Solutions: Nurturing Holiday Shoppers with Email

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, you can review your seasonal metrics and gain a better understanding of your shoppers’ unique buying patterns.

One thing you might discover is that your customers only came because of your sales, and that they don’t know much about your brand or what you have to offer. So, how do we keep those shoppers engaged after they’ve gone through your checkout?

Holiday shoppers can have an enormous impact on the success of your store; if properly nurtured, they can cost less, purchase more, and develop a meaningful connection with your brand.

Turning Holiday shoppers into lifelong advocates should be your number one priority this Holiday season.

We all know that email marketing is a great way of keeping in touch with your customers. But how do you develop a relationship with a new Holiday browser through email? Introduce them to your brand and tell your story with the very first email you send them.

Your first email doesn’t need to be sent immediately. Consider sending out a welcome email to all Holiday shoppers a few days after your sales end. It allows them to become acquainted with your brand and messaging. It also opens up the opportunity for you to share your brand’s story.

If you just start blasting new customers with promotions right from the get-go, you won’t develop a meaningful and lasting relationship with them. Spam! Bam!

A report from SilverPop/DemandGen says that nurturing emails get 6-10 times more responses than regular promotional emails. Nurturing your new customers keeps them more engaged with your brand. Keeping them engaged will make them less likely to lose interest and more receptive to future promotional emails.

Here are five great ideas for email marketing your brand can use to nurture Holiday browsers and shoppers and keep them engaged:

1. Informational Content

Put your educational blog posts into your emails or develop content in your emails that interests your target audience. For example, if you sell ski equipment, don’t make all of your emails about ski equipment. Teach them a new ski trick or share some backcountry tips.

2. Entertaining Content

Informational content won’t suit every business, but you can always nurture your shoppers with content that is entertaining. For example, if you sell cat food, share a funny video of cats playing or create a graphic cat lovers would enjoy. Make sure to keep it relevant to your product and brand.

3. Client Reviews and Stories

Your clients have compelling stories about your products and their lives that your Holiday shoppers might relate to. Share their reviews or stories to help your new customers relate to your brand.

4. Curated Content

You don’t need to create new content to keep customers engaged with your brand through email. Collect compelling and useful tips from around the internet into one email, such as in a newsletter or ebook.

5. Brand Culture

If you have a compelling brand and messaging that people identify with, it’s ok to create emails about your company. As with your purchase confirmation and welcome emails, your nurturing emails can continue to tell your brand’s story and share your mission and cause. If it helps shoppers become more engaged with your brand, it can help one-time Holiday browsers begin to identify with your brand, too.

Email nurturing one-time Holiday browsers and shoppers is a strategy you can use year-round to cement an amazing, lasting relationship with your customers. However, it does take a lot of effort and resources to do it year-round, so using the Holiday season as a starting point is a great idea since this is when a lot of one-time shoppers come to your store.

What are you doing to keep your Holiday shoppers engaged after the season is over?