Independence Day is one of the largest retail events in the American retail calendar with retail spending estimated to be around $6.7Bn by the National Retail Federation in 2019. NRF also reported that Independence Day is the 8th largest spending event in US retail. While a lot of this revenue is spent on cookouts, BBQs and family celebrations, many retailers use this holiday period as a key promotional opportunity to boost new customer adoption, increase incremental revenues and slash prices.
To help you succeed online this independence day and maximise your return we’ve provided a number of key suggestions surrounding campaigns, tone of voice and promotional ideas.
Extending the Length of Campaigns
A survey carried out by ZypMedia on 2019 campaigns found that 72% of advertisers preferred to run a campaign for 2-3 weeks instead of only focusing on Independence Day itself. Starting campaigns early with pre-access for members and teaser deals helped to build excitement and increase revenues before the main event. The key piece of advice with regards to campaign planning is not to leave it to the last minute!
Diversify Your Campaigns
Alongside planning early we recommend splitting your marketing activity across multiple mediums including:
- Social Media Advertising
- Updating Pay Per Click Ad Copy
- Email & VIP Access
- App Notifications (if applicable)
- Video Ads on YouTube & other popular streaming services
- Video Ads on Facebook
- Display Advertising on Google
- Affiliate Marketing – Feed Based, Display Marketing & Featured Placements
- Traditional Print & Media
Diversifying the range of communications will ensure the greatest campaign reach and ultimately success. When structuring your campaigns think hard about the purchase journey of the customer based on the key customer demographics you are targeting. Ensure you are running a balance of traffic driving campaigns, consideration ads for customers further down the purchase funnel, and conversion based ads such as remarketing to visitors who have already seen the campaign or regular email purchasers.
Getting Your Campaign Targeting Right
There is little point in communicating with customers who aren’t interested in what you have to say therefore it’s important you know what demographics, interest groups and geographical locations you are targeting for Independence Day. Largely, Independence Day is an all-American affair so there is likely very little point in running this campaign for your whole customer base. Additionally, certain categories do better than others such as outdoor & BBQ, so targeting your ads based on industry insights & your core interest groups is likely to see more success.
Top Tip: To succeed online this Independence Day understand your customer’s interests and demographics better by using the Audience data on Google Analytics. Use In Market & Affinity audiences to help target traffic driving campaigns and increase your brand awareness with customers more likely to purchase. Use the targeting tools available to you on Google and Facebook to built lookalike audiences and increase the likelihood of purchase.
Trust In VIP Access
Everyone loves feeling special, which is just one of the reasons why VIP sale access can work wonders not only for customer loyalty, but also for your bottom line. Giving your loyal customers exclusive pre-access offers via email or your app builts loyalty by rewarding them for regularly shopping with you. 2-3 days early access means you can also reduce your direct to customer marketing costs by boosting revenue through lower cost channels such as email, increasing your campaign profit.
Top Tip: your customers will all be celebrating Independence Day with their family & friends. Why not share a Family & Friends code to your email customers and social media followers and get them to do some of the work for you! This is a great way to increase word of mouth sales and new customer acquisition.
Learn from Competitors
Almost all of the Independence Day sales we surveyed referenced or leaned in to American patriotism, fireworks, stars & stripes or something to do with the US’s history. Making this type of messaging central to your marketing campaigns will help easily identify it as an Independence Day campaign.
Campaign Examples:
Campaign & Promotional Ideas
- Celebrate Veterans & Service Men/Women – the 4th July is about celebrating patriotism and the nation’s independence which was fought for by American military and service personnel. Offer exclusive discounts to these customer groups through dedicated affiliate publishers or simply dedicated your marketing event to them.
- Stand Out With Free Shipping – with so many retailers wanting a slice of the holiday sales it can be hard to stand out. Go the extra mile by offering Free Shipping as an added bonus on top of your promotions.
- Sell the Stars, Stripes & Family Holiday – for many American’s the 4th July is a family affair with cookouts, BBQs and fireworks the center of their plans. Capitalise on this by buying seasonal products, increase marketing around red/white/blue products and pushing products associated with outdoor celebrations & family gatherings.
- Utilise Your Clearance Section – most American’s shopping around Independence Day are expecting offers so don’t forget to highlight all the great offers you already have in your clearance section.
- Run a Social Media Giveaway – use 4th July related hashtags and imagery to run a social media campaign celebrating Independence Day and giveaway some of your products to your followers. This is not only a great way to increase your social media following and capture customer data, but also to give back at this time.
- Blink & You’ll Miss It! – Flash sales are a great way to drum up attention & leave customers wanting more. Why not schedule a series of 1 day events leading up to Independence Day and leave the best offer until 4th July. If you’re feeling generous you could even extend the offer on the 5th of July to delight customers who may have missed out.
- Partner with an American Charity – while the 4th is a great opportunity to increase sales it’s also a great opportunity for companies to show their human site and celebrate their heritage alongside some of the great American charities. Give customers the opportunity to donate with every purchase or donate a % of all sales in the promotional period to your chosen charity.
- Run a Family & Friends Event – 4th July is all about the American family, celebrate with a targeted Family & Friends campaign, great for rewarding loyal customers & word of mouth sales.
- Free Gift Tiers – a great way to increase customer spend over the holiday period is to reward customers with free gifts which increase in value the more they spend. This tactic is often used by beauty companies to increase average order value and new product adoption.
- Spend & Save – tried and tested, Spend & Save promotions not only reward higher spend but can help increase new product adoption by encouraging customers to top up their basket with other products to get that saving.
With all promotions it is important the message is clear & well communicated to the customer. To succeed online this Independence Day, we encourage you to:
- Communicate promotions on your social & email channels just before your peak traffic times.
- Ensure your site is merchandised well ensuring all customers see the promotional messing, especially those who don’t land on your homepage and see the lovely homepage banners.
- Utilise in-house or 3rd party popup tools to highlight key offers.
- Include countdown timers to increase the urgency of the purchase journey and encourage conversion.
- Make exclusions clear, there is nothing more frustrating than putting a discount code in during checkout and finding out it doesn’t work. Make sure product restrictions are clear to avoid disappointment.
Remember Remarketing
Once the event has passed you should actively increase your remarketing budgets to encourage purchases.
If you want to find out more about how to succeed online this Independence Day, please contact us.
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