Top 6 Marketing Goals To Keep Your eCommerce Leads Engaged After The Holidays

eCommerce businesses absolutely thrive during the holiday season. It’s the busiest time for you, the moment you prepare for all year long. During the holidays, eCommerce businesses worldwide launch major promotions and try to create marketing goals to undercut their competitors, all for holiday shoppers’ attention and continued business.

But what about when the holidays are over?

The presents are unwrapped, the turkey has been eaten, and there’s that odd stretch of time between Christmas and New Years when no one truly knows what day it is or when they need to go back to work.

But eventually, that giant lit-up ball drops in Times Square, life begins all over again, and you, as an eCommerce business owner, need to keep all those new leads engaged as they overcome post-holiday blues.

But what can you do to ensure that your leads don’t fall off once the tinsel and stockings have been packed away? How can your business capitalize on the attention you received during the holiday season to keep your momentum going?

In this guide, we’ll walk you through several marketing steps you can take to engage your leads as the holidays end and hold their attention all through the year. 

Launch New Offers

The most direct way to engage your customers after the holiday season is to offer them reduced pricing and special promotions.

The holidays tend to leave your average consumer all “shopped out,” and many of them are feeling the holiday doldrums in their bank accounts. The average American shopper spends upwards of $1,500 during the holiday season, which can go up exponentially based on the city in which you live (as shown in the image below).

Anything you can do to ease the financial burden on these exhausted shoppers can go a long way toward earning their post-holiday business. Consider launching a special winter sale or offer BOGO items where appropriate.

But, of course, you can’t expect these people to stumble onto your offerings. You’ll need to push your offers out to them in a manner you know they will respond to. During the holidays, you no doubt performed a wealth of demographic research, determining what kind of marketing your customers respond to.

If you’re appealing to a younger demo, then social media advertisements, short videos, and “Reels” on TikTok and Instagram will reach them. If they’re older working professionals, you might have better luck reaching out via email.

But one thing that everyone has nowadays is a cell phone, regardless of age, gender, or geographic location. As a marketer for an eCommerce store, you should include SMS marketing in your business plan. While doing so, ensure your campaigns adhere to TCPA compliance to maintain best practices and avoid potential issues. SMS stats reveal a 48.5% average response rate, which means users are more likely to engage with this communication channel.

Create A Rewards Program

You want your customers to be loyal to you, so you should celebrate that loyalty by launching a rewards program. eCommerce giants leverage optimized fulfillment centers to streamline their operations, ensuring your products are delivered promptly and in excellent condition. This incentivizes repeat visits from your most loyal customers in exchange for special promotions, free items, or other powerful incentives that can keep them coming back for more.

Some rewards programs run on a points system, where each purchase accumulates points on their online accounts until they can be used later on. Customers can make multiple small purchases with their points or save them up for larger items.

The program you choose should fit in with the buying preferences of your target audience, appealing to them on the platforms they prefer and in a manner that resonates with them.

Of course, the best time to launch this rewards program is during the holidays. By enrolling your customers in the program as they start making their holiday purchases, you can capitalize on these hot leads by giving them a reason to return when the holiday fever has subsided.

To further promote your business in the post-holiday season, consider offering two times the points for every purchase, like in the example from DSW shown above. In this example, DSW offers twice the points on each purchase and an additional $10 in rewards for every $75 spent through the end of March. 

Use Sales Data From The Holidays To Create Upselling Opportunities

After a successful holiday season, you’ve likely drawn in quite a few new customers. Analyze the purchases made by these people, along with any other qualifying information gathered throughout the sales process. Then ask yourself one critical question.

Is there an opportunity here for an upsell or a cross-sell?

By having access to some fundamental customer information, you can send personalized email advertisements, offering similar products to those they purchased during the holidays. If there’s an upgraded item that goes along with whatever they bought during the holiday season, offer them a special promotion on it.

This can be a great way to bring people back and create repeat business. 

Invest In Marketing Automation Software

One of the best ways to stay in contact with customers is by investing in marketing automation software, which can help you complete mundane tasks and capitalize on follow-up opportunities.

Human beings are prone to errors and forgetfulness. In 2023, having a Rolodex and a handwritten list of follow-ups won’t cut it anymore. You need software like email automation platforms, CRM solutions, productivity platforms, and other automation platforms that will allow you to stay on top of customers with minimal effort.

Automation solutions can keep track of each customer interaction. CRMs allow reps to take notes on every conversation through the sales process and any customer service issues that might arise. This can help you cut right to the chase when a customer calls in, as you won’t have to ask them a wealth of questions to get caught up to speed.

Marketing automation solutions can automatically route new leads to the proper sales representative. When someone submits their information, the software will determine what they’re looking for using advanced AI and machine learning and forward that new lead to the proper person with follow-up tasks already assigned.

Your automation system can also automatically complete any lead scoring tasks. To maintain lead engagement, you need to determine when your customers are primed to purchase and when they still need to be nurtured through the sales funnel.

Lead scoring can help you draw these conclusions because it helps you determine when your customers are inclined to purchase. But if you have a marketing automation system in place, you won’t have to score each lead yourself.

Finally, you can use a service like Bookafy to take care of booking appointments in real-time, automating video meetings, sending text reminders, synching calendars, and more. 

Capitalize On Holiday Reviews

After a busy and productive holiday season, you’re undoubtedly noticing an explosion in customer reviews on your online store. These reviews, both positive and negative, can be capitalized on in your post-holiday marketing.

How so?

Trust plays a huge part in a successful marketing funnel. Reviews serve as evidence that you can show a consumer, demonstrating the effectiveness of both your product and your company as a whole.

Customers are more inclined to purchase from a business with positive customer feedback and recommendations.

If you sell cleaning products, for example, consider compiling several glowing reviews and listing them based on the product type. You could have pages dedicated to proving the effectiveness of your floor mat cleaner, interior cleaner, leather cleaner, or tire shine. If these reviews have similar elements or themes, like a universally-praised customer service department, you can compile them together as well for a separate marketing campaign.

Bad reviews can also present a golden opportunity. By responding quickly, effectively, and publicly to poor reviews, you can save potentially lost business and demonstrate to the masses how much you care about the customer experience and the lengths you’re willing to go to for customer satisfaction. 

Guarantee The Return Process Is Quick And Easy

Obviously, no one wants to see anyone returning their products, but you can bet on it happening around the holiday season. In fact, businesses expect that about 18% of the items they’ve sold during the holidays will be returned.

That’s why you must ensure that your return and exchange process is quick and easy. These processes are indicative of your effectiveness as a company, so the easier you can make it on the customer, the better. They could come back to make additional purchases if you impress them enough.

Consider creating informational visual content walking customers through the return process. You could use free templates to create collages, gifs, and charts that show the entire process in a fun and simple-to-understand way that transcends language barriers. 

Conclusion

After the holiday season, while the rest of the world is taking a collective breath of relief, your business can’t afford to rest on its laurels and fall into a turkey-stuffed coma.

Instead, you need to capitalize on the new influx of customers and hot leads accumulated during the most wonderful time of the year, using the tips and tricks outlined above to engage them and keep them coming back month after month.