‘Tis the season once again for holiday shopping. To find success in selling more of your products and services, it helps to know how much holiday shopping has changed over the past few years. Gone are the days of heading to the mall to browse for gifts for your loved ones. Instead, people are using their laptops, tablets, and smartphones to shop for and buy products from the convenience and safety of their own homes. In fact, it’s so simple that consumers are now spending over $125 billion on holiday gifts. Do you want to boost your brand’s holiday marketing campaigns? Here’s a three-step multichannel strategy that will deliver the results you’re looking for.

Multichannel Marketing: Get the Most from Your Holiday Marketing Campaigns

multichannel strategySo you’ve established that online holiday shopping is big business. November and December alone are loaded with holiday marketing opportunities. Why not take full advantage of the moment by adding key holiday direct mail marketing ideas to your strategy? One of those is multichannel marketing. When brands use multichannel marketing methods, their customers have a 30% higher lifetime value. Plus, almost 75% of consumers say they’d prefer to have this type of marketing experience with the brands they support.

The statistics are overwhelmingly in favor of brands adopting a multichannel strategy.

That’s where direct mail comes in. Direct mail has a 5-9x higher response rate than any digital marketing channel. At roughly 9% for a house list (and 5% for a prospect list), direct mail easily beats email, paid search, social media, and online display ads. These numbers may suggest that you should use direct mail and forget the digital marketing channels, but that’s not the case. In fact, the best practice is to combine your direct mail and digital marketing efforts into a can’t-miss multichannel strategy. If you combine direct mail with one or more digital channels, research shows you can experience a 118% increase in your response rates. Furthermore, consumers spend about 25% more on average when you combine direct mail with the most popular digital channel—email.

When you strategically combine your direct mail and digital marketing channels, you can build the perfect multichannel holiday marketing campaigns. Let’s look at a couple of real-world examples of holiday marketing campaigns gone right.

Birchbox Combines Direct Mail Catalogs with Email Marketing During the Holidays

Birchbox is no stranger to innovative marketing ideas. The New York City-based company produces beauty and grooming subscription boxes and they use whatever means necessary to sell them. This includes TV, retail (Walgreens), social, and podcast advertising. They also combine email and direct mail marketing methods. During the holiday season, Birchbox not only sends out email marketing messages to their customers but they also ship a holiday print catalog in hopes of increasing their online sales.

How you can apply it: Couple your email marketing campaigns with strategically aligned direct mailers to produce the best results. Brands like Birchbox that use these types of multichannel marketing campaigns see an almost 20% increase in their return on investment. Try using digital tech like QR codes and PURLs to connect your printed catalog/mailer with your website.

Simply to Impress Drives Holiday Website Traffic with Incentivized Direct Mail and Email Campaigns

PlanetArt is a leading technology platform in the personalized products industry. One of their brands, Simply to Impress, has every reason to market to its customers prior to the holidays. After all, they sell holiday greeting cards, personalized ornaments and stockings, self-inking holiday stamps, and more. To boost the likelihood of online sales, they provide an incentive for consumers to order with both their direct mail and email campaigns. One of their recent holiday promotions offered a 35% discount plus free shipping on holiday greeting cards.

How you can apply it: Consider adding an incentive like a discount or free item to your holiday marketing campaigns. Consumers are 80% more likely to buy if there’s an added incentive to do so.

Automated Marketing Campaigns Give Your Holiday Sales a Festive Boost

marketing automationOnce you’ve committed to a multichannel strategy, it’s time to experience your best possible results by using automation. Automation is the key ingredient for many holiday marketing campaigns because it’s triggered by a recipient’s own actions. This helps you reach the right customers with the right message at the right time. In other words, automated campaigns are uber-targeted. Plus, when you use these kinds of direct mail marketing tools, you can boost your engagement by as much as 5x.

