You blinked, and it’s that much closer to BFCM season!
So, naturally we’re popping in again with even more tips and tricks to maximize your engagement and revenue, this time with tech! Buckle up, because we’re about to help you not only drive holiday sales, but also strengthen long-term customer relationships.
1. Leverage personalization to create a memorable shopping experience
Tailor your site content to specific audiences
Did you know you can personalize the on-site shopping experience by list or membership segment? If you’re using Klaviyo Customer Data Platform (CDP), then you have access to the Group Membership API, which allows you to personalize a customer’s on-site experience accordingly.
Let’s say you're a hair product brand, and you've been collecting info about hair types via your pop-up. You can then use those profile properties to create a segment for each person by hair type – dry hair, frizzy, colored etc. Then with Klaviyo CDP, you can leverage those segments to dynamically tailor your homepage banner.
Additionally, Klaviyo CDP enables more advanced data management, manipulation, and analysis, while providing actionable strategies for both individual audiences and your brand as a whole.
Keep in mind that Klaviyo CDP requires an additional payment. It’s separate from the email and profile plans, and you must have both to access the CDP functionality.
Make sure you have sufficient developer resources before you start using the Group Membership API. You’ll need them to manage implementation and ongoing maintenance to your code as you begin to personalize. If you don’t know where to start with onsite content personalization, use your RFM analysis report to identify both champion and at risk customers, and prioritize personalizing the experience for these two segments.
Be more precise with pop-ups
There are a few ways you can use pop-ups to target customers on a more personalized level – Offer gift-finding services connected to a gift-finding quiz (we’ll discuss this later in the article…); provide a last-minute discount to non-purchasers currently active on site; or, one of our favorites: target people’s cart contents.
For example, you can let customers with carts under a certain dollar amount know that they’re just short of a BFCM deal. Or, you can offer a progressive discount based on how many items are in the cart – 10% off for 2 items, 20% off 3 items, 30% off 4 items.
You can also toggle on Shop Pay for relevant users to enjoy easy sign-in and check-out.
Set up specific deals for specific segments
Use previous purchasing data to tailor deals and bundles to audience segments. For example, a special BFCM product bundle might complement a previously purchased product. You can then segment a campaign to that audience to hyper-target their interests. Try other tactics, like giving VIPs early access or special discounts, or even a special promo for SMS sign-ups only.
Harness targeted email and SMS capabilities
Use email to show personalized product recommendations and loyalty points that can be redeemed for future purchases. A tool like Dynamic Yield (can integrate with Klaviyo) uses AI and algorithms to match content and products with customer preferences, and can even anticipate future behavior.
With SMS, you can send personalized messages to various segments, such as VIP customers, recent subscribers, or previous BFCM buyers. By offering exclusive deals or early access to sales, you can create a sense of exclusivity and drive higher engagement.
2. Create a pre-BFCM gift guide quiz
A pre-BFCM gift guide quiz can help your customers cross off their Christmas lists. Plus, it’s a valuable tool to gather customer insights and add them to their corresponding Klaviyo profiles. Then, you can tailor future emails based on their quiz answers. For example, you can send different targeted emails to people who said they were shopping for a family member, friend, or significant other.
You don’t necessarily have to create a quiz version of a gift guide. You may just want to make a simple guide that lives on your website for anyone to access at any time, and that you can share in email campaigns.
You can create guides by personality type, shop categories, budget amount, and more. Of course, different products will appeal to different segments, too, so consider gift guides for men or women, or even guides based on past purchases.
3. Offer exclusive BFCM product bundles
Depending on your brand, special product bundles that are only available during the holidays can be a great way to create a sense of urgency. Plus, you can incorporate these into your gift guide quiz by listing them as suggested gift options that appear on a customer's results page.
4. Encourage your customers to get ready for BFCM by making a wishlist
Wishlists can help generate excitement and anticipation of BFCM offers and sales. Make wishlist campaigns part of your list warm-up strategy prior to the heart of the holidays. You can even incentivize customers to create one by offering a discount or free gift. Tools such as Wishlist Plus or Wishlist King are simple to use and will help you implement this feature on your site.
5. Roll out the proverbial red carpet
Before BFCM, you can create a separate pop-up that offers early sale access by joining a VIP list. Or, you could segment your already loyal customers and give them early access several hours before the sale goes live to everyone.
You can even password protect your sale and create a unique code just for VIPs to make the offer seem more exclusive. You can accomplish this through custom code in Shopify or Shopify apps like Locksmith and EasyLockdown. For extra urgency, add a countdown timer to when the sale will be available to the public.
6. Implement interactive elements in your pop-ups
- Klaviyo’s countdown timer in pop-ups creates urgency and gives a tangible deadline.
- Klaviyo’s signup counter dynamically displays how many people have already signed up to receive offers over a set amount of days.
- Animate your pop-ups by swapping static images for eye-catching GIFs. If you're using a tool like Justuno or Wheelio, you can even gamify them by adding a spin-to-win, slot machine, or mystery prize.
7. Audit your flows and update them if necessary
Before BFCM hits, review and update your existing email flows, including your welcome series, browse abandonment, added to cart, abandoned checkout, and post-purchase flows. Ensure that any discounts in your flows don’t conflict with your BFCM offers and that the language reflects your upcoming promotions.
8. Ensure consistency across all channels, not just email
If you have different groups who are being offered specific deals – VIP offer versus general public offer, for example – make sure your content is aligned across all marketing channels, including direct mail; your website; a mobile app; Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads; and even your physical store, if that applies.
9. Speaking of a mobile app, leverage push notifications (if applicable)
If you have a mobile app, push notifications are a great way to send timely alerts before and during BFCM. Encourage customers to add items to their wishlist, send low stock alerts, or give VIPs exclusive access to deals.
In order to send push notifications, you need to have an Android or iOS mobile app, development resources to support a Klaviyo integration, and a customer’s explicit consent to receive push notifications.
To collect push notification consent, you must provide customers with a permission screen prompt during their first interaction with your mobile app. Your permission screen prompt should include consent language that provides the following information and allows them to opt in or opt out:
- What types of notifications your brand sends
- Details about the different push notifications your brand plans to send (for example, account changes, reminders, and special discounts).
- Why users should opt in
- Why a customer should provide permissions (for example, to receive important updates or early access to sales).
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Excited yet? We sure are. Want help? Nervous? Have questions? Just want to vibe about BFCM email stuff? Talk to us.
