Post-holiday online marketing tips

December 21, 2015, 3:51 PM

By Patrizio Spagnoletto Chief marketing officer, SteelHouse

Prospect for new customers, and get back to the shoppers that visited your sites during the holiday season.

This year Cyber Monday did not disappoint with over $3 billion in sales, making it the biggest online shopping day of all time. And while retailers raked in the sales, digital advertisers gained valuable insight into consumer buying habits to aid in 2016 campaigns.

At SteelHouse, over 20,000 campaigns were launched representing over 1.3 billion impressions served on Cyber Monday alone. These campaigns (a mix of retargeting, social, mobile, and prospecting) had an average conversion rate of close to 18 percent, and mobile conversions more than doubled from last year’s Cyber Monday mobile campaigns. 

But before you know it, the holidays will come to a close as we ring in the New Year. However, that certainly doesn’t mean your advertising should come to a halt as well. With many retailers drastically scaling back their digital advertising campaigns at the start of January, it creates an opportunity for brands that didn’t blow their budget during the holiday shopping season. 

Typically, in January, win rates are 1.5 percent to 2 percent higher, so you can reach more consumers using less budget. And last year, conversion rates in January were only 5 percent lower than the previous December, when holiday shopping is at an all-time high. Additionally, many consumers received gift cards over the holidays and on average, these recipients will spend 20 percent more than their gift card value.

The first quarter is a great time to take advantage of a less crowded digital marketplace, build a loyal customer base, and capitalize on gift card purchases and returns. Instead of starting with retargeting again, start by refilling the conversion funnel start by using Prospecting campaigns to reach new customers. The most effective Prospecting campaigns combine a variety of tactics (Look-alike, 3^rd party data, demographic audiences, and contextual and vertical targeting) to reach new customers who are most likely to convert. Next, launch retargeting campaigns to reach those who visited your site in December or who put products in their cart in October, November, or December but have yet to make a purchase.

Knowing what types of campaigns to launch is only one piece of the puzzle—it’s also important to know where your consumers are, both physically and on which devices. Leveraging recent industry data, we compiled the top trends for sustaining digital success in 2016.

Mobile | More Time In App – Following in the footsteps of big brands like Amazon and eBay, more and more retailers will start to push users from optimized mobile sites to mobile apps. Offering a superior user experience, apps give brands more freedom to connect and engage users. And with more time in app, it will become more important for marketers to be able to retarget in app and across devices. 

Social | More Time on Smaller, Real-time Networks – With the big 3 social networks—Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—becoming more and more saturated with content and ads, sites are looking to the more niche, real-time social platforms such as Periscope, Instagram and Snapchat. These platforms give brands new and unique ways to engage with their audience. Plus, the engagements for these newer sites tend to be more native to the networks themselves, and in turn, more appealing to brands and users alike.

Social | The Way We Buy & Consume – With many “buy” button additions in 2015, there was a huge shift in the way people spend their time on social.  With instant content growing in 2016, there will be even more changes, such as the ability to consume content and complete purchases all without leaving social.

While it’s great to have more opportunity to get content in front of potential customers, this new option creates a challenge for brands. With so much taking place off a brand’s site, at what point do they lose control of the message? 

Content | Focus on Building Relationships – Content will always be top of mind for anyone in marketing. It’s what we do with that content that will hopefully start to change, with less focus on quantity and more focus on the quality of interaction and how to use content to build relationships. Personalized content, in the form of everything from digital ads to emails to social videos, will eclipse a one-size-fits-all marketing mindset.   

The New Year is all about change, and nothing changes more quickly than the digital marketplace. While it’s important to adhere to the principles that have worked in the past, brands can’t remain complacent and ignore the changes around the corner.

Steelhouse provides digital marketing technology for retargeting, mobile targeting and customer acquisition.

Post-holiday online marketing tips