The lead-up to the holidays are a busy time for everyone. Is your brand designing communications for the digital-first paradigm? An omnichannel communications strategy can help win hearts and open wallets during a crucial time for your business or non-profit organization.
Deloitte forecasts that holiday retail sales will grow with shoppers planning to increase their spending by 8 per cent in 2024 compared with the same period last year. It’s a lot of money in motion: retail sales between November 2023 and January 2024 totaled $1.54 trillion, according to the US census bureau. Shoppers are starting earlier too and factoring in inflation.
Many shoppers plan to take advantage of deals with 75% planning to participate in October and November promotional events (versus 61% in 2023).
And it’s not just businesses getting in on the action. Giving Tuesday is next up on the calendar: 34 million US adults participated in 2022 with total gifts of $3.1 billion.
There’s a trend toward experiences this season. Over the last year and half, Deloitte’s data has shown that consumers are favoring experiences over goods with holiday experience spending expected to increase 16% this year. Survey findings indicate that consumers in all income groups are showing frugal and value-seeking behaviors despite optimism around the economy.
Engage audiences on their preferred channel with integrated campaigns
It all adds up to a big opportunity to engage customers on their channel of choice. An integrated email and SMS marketing campaign can alert your audience to Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, limited-time promotions, or the opportunity to donate before the tax year-end. A unified communications platform like OpenTextTM Core Messaging alongside OpenTextTM Communications (Exstream) and OpenTextTM Customer Data make it easy for marketers to target audiences with personalized offers, enabling relevant cross-sell or up-sell opportunities, better re-marketing campaigns and tailored win-back offers.
Start conversations to encourage conversions
Email, SMS, and push notifications can be used in tandem to guide conversions. Based on your audience preferences, habits and interests, marketers can design personalized campaigns with digital journeys that convert. According to research, 84% of people in the US say they expect companies to send them reminders and 90% say they are more likely to do business with companies that do.1 And it’s convenient to get communications while on the go. Half of U.S. adults check their mobile phone within five minutes of waking up and on average, Americans check their phones 344 times a day – once every four minutes. The three most appreciated message types from businesses include appointment reminders, booking confirmations, changes or cancellations and shipping or delivery updates.
- Wakefield research.
