Christmas in Australia looks a little different to the Northern Hemisphere. Think beach barbeques, a Christmas morning swim, and ideally a nice hot sunny day. But the sparkle of a cold and snowy Christmas isn’t lost on the Australian people. Enter Christmas in July! As we hunker down over the winter months – and yes it does get cold here – Australians love an early holiday celebration.
For marketers, the scenario should be no different. July marks more than the halfway point of the year, and terrifyingly, only five months until Christmas. This makes it an ideal time for marketers to embrace the July seasonal spirit, and start planning their Christmas partnership activities. Success is all about planning, so if you want to give your partnerships a gift of growth in 2021, here’s how you can approach your holiday partnership strategy now.
Just like a Christmas Dinner, with all the trimmings
At Christmas, we mix it up. So many types of meat, seafood, salad, desserts – it’s why we love the day. And your partnership strategy should be just as diverse. When you’re planning for this holiday season, it’s a great time to conduct a partner analysis. Which partners are you going to prioritise this shopping season? Are you working with partners across all stages of the funnel? Are your partners providing you with the audiences you’re looking for? Identifying this strategy, and more importantly the gaps, NOW, will help you have a stronger portfolio of partners and ensure you don’t miss out on potential customer interactions.
Three French hens, two turtle doves and a communication strategy
If you only have one takeaway from this article I hope it’s this: Communicate early with your partners! Even if you’re not, your partners are most definitely already in planning for the holiday season. They’re working with hundreds, sometimes thousands of brands, so getting in early is key. If a partner is pivotal to your holiday strategy, start the conversation now. Discuss each other’s goals over the season, what types of promotions you’re both looking to offer, and how you can best collaborate. This gives you the best chance of being prominent with customers and launching the strongest campaigns.
Starting the shopping early
Customers start their Christmas shopping earlier than ever before. And why wouldn’t they? For the APAC region we have shopping sales like 9.9 starting in September. Add on Black Friday, Click Frenzy and the lead-up-to-Christmas sales and shoppers are eager to purchase. This means it’s important to plan out your promotional calendar. Be sure to look at it with a wider business lens. Is your company trying to target a specific customer segment? Are they focused on sales of a particular category? Whatever the focus, weave it into your promotional strategy. That way you can create more targeted campaigns, and are likely to have a stronger response to the real goals you’re trying to achieve.
Deck the halls with discounts
A promotional strategy usually includes some type of discounting approach. And this can be difficult to navigate. Shoppers are looking for a bargain, especially in the lead up to Christmas. This means it’s all about the types of discounts and the way your partners approach it. There are several tactics you can take:
- Discounting for higher AOV: Set a larger discount for a larger basket size to increase customer spend.
- Discounting for profitability: Focus on discounting the categories that are self-owned or drive higher margin to protect your ROI.
- Discounting for new customers: Offer increased discounts for new customers to your brand.
- Discounting for the ideal customer: If you know a specific partner has the audience you’re looking for, offer them an exclusive discount code to help drive your best future customer.
Whatever your approach to discounting, cementing your strategy now, will leave you in good stead for the festive season.
Get creative with Christmas
One of the most exciting things about the shopping season is that your opportunities are endless. So get creative with your partnerships! Ask yourself:
- Is now the time to plan for a festive brand partnership?
- Can you try really collaborative promotions with existing partners, like gift guides?
- Can you target new customers with more creative approaches like push notifications?
- Do you know which of your partners are having flash sales and when?
Thinking outside the box, and truly collaborating with your partners, will give you some great ideas and tactics that are more engaging for your audience.
Do they know it’s Christmas all about automation?
Finally, you can’t achieve all of the things above, if you don’t have the time or the technical capability. Before the festive season is at our doorstep, take a look at your current affiliate and partnership setup. Ask yourself:
- Can you measure ALL of your holiday partnerships, including influencers, brand partners and content sites?
- Is your commissioning setup for success? For example, can you set commissions on any data parameter? Can you cap commissions? Can you generate SKU-level commissions?
- Is your attribution set up correctly to reward your partners across your customer’s festive journey?
- Is everything automated that needs to be? Your time needs to be really focused on strategic initiatives and partner relationships – especially over the busy Christmas period. Make sure everything that needs to be automated is to save your time.
As you book in your Christmas in July celebration this year, make sure you also book in your Christmas in July meetings. Planning your partnership strategy now, gives you the best opportunity for success. If you want to learn more about creative holiday partnership strategies, and how the Partnerize technology can support that, reach out to us at contact@partnerize.com.
