There is one question that remains consistently common across all retailers; how can we increase repeat sales?
As a retailer you are most likely already aware of the birthday month marketing concept which is an approach where existing customers are pushed special offers during the build-up days and week before their birthday month.
It is not a new concept. What is new is the way the campaign is executed.
Many retailers choose not to utilise the birthday month tactic with the common frustration being administrative time consumption.
We are going to show you how you can effortlessly implement this marketing tactic into your existing marketing strategy and, we guarantee that if the tactic is consistently utilised each month, it will deliver net new sales that are profitable.
The Birthday Month Campaign - How it works:
Each month send an email and SMS to all your customers that have a birthday coming up next month. Ensure there is enough time between the email / SMS submission and birthday date for the customer to react and action the information. Within the email and SMS, offer an exclusive, highly compelling, time-limited promotional offer that is only available during their birthday month.
It is fundamentally important that this offer is perceived as a gift by your customer. For example, a special offer Gift Voucher, Coupon or Multibuy Offer, which should still include an expiry date and bonus loyalty points.
This is a compelling incentive to encourage customers to either come back to you store or revisit your website and purchase another item. Without this incentive this new transaction may not occur. It is a net new sale, with very little cost and a great way of profitably discounting without damaging your brand.
This tactic can also be extended as a further new customer acquisition incentive, by encouraging your customer to share the offer with friends and family.
The question that is most asked is, “how do you achieve this without spending many hours on the administrative tasks to setup and run the campaign”?
The first thing you need to do is start capturing the birthday information of every customer that visits instore, capture the information into your point of sale system. A simple task for the sales team who should be able to capture the information with just a few clicks.
You can incentivise the customer with a reward such as a future discount which increases the number of customers handing over their birth date information. This tactic helps increase your named sales rate which should be operating at a minimum of 70% of all your transactions, depending on the product category of course.
The second step is to identify the perfect messaging to be used and the incentive on offer. You will also need to identify the channels you want to promote the offer through along with optimal times to communicate with your customers. The application of the incentive, whether it be an offer, discount or voucher needs to be a fast and easy process handled within your retail software. If this process can not be achieved within a few clicks, then you run the risk of increased administrative time or your staff simply skipping past it.
The idea here is to remove administrative friction. The final task is to ensure your retail software recognises which one of your customers is due to receive the incentive each month. It is important your software also recognises that messages need to be sent on time.
Having the key elements of the campaign setup properly in your retail software ensures that marketing campaign runs smoothly every month capturing new sales that you otherwise would not have. You can now get smart with the campaign.
Offers and messages can be personalised to customers past buying behaviour as well as other profile data you have in your software. For example, you can recommend specific products based on past purchases and offer them as a birthday incentive. The key to success is to start simple and then later in more sophisticated tactics as you go. Get this right you will significantly boost your bottom line and your customers will love you.
If you want to see how other retailers in your category have implemented this strategy simply register for a free interactive screenshare today.
