month of daily offers, then email and socials are both great options. At the same time, be super careful with send times as SMS is a more intrusive option especially if you operate across multiple time zones. Similarly, space out your emails to avoid email fatigue and mitigate lower customer engagement.
The holiday period is full of sales days and can be tricky to know where to run your biggest promotions. Look at the previous year’s data to see which channel drove maximum engagement, when and to what your customers responded the best. Learning this will help plan campaigns better and choose the right channel to drive engagement and conversion.
Leverage technology
Take advantage of the latest technologies for a unified cross-channel experience and for seamless integration between channels and platforms. It will enable a smooth data flow and will allow customers to start a journey on one channel and pick it up easily on another. Synchronicity is the aim of the game.
Additionally, if you have a lot of offline customers, ramp up your efforts to get them signed up for your mailing lists. Using QR codes in pop-ups or in-store promos is a great way to move those customers online seamlessly.
Once you’ve built your online database, segment them and follow up on any leads that haven’t converted. Ensure your automation programs, such as abandoned cart and abandoned browse, are up-to-date and on-theme to target customers who have stalled between showing an interest and completing a purchase. It is also where re-targeted ads can pick up anyone at risk of falling out of the sales funnel.
A unified tone of voice
While planning holiday campaigns, don’t forget messaging. If you’re running many campaigns, it’s a great idea to have overarching holiday messaging to keep things from feeling disjointed. Start by considering your audience and ensuring you’re talking about the things that matter to them over the holiday season. Be sensitive to different holidays that have religious and cultural meanings.
Subject lines! We all know how important they are, they are windows to your email. So, get them right. Be sure to include key phrases that have worked well in the past. Don’t forget preheader is also prime email real estate. Use it to highlight the campaign content, and share campaign phrases to build excitement and anticipation.
A joined-up, well-designed cross-channel holiday campaign will charm existing and new customers alike, whilst a seamless customer experience will significantly help remove barriers to purchase.
About the author: Graham Bell is the regional sales manager – ANZ at Dotdigital.
