With just a few weeks until Black Friday and Cyber Monday, marketers everywhere are already hard at work game-planning how to make the most out of this holiday season. The past few years of holiday shopping have set the stage for “solid but unremarkable growth” in 2023. So in the midst of that, what should holiday marketers be considering as they’re building their November/December roadmap?
In 2023, shoppers are looking to cut down on their holiday stress and find products and brands that uniquely speak to their individuality. They are most interested in experiencing custom-tailored buying journeys that require minimal effort. Learn more about the trends that companies should be leaning into for the upcoming holiday season.
Retailers and e-commerce sites have been hearing about COVID-19’s impact on the market for years now, but some pandemic shopping trends seem to be in it for the long haul. Shoppers are looking for uncomplicated processes, better customer service, and, above all else, value.
With a spotlight on buying essentials lingering from the pandemic, there will be a heavy customer focus on discount-driven sales this holiday season. Marketing campaigns must prove the high value of their products and the competitiveness of their price points in order to win customers for the winter.
In-app mobile shopping also continues to increase, reflecting consumers’ need for speedy purchasing experiences. Convenience is key, and companies providing the most seamless experiences will be rewarded with higher holiday sales.
Both in and outside of the holiday season, customers continue to have heightened expectations around experience. They want to feel like an individual instead of just another customer to brands, while catching up on everything they missed out on during the height of the pandemic.
Taking a unique approach to engage customers both digitally and in-person will keep potential sales from falling through the cracks. Try personalized messaging, create cohesive multi-channel campaigns, and provide opportunities for customers to mesh their expression of self with your brand this holiday season.
Long gone are the days of holiday shopping being limited to the time period between Black Friday and December 24th. Buyers are starting their holiday shopping as early as mid-July during Amazon’s Prime Day.
Companies have to prepare now — if not sooner — with comprehensive marketing strategies to push their holiday promotions out to their customers across channels. Otherwise, they may miss out on business from the crush of early shoppers trying to snag the best deals months in advance.
Braze is built to fuel even the most complex holiday marketing programs — helping marketers make the most out of these winter months. Read on for actionable tips on how to address this year’s market with powerful campaigns.
Brands won’t find their customers in just one place — they’re browsing on the apps, checking deals through their emails, glancing at their texts, scrolling social media, and shuffling through websites all season long. Building a seamless cross-marketing campaign that creates a smooth, enjoyable journey to the purchase button can make all the difference when it comes to decision time.
The most successful cross-marketing campaigns leverage customer data to send collaborative Black Friday and Cyber Monday deal texts, emails, and push notifications, and use in-app messaging and content cards for personalized offerings for when customers interact with your app or website. Each customer is unique and wants to be treated like an individual. Using a tool like Braze that allows marketers to frequency-cap messages to avoid annoying customers, filter out-of-the-box data to build better-targeted audiences, and automate campaign decisions using customer data helps marketers deliver personalized service at scale.
In-app purchases are continuing to rise while shoppers seek more and more comfort and convenience in their gift-buying experiences. Offering in-app or in-browser messages about BOGO 50% off jeans or a $20 gifts section gently guides customers to add to their cart with items from your best deals of the season without the hassle of deeper research.
Marketers can drive loyalty and lengthen customer life cycles by leveraging a deep understanding of their consumer’s habits and buying behaviors to personalize messages at scale. Customers want to feel as though they're engaging with brands in a relevant, human way, not interacting with robotic automations. Using the data integrated into Braze from data partners, marketers can find out customers’ unique needs and interests and segment more granularly to deliver meaningful messages.
Amidst a hectic selling season for marketers, the Sage AI Tools built into Braze can help marketers keep up with the busyness of holidays by scaling the content creation and copywriting process, allowing them to focus less on repeatable tasks, like mundane day-to-day copies, and more on building innovative strategies.
Braze’s accessible journey interface, Canvas, helps marketers thoughtfully develop winback campaigns to bring customers back to their site or app. Using a multi-channel approach and the power of Sage AI, customers can be reminded to return to an unattended cart or revisit a page they spent ample time on previously — at the time and place where they’re most likely to engage.
Braze’s comprehensive feature set, paired with top-notch strategy, creates a huge opportunity for marketers to better connect to customers in a competitive holiday shopping environment. If you’re interested in hearing more about how Stitch puts strategy first and helps marketers do more with their Braze investment every day, reach out.
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