The 2012 holiday marketing checklist

The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Unwrap key trends and insights for a successful holiday shopping season
An Experian white paper
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Introduction
The 2012 holiday season is just around the corner and retailers are
gearing up for this most wonderful time of the year. Smart marketers
know that in order to effectively engage consumers during the holiday
shopping season and drive strong results, they must identify their
most valuable customers and target them with highly personalized and
dynamic messaging.
Experian® Marketing Services recently asked marketing professionals to
share their 2011 holiday marketing campaigns’ results and dive into their
upcoming plans for the 2012 holiday season. The results below will help
marketers unwrap trends and insights for this season.
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Holiday season results in 2011
Once upon a holiday season
Let’s look back at the 2011 holiday season. For the first time ever, Cyber Monday
(the Monday after Thanksgiving) surpassed Black Friday as the biggest online
shopping day of the year, growing from 138 million visits to 177 million visits to
Experian’s Retail 500 index, a custom category of 500 leading retail Websites. As
background, this relatively new holiday was first introduced in 2005 by Shop.org
to help boost e-retailer sales. As more retailers began to offer online discounts,
holiday sales on Cyber Monday began to increase year over year.
Another opportunity for marketers is the day after Christmas. Experian Hitwise®
data showed significant growth in visits to retail sites on this day from 2010 to 2011.
Consumers also took advantage of discounts and sales that retailers promoted
following Christmas.
Identifying these trends in holiday shopping days will help marketers prepare for
the upcoming season and leverage promotions and discounts to better compete
during this pivotal retail season.
Daily holiday shopping milestones
200,000,000
177.13M
150,000,000
176.12M
169.99M 173.65M
160.90M
137.60M
Daily visits
132.33M
100,000,000 94.04M
86.94M 87.21M
50,000,000
0
Day after
Christmas
Christmas
Cyber
Monday
2010 Retail 500
Black
Friday
Thanksgiving
2011 Retail 500
Source: Experian Hitwise
An Experian white paper | Page 1
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
’Tis the season for email
According to marketers surveyed by Experian Marketing Services, email marketing
trumped all other tactics as the most successful initiative during the 2011 holiday
season. Of the 84.2 percent who used email marketing, 95.8 percent reported that
their campaigns were successful, with 54.2 percent reporting extremely or very
successful email marketing campaigns. Additionally, 92.9 percent plan to increase
or maintain the same level of investment for the 2012 season.
One reason why email continued to reign in 2011 was the rise in flash sale deals
offered by retailers (think Groupon). Experian CheetahMail® data showed there
were 31 percent more flash sale campaigns in 2011 than in 2010.
In addition to email, paid search and online display advertising rounded out
the top three most successful tactics of the 2011 holiday season. Respectively,
48.9 percent and 34.8 percent of marketers who used these tactics reported
extremely or very successful campaigns.
Top three extremely or very successful marketing tactics of
2011 holiday marketing campaigns
0%
15.8%
5.6%
3.7%
3.5%
7.4%
5.3%
9.3%
3.7%
10%
5.3%
20%
Extremely
Very
Moderately Slightly
Not at all
successful successful successful successful successful
Email marketing
Paid search marketing
16.7%
33.3%
31.5%
16.7%
30%
14.8%
25.9%
31.5%
40%
29.8%
40.4%
50%
Didn't use
last year
Online display advertising
Source: Experian Marketing Services
Page 2 | 2012 holiday marketing checklist: Unwrap key trends and insights for a successful holiday shopping season
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Challenges with social media marketing
Success rates of campaigns in free social channels like Facebook pages, Twitter
feeds and Pinterest boards were not as high as the tactics discussed above during
the 2011 holiday season. Regardless, very few marketers were willing to decrease
investment in these channels moving forward. In fact, the majority — 90.2 percent
for Facebook, 74.5 percent for Twitter and 67.3 percent for Pinterest — plan to
increase or maintain the same level of investment this upcoming holiday season.
