DTC Briefing: How brands are giving customers a ‘gentle nudge’ with early holiday promotions

The focus for these brands is to push this messaging without irritating their customers with incessant emails and texts. Some companies are pushing specific products as items that are ideal for self-gifting and can be used throughout the season. Others are creating exclusive, tiered discounts to reward loyal customers for getting their shopping done early.

Over the last few years Anyday, which makes products for cooking dishes in the microwave, has experimented with multi-tiered promo strategies to get shoppers to buy early.

This year, the company’s goal is to get both new and existing customers to splurge on new products ahead of the Black Friday week in the hopes that they’ll come back to restock when the discounts get deeper.

Lauren Masur, marketing director at Anyday, said, “Because we have such a packed promotions calendar this year, we started the rollout early to space out our touch points and ensure that our campaigns stand out in crowded inboxes.”

That rollout kicked off in late September with Anyday’s new product launches, which included square-shaped dishes and a line of cookware accessories. Masur said both of these new lines resonated well with returning customers, pointing to how emails and paid ads targeting past customers performed. “That is a great indication that these products will also perform even better over the holiday sale period,” she said.

Masur said that Anyday also takes advantage of its high customer retention rate by converting new customers ahead of the Black Friday weekend. “In the last few months, we’ve seen retention rates in the 40s, thanks to recent product launches,” Masur said.

To do this, throughout the month of October, Anyday targeted prospective customer segments with historically well-performing email content. The brand is also running a major influencer campaign in partnership with Panasonic, with the social content going live during its busy promo period to help reach new audiences. 

Masur said it also helps that Anyday is in a unique category since its products can be useful during Thanksgiving. Much of this month’s messaging revolves around customers getting to give their oven a break by using the microwave. There is also an emphasis on shipping cut-offs to receive orders by Thanksgiving. 

While the company still expects to experience the highest order volume during Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, Masur said, “We began offering discounts as early as November 1 this year to capture early holiday shoppers and to be on par with other brands that are also starting their promos well before Thanksgiving week.” In the last few years, Masur said this window has brought “pretty great and steady sales leading up to the main event.’”

“Our BFCM main event starts on November 25 and extends through Cyber Monday,” she said, which falls on December 2 this year. “That sale will feature up to 50% MSRP sitewide, which is our best-ever discount,” Masur said. 

Stanley Lim, an assistant professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, said that “consumers are inherently cautious with spending this time of year,” said Lim. Instead of pushing generic discounts — like 20% off sitewide — all season long, retailers could stand to create a sense of urgency in several ways. “It’s better to create value-driven incentives for the customer, like exclusive access to products or even offer faster or free shipping to those early shoppers,” Lim said.

He pointed to other potential strategies retailers can consider for gently encouraging cart checkout ahead of Black Friday. 

“Many companies are sending emails and text messages about their discounts, so it’s difficult to differentiate when everyone is doing it,” Lim said. One way is to provide inventory alerts. “Companies like Amazon do well with warnings about the number of items left, which creates a sense of urgency but through a gentle nudge,” Lim said.

Other helpful tactics include offerings that don’t center around discounts, like providing ideas for personalized gifts or free recipes. Unique and timely products are one way to propel customers to pull the trigger on purchasing from a brand.

Anyday, for example, will reward its VIP customers who have spent over a certain dollar threshold this year. The brand is doing so by sending these customers a personal email with a stackable discount code that can be used for 48 hours only. 

Another company is also using exclusive offerings to draw customers in early.

Canned wine startup Maker Wine is trying to drum up excitement ahead of Black Friday by marketing its annual advent calendar. The company makes limited quantities of its “12 Days of Canned Wine,” so customers know they have to order early to not miss out. The box also features Maker’s most limited varieties that are typically sold through its members-only club. The calendars begin to ship on November 8 in order to ensure customers can receive and start opening their surprise daily wine ahead of Christmas.

“Each holiday season, our 12 Days of Canned Wine advent calendar accounts for over 50% of our Q4 DTC sales, and we see our demand peak a bit earlier each year,” said Sarah Hoffman, Maker Wine’s CEO.

That means creating clear, consistent messaging that this sale period represents the largest discount the brand’s site offers year-round. “That has been successful in helping us to sell out of this product each year,” Hoffman said. The demand for the wine calendar is largely driven by affiliate channels, such as press round-ups and gift guides, as well as SEO, thanks to the influx of search volume for “wine advent calendar” and “advent calendar gift” that spikes in early November.

But there will always be customers who hold out to shop during the traditional Black Friday window, as that’s when they believe they’ll still get the best deal. To reassure those customers, Lim said some retailers are offering guaranteed price matching throughout the season. “Target, Best Buy and Microsoft Store are some of the retailers doing these price adjustments,” Lim said.

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