Automated Marketing Campaign Styles: Use One or Use Them All

So, what kinds of automated marketing campaigns should you consider? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

  • Drip campaigns. If you’re scheduling a holiday email drip campaign, include direct mail as part of your strategy. Drip campaigns are up to 80% more successful than sending a single email. Plus, when you add direct mail, it separates your brand’s campaign from other automated campaigns that only use email. Just be sure the campaign’s elements, like the message, style, colors, etc. are consistent. Why does brand consistency matter? It generates trust, creates awareness, establishes authority, builds integrity, and ultimately increases revenue.
  • Nonresponders. Let’s say someone doesn’t respond to your holiday email campaign. You can switch it up by sending them a direct mail piece to see if they’re more receptive to that style of communication. When you use direct mail in this manner, you could see an ROI as high as 300%.
  • Repeat customers. When customers order from you, there’s a good chance they’ll do it again. In fact, after the initial purchase, there’s a 27% greater chance a patron will buy from you again. Use this statistic to your advantage by approaching your holiday buyers from last year. Remind them of their previous purchase and offer an incentive to buy again this holiday season.

Consider the type of business you have and tailor your automated marketing efforts to your customer’s needs. During the holidays, appeal to the customer’s sense of urgency to make a purchase. After all, there’s a limited amount of time for them to buy that perfect gift.

Digital Handwriting Campaigns Add a Personal Touch

Few things show your customers how much your brand cares more than a handwritten message. When you add handwriting to any of your holiday marketing campaigns, you’re including a valuable component that could lead to greater sales. Consider this: almost all consumers (98%) who receive a piece of mail with handwriting on the outside actually open that mail. When that happens, you’ve already cleared your biggest direct mail obstacle: getting people to open your piece of mail.

PS – Don’t Forget to Say Thank You

Another way to use digital handwriting as part of your holiday marketing campaigns is to trigger thank-you notes for your new customers. Studies show that most people prefer a personalized, handwritten thank-you message. As soon as they make a purchase, send them a prepared, personalized thank-you note. This not only acknowledges them for their commitment but it also offers a discount or other incentive on a future purchase. Of course, you’re not limited to only new customers. Any time you can show appreciation to your customers for their patronage, it’s a win for your brand. Random acts of kindness work wonders in any relationship—business or otherwise.

Note: Ask us how we can help you incorporate digital handwriting into your holiday marketing campaigns. Contact a BlueSky ETO representative for more information.

Personalize Your Holiday Marketing Campaigns

personalized marketingFinally, one of the most effective multichannel marketing methods you can use this holiday season (or at any time) is personalization. Approximately 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that offers personalized experiences. Modern-day marketers know that personalization leads to better customer relationships. That’s why they’re personalizing all their marketing channels with the information that matters most to consumers. Just look at these statistics:

  • Personalized emails produce 6x more transactions.
  • Marketers notice an increase of 20% in sales when using personalization.
  • Almost 80% of marketers say that “integrated, branded, and personalized” direct mail is a very effective channel.
  • Over 70% of consumers interact with marketing messages that are customized to their specific interests.
  • Almost 90% of digital businesses are investing in a personalized marketing strategy.

The holidays are a perfect time to get personal. Use this effective multichannel strategy and watch your revenue increase by 6-10%.

Personalize Your Direct Mail Campaigns with VDP

Personalization goes much deeper than just using someone’s name in an email or direct mail piece. Granted, that’s an important element for either channel. But there are other methods that work just as well, specifically when you’re using print marketing like direct mail. These include personalizing the images, offers, and locations in your direct mail piece to match the interests of the recipient. That’s where variable data printing (VDP) enters into the multichannel marketing strategy. VDP allows you to change various elements of your direct mailer without slowing the printing process. Not only does that save time and money, but it also gives each customer a personalized experience.

BlueSky ETO Can Help Deliver Your Holiday Marketing Campaigns

Your holiday marketing campaigns are vital to the success of your business. Research shows that almost 90% of shoppers have greater expectations for accurate, timely deliveries during the holiday season than at any other time. Why would you trust your business to anyone other than an expert? Whatever type of marketing or brand management assistance you need, BlueSky ETO can help. Contact a BlueSky ETO representative today to discuss your multichannel strategy this holiday season. We’ll help you to develop the perfect holiday marketing campaigns for your brand.

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