Don't try to be the loudest

As I started to write this, I got yet another SMS message about the US election.

We're probably getting 5-10 messages per day between phone, SMS, email, and paper mail. Even though we didn't signup for any of it. Good old US spamming laws that carved out exceptions for political content...

It's bad enough that all of it is immediately trashed or blocked. Doesn't matter who or what the message is, into the round file it all goes.

This sort of thing will be how your customers feel come Black Friday. If your mail and ads are just the same-old X%-off, they probably already have another dozen sitting in their inboxes unread. Probably from stores they never remember buying from.

You must find a way to stand out.

That doesn't mean shout louder, give a bigger discount, or send more.

It means finding someway to be unique.

That could be warming them up early with actual useful content (or keeping them active for the whole year).

Or it could be building some promotion they actually care about for Black Friday (e.g. think of all the Thanksgiving runs that are promoted as a way to "burn off that extra turkey").

Or it could be opting out of the craziness and treating the holidays just like any other time of the year.

You can use the Winter Holiday dashboard in Repeat Customer Insights to see how much of an impact holiday customers have to your store.

But whatever you do, don't only dial up the volume. People are already exhausted with the flood.

Speaking of which, another SMS message just came in. block

Directive: Quality over volume in your marketing.

Eric Davis