The holiday season is a time when businesses pull out all the stops in their marketing efforts to elicit emotions, encourage sharing, and create memorable experiences for their audiences. 

The holidays are the perfect time for any company to distinguish itself from its competition by employing various marketing strategies to create a positive association with their brand. These strategies involve providing the most enjoyable holiday purchasing experiences so as to win over their customers’ hearts.

While there is no magic formula for this level of success, there are many practical techniques to get the best results from your holiday season campaigns, including loyalty and rewards programs. 

By tailoring your PPC ad strategy and establishing a feeling of urgency and exclusivity to raise the value of your loyalty program, you can acquire many new customers during this time of year and nurture them into loyal brand supporters.

Above all, effective loyalty programs promote customer retention, sales, and buyer happiness. Below is our pick of loyalty programs you can use in your holiday season campaigns the next time any holidays roll around.

#1 Early Access to Items

Giving customers who sign up for your loyalty program early access to your holiday offer is straightforward but effective. Early access typically involves providing returning customers or loyalty program members with the ability to purchase certain products before anybody else. 

Even if you don’t include any discounts in the early access program, it can still be a rewarding bonus for members, particularly during the holiday shopping season when people are more likely to search for seasonal items. Members of your loyalty program will appreciate being able to get their hands on special holiday items before they have a chance to sell out. 

You may decide to go a step further by giving program members a discount on certain categories of items. Doing this is a small expense for your business, but buyers will place a lot of value on such a gesture.

#2 Special Advent Calendars for Members

Not all deals have to be monetary in nature; there are other ways to get your loyalty program members engaged and excited about what you have in store for them.

Think about focusing the campaign, prizes, and creative materials around an advent incentive calendar. Go beyond regular holidays and choose a more obscure one to keep customer engagement going all year round.

The calendar can be a daily reveal of new loyalty program perks, and each prize should only be good for one day. It can include discount codes, yes, but also special offers, early access to upcoming products, or anything that will give loyalty program members something to look forward to each day.

The incentives themselves can be tied to a specific holiday theme. Think along the lines of “A Week of Spooky Deals” for Halloween or an “Eight Days of Hanukkah” advent calendar for Hanukkah. If you’re going for a Christmas marketing campaign, go the traditional route with a 24-day advent calendar. Aim to design something special that will thrill your devoted customer base. 

#3 Personalized Holiday Comms

Personalized communications are essential to help your brand stand out. 

After all, excellent customer care entails more than just resolving your customers’ issues during the year; it also involves going out of your way to wish your frequent customers happy holidays, and remind them how appreciative you are of their business and loyalty.

During the holiday season, choose frequent flier customers who are part of your loyalty program and send them personalized ‘thank you’ emails. Use a tone and language that corresponds to each individual customer’s experience with your brand. Individual customers may be delighted by the show of gratitude for their engagement, support, and dedication to your products.

While we do live in a digital age, receiving something as personalized as a thank you note means a lot, and capitalizing on the festive mood in this way may help develop a positive brand association.
If you have seasonal products/services, like for example Safe + Fair’s winter granola - launch a personalized campaign to welcome your taste of Christmas into your customers' homes.

#4 Free Shipping for Members 

Offering free delivery as a reward during the peak holiday shopping season is an excellent approach to entice people to join your loyalty program. 

Customers are generally extremely pleased when they learn that they may save money during the most expensive months of the year. Free delivery over the holidays is more important to most people than any coupon code. 

Furthermore, receiving free delivery may inspire additional customers to join the program and stay for the remainder of the year. Think about having a referral program in place that offers both free shipping and discounts to new loyalty program members that are referred through others. Using a referral software can help streamline this process and requires minimal intervention on your end.

#5 Last-Minute Shopper Rewards

The holidays are a time when you will inevitably see a few folks feverishly perusing shop aisles for a gift—often for the party they’re supposed to attend the very next day. It is only natural that a similar situation happens to online shoppers as well, so why not incorporate it into your holiday season campaign for loyalty program members?

Offering surprise gift cards is one strategy to attract last-minute customers. Segment your loyalty program members so you know exactly who has already purchased something, and then email those who still haven’t, to entice them by instilling a sense of urgency and exclusivity. 

This method is a simple way to get their attention and drive action a few days before D-day. 

Takeaway

The holidays, no matter which, are one of the most significant periods of the year for companies and eCommerce merchants. While getting people’s attention during a busy holiday season is a difficult undertaking, you can appeal to loyal customers by coming up with engaging, inspiring, and thematic holiday campaign ideas.

Remember: launching a loyalty program takes time, so make sure to plan ahead to produce something fresh and special just for the holiday season.