With the holiday season right around the corner, how are you getting ready to increase engagement and maximize revenue? Are you using a multi-channel approach to capture every revenue opportunity? How are you standing out from your competition during a period in which email is overcrowded?
You can use any holiday—gift-giving days or not—as a basis to drive revenue while improving conversions through SMS. If you’re looking for a platform to seamlessly integrate email and SMS before the holidays get here, consider Klaviyo for SMS marketing.
Building rock-solid email and SMS holiday strategies doesn’t have to be guesswork. By adding SMS incentives to your existing email list, you can boost sales during holiday periods while improving visibility.
Here are some tips to maximize profit through your integrated strategy this holiday season.
1. Start Your Email and SMS Holiday Strategy Early
Building anticipation is key. By giving your existing email list multiple opportunities to be aware of an incoming sale, you’re both building brand awareness and improving visibility for your impending sale. You might not be able to get through to your existing list when they’re already getting bombarded with sales emails during the holidays, so making sure they’re aware ahead of time is integral.
Get them excited with sneak peeks and countdowns. Offering small, teaser discounts in the days preceding a sale can pique interest. Stick to a dedicated calendar to make sure they know something big is coming.
2. Nurture SMS Subscriptions Through Your Email List
With so many sales during peak seasons, it’s easy for customers to find themselves overwhelmed and miss your marketing efforts. By providing multiple touchpoints to opt in to SMS and additional incentives, you’re maximizing the potential of an already loyal customer base while making sure they have direct access to your holiday sales.
Here are three steps you can take to improve engagement with your existing list while growing your SMS base.
Maximize Opt-In Opportunities
By offering an incentive to sign up for SMS in the first place, you can capture revenue before sales even start. Make sure to include SMS opt-in opportunities through pop-ups, email campaigns, and checkout pages before holiday sales to build your list.
Adding an instant incentive like a coupon for signing up—or making customers feel special by offering instant VIP status—is a great way to boost revenue while nurturing your list and improving both your email and SMS holiday strategies.
Provide SMS-Only Incentives
As stated above, offering initial discounts is a great way to grow your list. But what keeps your customers subscribed after the initial offer?
Making it clear that there are more incentives to be had by staying subscribed to your SMS list is another great way to keep engagement up while minimizing unsubscribes. Offering SMS-only discounts and deals leading up to the holidays—sometimes even with discounts as small as 5 percent or $5 off—will keep folks opening messages and clicking through before the holidays even start.
Give VIP-Only Head Starts
Even if you’re planning on sending the same sales to your SMS subscribers as your entire email list, driving exclusivity through VIP-only early access is another phenomenal way to keep your SMS subscribers’ attention. Offering early access to sales is especially key if you have limited inventory. Show your most loyal customers that you value and appreciate their business; they’ll repay it in kind.
We’ve got tips on how to offer even more on a VIP customer experience, too.
3. Personalize
A dynamic name tag goes a long way during the holiday season. With so many sales, make yours stand out by acknowledging your customer as an individual. It’ll make them feel special and appreciated.
Beyond that, offering personalized segmentation can really drive conversion. Separate your customers based on what they’ve already bought and send them deals that apply directly to their interests and purchase history. Acknowledge that you’re sending them information based on their past history; not only will it make them feel like they’re getting custom content, but it’ll also help them sort through sales that hold no interest while drawing them into your brand, too.
4. Send Post-Holiday Campaigns
Give your customers who missed out on your full-strength sales a chance to be part of the holiday hype. With follow-up campaigns after the bulk of your sales, a smaller discount can capture lost revenue when folks are scrambling to get all of their shopping done.
Was your original discount 20 percent? Offer a 10 percent discount to anyone who couldn’t make it to your original sale. They’ll appreciate the additional opportunity, and they’ll remember your brand for thinking of them—and giving them another chance to save—after the holiday craze dies down.
5. Integrate Your Email and SMS Holiday Strategies with Help from the Professionals
This is just the start of a stellar integrated email and SMS strategy. To learn more about maximizing profits this holiday season, download our Email Marketing Templates for E-Commerce e-book. From strong foundational email flows to targeted holiday emails and indoctrinating your audience to your brand, our e-book is a great place to start building your strategy to set yourself up for success this holiday season.
