Actionable Marketing Guide Newsletter

Published: Mon, 11/23/15

actionable marketing guide

Heidi Cohen
Dear ,

In the US, this week is the biggest shopping week of the year.

The black in Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) refers to financial ink. It’s when many businesses go from unprofitable to profitable.

After years of extending Black Friday hours and opening on Thanksgiving, marketers have resorted to getting their share of customer purchases earlier. This has translated to a ton of pre-Thanksgiving sales.

From a business perspective, this strategy has the potential to hurt your bottom line since you’re cutting prices during your prime season.  What will you have to do to get people to buy going forward?

If you’re like most companies, chances are that you can’t do much to change your marketing plans for the next month.  This is particularly true if your business depends on holiday sales to make your full year budget hurdles.

This doesn’t mean you should retire to the nearest coffee shop or pub for an extended work break.

Instead consider how you can capitalize on the traffic that you have now to improve your 2016 marketing.  
  1. Determine where you have flexibility in your current systems. At Bertelsmann using offline marketing, the only 2 things I could do at the last minute was to add a short note (Think less than Twitter length!) and other internal flyers. Explore technical and in-store options such as receipts and follow up emails.

  2. Enhance impulse purchases. Think like a supermarket retailer. What’s at the cash register? Candy and magazines! Put small products near your checkout. For online sales, add popular or relevant upsells.

  3. Collect email addresses. Give visitors to your site and stores a reason to share their email address with you. Offer a sale coupon for January when sales are traditionally low. It can be as low tech as a pad and pencil. I’ve signed up for a number of email lists this way. It’s great for small retailers.

  4. Offer in-store coupons for January. Give shoppers a reason to return during the traditionally low sales month. These can be printed quickly and put in shopping bags.

  5. Encourage shoppers to share their shopping experience. This is quick and easy. Get shoppers to have fun with your products and take photos for Instagram and other social media entities. Have one or more of your sales people dress up and pose with shoppers.

If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving, I wish you, your family, friends and connections a very happy holiday. Please take the time to show your love for each other. Life is precious and we have to celebrate our time with our loved ones.

​Happy Thanksgiving,
Heidi

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide
​​​​Check out our interview with Pat Spenner, co-author of The Challenger Customer, an analysis of how business purchase decisions are made by teams and a guide to winning sales by leveraging team dynamics.

We'll be giving away a free copy of The Challenger Customer to one new subscriber. The winner will be announced in two weeks. (details.)
​​​Last week we interviewed Ted Rubin, social media expert and author of How To Look People In The Eye Digitally. A step by step guidance to building human relationships in business and life.
​
Our randomly selected subscriber, Erica, will be receiving a free copy of How To Look People In The Eye Digitally. Congratulations Erica!​
 
Download this excellent infographic from Ted's book with twelve tips on how to look people in the eye digitally.
2015 CONFERENCES​

If you didn’t get to attend Content Marketing World 2015 live, you can still capture all of the learning. Get the virtual version, study the contents so that you can power your content marketing into 2016 and beyond.
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    Q: What’s your best piece of advice for readers looking to improve their marketing?

    A: Stop personalizing content to individual personas. Start personalizing content to drive consensus across a diverse buying group.

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