Boost Customer Sales and Engagement this Christmas

Christmas is one of the most competitive seasons for the eCommerce industry, with brands all over the world looking to grow their bottom line. So, how can your business stand out from the crowded online marketplace and ensure your products don’t get lost in the noise?  

Drive, retain and convert more users with a digital advent calendar 

A digital advent calendar can effectively support your entire marketing funnel by adding a layer of gamification to your marketing message that intrigues users, captures their attention and, through word of mouth, generates FOMO among your target audience. 

Paired with the right strategy, digital advent calendars can help you to elevate your brand by: 

#1 REACHING NEW AUDIENCES

Partnering with other brands to offer exclusive discounts can help amplify your products to new audiences who might have otherwise missed your Christmas offers altogether. 

Journalists LOVE anything gamified and will jump on the opportunity of sharing your digital advent calendar with their readers as part of an outreach campaign, again helping you reach new customers. But, be careful to not make your calendar too sales-y if reach via publications is your goal, while journalists love a game they’ll be put off by anything too commercial.

If done right, your digital advent calendar might also get picked up by bloggers, or influencers who will share your offers as part of their content, free marketing and word-of-mouth recommendations - what more could you ask for?

Amplified reach also helps create a conversation which your brand can lead via social media, why not encourage users to share their thoughts on your digital advent calendar via their own channels using a hashtag? Social conversation acts as a form of social proof but also drives that FOMO among users. 

Why not add a competition to your advent calendar; visit every day in December and automatically be entered into a prize draw for an exclusive prize. This creates a layer of urgency and excitement that will keep users coming back every day to find out what’s next on your advent. 

#2 RE-ENGAGING OLD OR STAGNANT DATABASES

Email databases go stagnant, every marketer has experienced this and it doesn’t matter how big your email list is, those unengaged users just keep bringing down your open and click-through rates. 
The festive season is the perfect time to cull your database and a digital advent calendar is a great incentive to help re-engage those in your lists who might have simply been left feeling uninspired by your previous campaigns.

Try segmenting your database and creating an email series for those who haven’t engaged with your brand recently in the run-up to December, promoting what they can expect to see if your advent. Then when December 1st ticks around use this opportunity to leverage exclusive messaging to drive those users to your site.

Those who continue to not engage with your brand (even after some amazingly crafted campaigns) should be removed from your list, as should any hard bounces or contacts who have never opened an email from you. Mailchimp is really good at ‘cleaning’ contacts, i.e. those whose emails have bounced, but it’s worth checking your own system to see if it automatically does this or not. Cleaning your data can be a bit admin-heavy, but these are great tasks for the quiet season. 

#3 BUILDING ADVOCACY WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS

If it’s one thing eCommerce consumers love, it’s an exclusive discount or offer. Also known as hyperbolic discounting whereby people put an unrealistically high value on the here and now, and an unrealistically low value on the future. 

Why not give your loyal customers access to a different set of discounts or give them the secret insight as to what offers are coming each day so they know when to check in and make their purchases and when to hold out. Scarcity is a great tactic when it comes to creating exclusivity with offers, why not try playing into ego here by having a set number of deals available on a certain day, i.e. the first 20 purchases with ADVENT20 get 20% off? 

This form of VIP Messaging can help build advocacy with customers and those are the ones who are going to shout about your brand online - helping you reach their friends, family and followers. Plus, with repeat customers spending on average 67% more than new customers, it’s a no-brainer. 

#4 CONVERTING MORE USERS AND GROWING YOUR BOTTOM LINE

We all know that feeling of wanting to buy something but being put off by the price tag, only to be swayed by a 10% off discount or free delivery. 

Now imagine having 24 days of exclusive offers and discounts in the run-up to Christmas; the busiest season of the year for online shopping. 

Digital advent calendars give your consumers what they want from your brand; more for less. All while encouraging them to spend more on your products. These types of interactions also help create memories with users who might not be ready to purchase just yet, increasing the likelihood of them remembering you when they are, especially if your advent makes them feel valued or as if they’ve landed on the best-kept secret. 

You could even start thinking about your next year's numbers by releasing a set of offers with discounts for early 2023 to get consumers excited about the future too. 

#5 BUILDING NEW MAILING LISTS

If you include a competition or registration element as part of your digital advent calendar you’ll also get access to new data from users; allowing you to build new mailing lists for marketing in the New Year.

Plus, you can use this data to remind users to come back each day; increasing the footprint of your brand in their inboxes and helping you stay top of mind while brands all over are also trying to reach your customers. 

#6 GATHERING CONSUMER INSIGHTS

Your digital advent calendar doesn’t have to be 24 days of offers. You can mix it up with polls or questions to get users thinking - plus if you’ve got a prize draw for those who open your calendar every day, you know people will get involved. 

If thought out right, these polls and questions can give you invaluable insights into your customers, their wants, needs and challenges so that you can then optimise your marketing strategy into 2023. 

Key Takeaways

I could talk about digital advent calendars and their benefits all day, but, for the sake of your sanity and mine, we’ll leave it to those six, core ways they could help support your brand’s marketing challenges this Christmas. In summary, those are: 

• Reach new audiences 
• Re-engage old email databases 
• Build advocacy with current customers 
• Convert users and grow your bottom line 
• Build new mailing lists 
• Gather consumer insights 

Still not convinced? Take a look at our demo advent calendar here. OR, if you’re ready to talk all things digital advent calendars, get in touch - we’d love to hear from you!