This may be due in part to the newness of these channels, as well as how
marketers define success. Marketers may still be learning how to attribute revenue
to these social channels; however, they understand that engaging with customers
through them is imperative, and creates a steppingstone to other revenue-based
channels, and therefore are willing to invest more.
37.3%
Increase
30.2%
21.6%
Will invest
Decrease
about the same
as last year
Facebook page
Twitter feed
7.8%
0%
2.0%
20.4%
2.0%
4.1%
5.9%
Significant
increase
0%
0%
3.9%
20%
10%
28.6%
18.4%
30%
28.6%
29.4%
40%
2.0%
50%
41.2%
47.1%
Investment in tactic for 2012 holiday marketing campaigns compared with last year
Significant
decrease
Will not
invest
this year
Pinterest boards
Source: Experian Marketing Services
An Experian white paper | Page 3
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
‘Twas the night before holiday shopping
Marketers will need to stay ahead of the curve this holiday season to attract
consumers to their brick-and-mortar stores. Identifying your true customers and
targeting them with personalized and dynamic content will be crucial to engaging
them and yielding successful results — but what is the best way to do this? Below
are three programs marketers can use this year.
Three programs to leverage this holiday season
Text-to-join program
Marketers can organically grow their mobile base by initiating a text-to-join
program to engage with consumers outside of a traditional brick-and-mortar store.
The program allows mobile users to opt in to receive promotional text messages
from a specific business. Not only are mobile programs relatively easy to set up,
but there are few barriers to entry as well.
Tips for a great text-to-join program:
•Choose a specialized keyword or style
•Create a campaign to engage subscribers
•Build a call to action like an in-unit display or window signage to promote the Short Message Service (SMS) program
Loyalty program
Setting up a loyalty program where customers gain reward points is a great way
to increase engagement and retention rates with customers and spread holiday
cheer. Although there can be many barriers to entry (these programs take time
to create and execute well), setting up a loyalty program is the best way to create
a link between the customer and transactional data. It enables marketers to gain
visibility into who their best customers are and market directly to them.
Retail address capture
By capturing transactional data after a purchase made in a store, marketers
can get a direct profile of who customers are, from economic status to key
demographics. According to an Experian QAS® survey, for brands that have email
acquisition at the point of sale, 15 percent to 25 percent of their subscriber list is
captured in the store. By understanding who is shopping in your store, you can
better target them with personalized and dynamic content in other channels.
Page 4 | 2012 holiday marketing checklist: Unwrap key trends and insights for a successful holiday shopping season
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Joy to in-store experiences
Steps to incorporate ratings and reviews
Understanding how to capture consumer data is just one focus for marketers.
They also need to engage consumers in compelling and innovative ways to drive
better in-store experiences. Experian Marketing Services asked marketers to share
which marketing tactics they plan on integrating into their customers’ holiday
shopping experiences this year.
Thirty-nine percent of marketers surveyed said they will add ratings/reviews
programs. Here are just three ways to incorporate in-store ratings and reviews to
increase conversion rates and drive the social shopping experience.
•Create an in-store banner or display that features consumer feedback on products and services
•Implement a scan-to-share program to increase interaction on social
media channels
– Promote a large Quick Response (QR) Code that directs consumers to a page where they can share products and receive feedback from friends
•Bring Facebook to the store
– A Brazilian retailer recently installed LCD screens on hangers in its store. As people online “liked” a product, the number on the LCD screen changed to reflect the increase in Facebook “likes”
An Experian white paper | Page 5
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Top digital tactics marketers plan to employ this holiday season
Digitally savvy marketers are already beginning to employ the aforementioned
strategies. Their top digitally advanced marketing strategies for 2012 included
ratings/reviews (39.4 percent), social sharing (36.4 percent) and Facebook login
(28.8 percent).
Which of the following marketing tactics are you integrating
into your customers’ holiday shopping experience?
