Elevate your BFCM strategy: A CDP-powered guide to holiday marketing success

As we approach the holiday season, marketers are gearing up for two of the most significant events in the retail calendar: Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). This period presents immense opportunities and unique challenges for businesses of all sizes.

Because customers crave experiences tailored to their wants and needs, simply offering discounts is no longer enough to capture attention and drive sales. Successful BFCM campaigns require a strategic approach that leverages data, personalization, and multi-channel engagement.

This guide explores essential marketing strategies to help your brand stand out during the BFCM rush. We'll explore how Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) can enhance your campaign effectiveness, improve customer targeting, and create meaningful 1:1 interactions with your audience.

Expand your communication frequency

The holiday season provides a unique period on the communications calendar when a more aggressive frequency can increase engagement. Consumers are on high alert for deals and promotions during the holiday season, making them more receptive to frequent emails. Email providers also tend to ease their spam rules during this time, understanding that inboxes will be more crowded than usual.

Focus on delivering value with every email. Whether it’s a special promotion, exclusive content, or helpful tips for the holiday season, each email should offer something unique and meaningful.

However (and this is important), this doesn’t mean you should indiscriminately flood your customers’ inboxes. Avoid bombarding your customers with generic or repetitive messages, leading to disengagement or higher unsubscribe rates. 

Instead, focus on delivering value with each email. Whether it’s a special promotion, exclusive content, or helpful tips for the holiday season, each email should offer something unique and meaningful.

Monitoring your email performance and ensuring your messages reach your audience is still important. Regularly check your email metrics, such as open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates, to gauge the effectiveness of your campaigns and make adjustments as needed.

Increase relevance with segmentation and targeting

Targeting the right customer with the right content at the right time is the cornerstone of effective CRM marketing, and that remains true during the holiday season. You can increase relevance and engagement by tailoring your messages to specific audience segments.

Segment customers by interests and purchase history

Start segmenting your audience based on their purchase history and engagement with specific product categories. For example, customers who have previously purchased electronics might be interested in deals on related accessories. At the same time, those who frequently shop for fashion items respond better to promotions on clothing and accessories.

Remember that customers will often shop for other people during the holidays, so you’ll want to mix targeted category promotions with other popular items.  

However, it’s important to remember that your customers will often shop for other people during the holidays, so you’ll want to mix targeted category promotions with other popular items.

One way to achieve this is to lead with a featured category targeted to each customer but include two other popular categories further down the email. You can create these dynamic content modules in most CRM platforms, mainly if they are powered by a CDP with all the relevant data.

Re-engage lapsed customers

The holiday season is also an excellent time to re-engage lapsed customers (no purchase in the last six months) and non-openers (no email open in the previous 90 days). While these customers haven’t interacted with your brand in a while, the promise of holiday deals and exclusive offers can entice them to re-engage. 

Consider creating a special win-back series targeting these segments and showcasing compelling incentives such as your best holiday offer and most popular products.  And don’t miss the opportunity to personalize those offers by tapping into sales history (via a CDP)  to feature categories they’ve purchased before.

Make promotions unique to set your brand apart

During the BFCM window, every retailer vies for attention with flashy discounts and promotions. 

To stand out, your offers must have personality and a unique angle. Consider incorporating humor, storytelling, or a strong brand voice into your promotions to differentiate them from the competition.

To stand out, your offers must have personality and a unique angle. Consider incorporating humor, storytelling, or a strong brand voice into your promotions to differentiate them from the competition.

Identify what makes your brand unique and be creative in translating that into your offers. Whether it’s a quirky bundle deal, a fun BOGO promotion, or a limited-edition product, adding a touch of personality will make your promotions more memorable and effective.

With that consideration in mind, here are some promotional concepts to consider:

Mini-loyalty events

To sustain engagement throughout the holiday season, consider turning the holidays into a four-week event where the customer earns a reward if they spend a certain amount by a specific date.  

The reward could be a discount coupon for a future purchase or the ability to choose a free item from a unique selection of products. While executing this type of promo will require customer-level calculation of sales over time, your CDP should easily enable that tracking.

