After all the holiday exuberance and eggnog comes the dreaded, post-holiday sales draught. This is the not-so-merry-and-bright time when online sales come to a screeching halt, returned items start to pile up causing a logistical disaster, gift cards become filed and forgotten, and credit card companies shift into overtime.
Never fear. It can still be a sellers market if you strategize the right way. Below are tips that will help you keep the sales coming.
How to Drive Sales After the Holidays
1. Have a Sale After the New Year
Shoppers come for sales no matter what time of year it is. Not to mention, this may be a great way to capture those gift card dollars and turn returns into exchanges. With a dollar that has more stretch than Gumby, shoppers will use the sales to put away the gifts for another day. You may be tired of the sale, but it may be a great way to generate new customers.
2. Retarget Your Market
According to the statistics, remarketing has incredible power.
- Remarketing can lead to 147% higher conversion rates
- The average CTR for retargeted ads is ten times that of display ads
- Visitors who see retargeted ads are 70% more likely to convert on your site
- With retargeting, shopping cart completion goes up by 26%
According to comScore study, Retargeted ads led to a 1046% increase in branded search and a 726% lift in site visitation after four weeks of retargeted ad exposure. Give Facebook’s FBX or Twitter’s Tailored Audience exchange a try.
3. Re-evaluate Your Holiday Give Back Programs
If you sell to Millennials, make sure you speak their language. If you’re partnering with a charity or organization over the holidays, know that Millennials care about issues, not organizations. According to the CEO of Achieve and researcher for The Millennial Impact Derrick Feldmann, “What motivates Millennials is a desire to affect THEIR cause through YOUR organization with their friends.” Know what your customers care about.
4. Make Good Use of Your Down Time
Use the quiet time to learn more about your customers through social media. A few ways to do so is to:
- Check your Facebook Insights for which posts get the most engagement
- Analyze the Facebook likes of your current Fans
- Check out the most frequent hashtags used by your Followers on Twitter (and check out your tailored trends)
- Review your most retweeted tweets
- Use analytical tools to track your consumers’ behavior
- Use Google trends to see what customers are interested in
5. Increase Repeat Engagement
Return visitors generate revenue. Set up an automated follow-up email that ‘checks in’ with the customer to make sure they are happy with the service or product. Any merchant sending out a receipt and tracking number but not following up after the product has been received in missing an opportunity to develop a relationship with that customer.
Sale Image via Shutterstock
Remember that Facebook, Twitter and Google offer the ability to upload customer emails and create custom audiences. Then you can advertise specials or sales after the holidays to people who purchased!
Aira Bongco
I think the post holiday season is just as profitable. People will still have leftover money over the holidays so they are still prone to making some purchases.