It’s no secret that in order to achieve success during the holiday season, marketers need to start developing their strategy early. To help our customers jump start their holiday planning, on Thursday September 5th we hosted our annual Black Friday Countdown at the Dream Downtown in NYC.
The theme of the event was how to create a consistent and customer-focused strategy throughout the holiday season. We featured expert marketers, Alex Tshering, SVP of Marketing at FIGS and Michael McVeigh, SVP Performance Management at ForwardPMX. Here are three takeaways that you can directly apply to your marketing strategy:
1. Create a story around your brand that your customer can connect and relate to.
From 2017 to 2019 FIGS has seen astronomical growth. Tshering attributes this to not only their high quality scrubs but to their loyal customer base.
FIGS has worked hard to put into place a strong loyalty and retention strategy. He recommended that retailers use their story and marry it with awareness and consideration campaigns such as video retargeting. FIGS has seen great success highlighting the stories of nurses and doctors and showing how high-quality scrubs can have a positive impact on the nonstop work of medical professionals.
2. Analyze past performance to predict and prepare for the upcoming holiday season.
McVeigh said that sales growth during the early holiday season was much stronger than average. ForwardPMX clients saw 37% and 47% growth on the two days leading up to Thanksgiving 2018. In order to stay ahead of the competition, retailers need to understand past performance to strategize and plan accordingly for the 2019 holiday season
McVeigh encouraged retailers to lean on their vendors to review benchmarks from 2018 and partner with them to create a comprehensive strategy. Anticipating sales spikes and key periods will be essential to staying competitive in the marketplace.
3. Develop a personalized marketing strategy that puts your customer first.
McVeigh explained that the ForwardPMX team is encouraging their clients to use dynamic ad creative to develop ads that are personalized for each shopper.
As every seasoned marketer knows, it’s more important than ever to tailor ads to what your customers are looking for, rather than only pushing products that businesses want to sell. Personalization continues to be key during these promotional periods with customers, so ensuring that you are constantly using a customer-first approach across all strategies is crucial.
Everyone had a great time at the event, so be sure to watch the video below to see highlights. For more information on how to create a consistent customer experience to maximize sales this holiday season, check out our 2019 Holiday Marketing Report.
