Since Thanksgiving came a week later than last year, it's got both businesses and consumers flustered. Not only is there a week of less sellin' there's a week of less buyin'!
For those of you who aren't retailers this might even be the end of your fiscal year. Couple that with the economy and everyone is freaking out!
So what do you do? Sit down for a moment, relax and let's think about things. How will you treat this short season?
1. Get your email marketing ducks in a row - Because email is so quick, there doesn't have to be a big lead time and a lot of moving parts. However, you need to devote an hour, where you sit down and calendar out your campaigns. Then create them all at once and schedule them out. If you do this now, you can get at least 4 emails out to customers before it's too late.
2. Email your non-responders - If you've sent an email in one week, and you see that 60% of your list have not opened your email nor clicked any links, chances are they probably won't. Create a list of Non-Responders in the Download List section, copy the previous campaign, change the subject line and shoot it out again. It should take you no more than 5 minutes. You'd be surprised at the lift you get on this single campaign.
3. Expiration/Order-by dates - If you're shipping a product, make sure you're very clear about the date someone can order by, to get their gifts to the destination before the holidays. If there is an expiration date on your offer make sure you're clear about that as well.
4. Be honest - The holiday season is normally riddled with flaws. Things don't always ship on time or you might be out of stock on a product. The best thing you can do it to be honest with your customers and do it fast! No one likes to give bad news, but if you tell your customers of an issue, it gives them time to re-adjust if they want. That's superb customer service even if you're telling them something they don't want to hear. I just purchased an in-stock car seat from Target for a couple who are having a baby SOON, Target told me it shipped, however the very next day they told me there were problems and it won't ship for another week. For a big company that's pretty fast.
5. Smile - Sounds cheezy huh? But it isn't! If you have a retail location and it's really busy, great! So you have to work a bit harder, it's better than you being bored sitting around an empty place. Smile and think "How lucky am I?" If you have to deal with an influx of customers calling you around the holidays your customers can tell if you're smiling on the other end of the phone, trust me. It could even turn a bad situation into a good one.
Any other holiday suggestions? Comment!
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