Engaging Holiday Shoppers Past the One-Time Purchase
As the holiday shopping season rapidly approaches for marketers, a brand’s biggest challenge is to rise above the marketing noise and extend consumer engagement in ways that lead to purchase. How can you reward consumers while creating longer-term stickiness? Here are some of our favorite ways to drive return visits, increase brand-shopper interaction, and get on consumers’ nice lists this holiday season.
Holiday Gift Calendars
With the biggest shopping season comes a colossal surge of flashing display lights, media advertisements and never-ending emails. There are so many offers to take in, making it difficult for brands to retain consumers’ attention over prolonged periods of time. To get customers to routinely check back for special seasonal offers and discounts, retailers should consider building advent calendars or holiday countdowns to get consumers in the habit of visiting e-commerce websites or in-store experiences for timely deals and occasional prizes.
Last season, Neiman Marcus debuted its “25 Days of Gifts” guide as part of its #LoveToGiveNM campaign. Each day, Neiman Marcus introduced consumers to a new gift recommendation by placing a short video to Instagram, with 10% of proceeds going to the Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation, benefiting youth arts education in nearby communities. The countdown delivered bite-sized content on a daily basis while driving frequent visits. The social good element to the campaign also frames Neiman Marcus in a positive light, in a season where charitable giving is at its peak.
Streak Couponing also adds a calendar element to holiday shopping, offering customers a discount of increased value each time they make a purchase within a set time span. For example, after using a 10% off coupon, a consumer would then receive a 15% discount, 20% and so on, leading up to the highest offer in the “streak.” As shoppers work their way down long holiday shopping lists, Streak Couponing offers are a meaningful way to incentivize repeat visits to stores and reward customers for ongoing loyalty.
Collect and Win Campaigns
Another creative way to spur ongoing interaction throughout the holiday shopping season is placing an engaging spin on traditional instant-win sweepstakes. Usually spanning over a few weeks, collect and win campaigns invite shoppers to collect game pieces for the chance to win the grand prize.
Retailers can excite shoppers by presenting them with a game piece after making a purchase. These tokens correspond to an associated game board and are redeemable for discounts, cash prizes and gift cards. Starbucks gave My Starbucks Rewards members an exclusive experience to amplify loyalty, increase transactions, and drive incremental sales during the 2015 season. Every time they paid with their Starbucks card or app, members would earn a game piece or win bonus stars, with the chance to play twice a day.
Collect and win campaigns augment consumer engagement and get shoppers fully invested into promotions, because with every game piece, consumers are that much closer to winning. Brands can even incorporate multiple game boards into the campaign to encourage longer term engagement, breathing new life into traditional marketing efforts.
Exclusive Content
A great way to get mobile web and app users to continuously engage with a brand is to offer them exclusive content. Peninsula Hotels kicked off the 2015 season with its SnowPage promotion, decorating its public spaces with a plush snowman. For every image of the stuffed animal posted to social media with the hashtag #SnowPage, Peninsula vowed to donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Peninsula Hotels then expanded the program by adding a festive microsite, which included a list of holiday offers, holiday-themed activities in hotels and a special behind-the-scenes video. This exclusive inside helps strengthen Peninsula’s relationship with consumers while positioning a holiday stay as a rousing experience.
Social Scavenger Hunt
Retailers looking to spur social engagement this holiday season should also consider hosting an Instagram scavenger hunt. General Electric welcomed followers to embark on a holiday-themed scavenger hunt, which started at their Twitter handle and continued through a series of connected accounts for GE’s sister businesses and partners to bring the technology to life.
As part of GE’s #DigitalSnowGlobe campaign, consumers can navigate through mosaic illustrations and animated videos to find hidden snow globe “Easter eggs” for a chance to unlock prizes, including travel and gadgets. The campaign allows users to engage in a fun, wintery activity while enabling them to explore the technology that helps power their celebrations, intelligent transportation and advanced healthcare systems.
Whether they devise a collect and win campaign or embrace streak couponing, retailers should create campaigns that engage and reward customers beyond the one-time gift purchase. Such strategies augment brand-consumer interaction and repeat visits during the holiday season, effectively cutting through the clutter and forging meaningful relationships.