40%
39.4%
36.4%
35%
30%
28.8%
25%
22.7%
21.2%
20%
18.2%
15%
10%
18.2%
15.2%
9.1%
5%
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Source: Experian Marketing Services
Moving forward with the 2012 holiday season
The evolution of mobile devices, flash sale deals and online communities will have
a tremendous impact on the 2012 holiday season. This year, Pinterest, a virtual
pin board that allows you to organize and share things you find on the Web, has
established itself as a true player in the social media space. As the site continues
to grow, it will become an important factor in driving traffic to shopping sites,
especially around the holiday season.
Page 6 | 2012 holiday marketing checklist: Unwrap key trends and insights for a successful holiday shopping season
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Experian Marketing Services data showed 30.2 percent of marketers adopted
Pinterest during the 2011 holiday season. Moving forward, 71.4 percent of
marketers said they will invest in their Pinterest boards for the 2012 holiday, further
indicating that Pinterest is here to stay.
In addition to Pinterest, 2012 will be a mobile holiday season. Marketers
responded that they will increase mobile-related marketing tactics this
year. Last year 57.4 percent of marketers used mobile-optimized Websites,
50 percent used mobile advertising and 49.1 percent used mobile/tablet apps.
This year, they expect to get to adoption rates of 83.7 percent, 80 percent and
79.6 percent, respectively.
Investment in mobile-related tactics for 2012 holiday
marketing campaigns compared with last year
100%
83.7%
80.0%
80%
60%
79.6%
57.4%
50.0%
49.1%
40%
20%
0%
Mobile-optimized
Website
Mobile
advertising
Invested in 2011
Mobile/Tablet app
Will invest in 2012
Source: Experian Marketing Services
As noted earlier, the increase in popularity of flash sale, or daily deal, campaigns
will make email another channel marketers should focus on this upcoming
season. To stay ahead of the competition, Experian CheetahMail developed a
checklist to help marketers fully optimize holiday deal campaigns in 2012.
An Experian white paper | Page 7
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Daily deal checklist:
•Include a strong viral tie-in for the daily deals in case the product/deal is more relevant for a friend
•Incentivize the referral with a more general free shipping offer for the referrer
•Incorporate a mystery component for future deals or give a sneak peek
•Add a “vote” component to the deals and offer a discount on the products with the most votes
•Include a Facebook Share/Like button after customers vote
•Make the emails easy to share
•Consider a “Pin It” component so fans can pin each day’s deal to Pinterest
During the 2011 holiday season, JOCKEY delivered flash deals as part of its “12 days” campaign. This email
was delivered on Day 10 of JOCKEY’s campaign.
Page 8 | 2012 holiday marketing checklist: Unwrap key trends and insights for a successful holiday shopping season
The 2012 holiday marketing checklist
Conclusion
The outlook for the 2012 holiday season looks positive, with 66.6 percent of
marketers saying they expect sales to be higher or much higher than in 2011. To
maximize their interaction with eager holiday shoppers, marketers will need to
focus on providing a personalized and dynamic customer experience to remain
relevant. Implementing compelling loyalty programs and evolving in-store
experiences through social integration will help marketers stay ahead of the
competition. The growth of mobile, email and social interaction will yield endless
possibilities for marketers to engage with consumers and enjoy a successful 2012
holiday season.
For information on tools that can empower meaningful connections,
please call Experian Marketing Services at 1 855 214 8986 or visit us
online at www.experian.com/marketing-services.
You also may subscribe to our blog at www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward
for timely insights and updates to keep your business Marketing Forward.SM
About Experian Marketing Services
Experian Marketing Services helps leading organizations connect, engage and
empower customers to be loyal and active brand advocates through a full suite of
digital-marketing capabilities, including integrated email marketing, mobile and
social media; digital advertising; data management; customer and competitive
insight; and analytics and strategic consulting.
Survey details
The survey was deployed at the 2012 Internet Retailer Conference from June 5–8. It also was deployed throughout
Experian Marketing Services’ social networks between June 8 and July 18. Responses were collected from
66 marketing professionals.
An Experian white paper | Page 9
Experian Marketing Services
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10/2012