These threshold-based events incentivize repeat purchases and create ongoing excitement and engagement to set your brand apart.

Brand-centric gift guides

Holiday gift guides are a compelling way to engage your customers while showcasing your products creatively. You can start with traditional groupings like "Gifts for Her," "Gifts for Him," or "Gifts for Kids," but you should also have fun with categories such as “Movie-lovers,” “Outdoorsman,” or “Home Chefs.” The specifics will vary with your brand, but if you have fun with the merchandising, your customers will also.

BOGO and bundle deals 

Deals that promise “Buy One, Get One” at a discount (or free) are particularly popular during the holiday season because they offer customers perceived value and the opportunity to purchase multiple gifts simultaneously. These promotions can effectively drive sales, especially when paired with limited-time availability or exclusive products.

Daily deals

Daily deals are a great way to keep your audience engaged throughout the holiday season. Consider starting them in the week of Black Friday and running them through December 15th, creating a daily dose of excitement and news. 

Just one word of advice: since there will be daily communication, you’ll want to provide a separate email to unsubscribe from that program so that folks can opt out of those communications without unsubscribing from all emails.

Limited-time products

Introducing limited-time products during the holiday season can create a sense of exclusivity and urgency. These products could be special holiday editions, co-branded collaborations, or temporarily available new items. 

Promoting these products in your emails as “limited-time” or “exclusive” can drive quick action and increase sales. Just be sure to communicate the limited nature of the offer to ensure that customers understand the urgency.

Leverage all marketing channels for BFCM

While email is critical to your holiday marketing strategy, you’ll want to employ all available channels to create a cohesive and powerful brand experience. 

Use SMS and push notifications for time-sensitive offers or last-minute reminders, while you can rely on email for more detailed content and promotions. By coordinating these channels, you can ensure that your messaging is consistent and that as many customers see your offers as possible.

In addition to CRM channels, consider using paid media to amplify your holiday campaigns. Social media ads, Google Ads, and display advertising can help you reach a broader audience and drive additional traffic to your website. 

Use similar visuals and messaging to ensure that your paid media campaigns align with your email strategy.  This creates a consistent brand experience, increasing the combined impact of the channels.

Lastly, the holiday season is an opportunity to create memorable brand moments even after a purchase has been made. Consider how the in-home delivery of those purchases can reinforce your brand and create a positive customer experience. 

This could include holiday-themed packaging, personalized thank-you notes, or even small gifts included with the order. These touches are substantial ways to build customer loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.

Plan across functions to optimize customer experience

To ensure a seamless customer experience, coordinate your efforts across different teams within your organization. And do so early.

Inventory and logistics team

Work closely with your inventory and logistics teams to ensure that products are available and that shipping timelines are communicated clearly to customers. This is especially important during the holiday season, when demand can be unpredictable, and shipping delays can significantly impact customer satisfaction.

Customer care team

Customer care teams should be well-informed about your holiday promotions calendar and prepared to handle any issues that may arise, such as offer questions, technical glitches, or delivery delays. 

By ensuring that your customer care team is aligned with your marketing strategy, you can provide a better overall customer experience and resolve any issues quickly.

Engineering team

Finally, coordinate with your engineering team to make sure they support your email and SMS send schedule accounts for potential traffic surges. 

The holiday season often sees a significant increase in website traffic, and ensuring that your infrastructure can handle the load is essential to prevent any technical issues from impacting your customers' shopping experience.

Making BFCM a success for your brand and your customers 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become the Super Bowl weekend of the eCommerce calendar, with competition for holiday shopping eyeballs and dollars fiercer than ever.  

However, a thoughtful, data-driven approach to your marketing strategy will help your brand stand out, creating meaningful, relevant experiences that engage customers and drive sales throughout the season. 

By planning early and embracing all channels at your disposal, you can deliver a powerful customer experience that will capture attention and build loyalty well beyond the holidays.

For more on making BFCM more than a four-day window, check out our multi-week approach to holiday marketing guide.  

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