Are you finding that your promotional campaigns aren't hitting quite as hard as they have in the past, that the dog days of the summer sales slump are too much to handle, or your expectations for your biggest selling days of the year fell flat? The problem may be with how and when you're rolling out your messaging. 

Typically, consumer behaviour is relatively easy to predict; certain selling holidays will always deliver at least some sales, even during dramatic economic downturns. December will always be a major selling month, tie sales will always jump round Father's Day, and when open, restaurants will always be booked solid on Mother's Day. These annual cultural events are predictable, dependable and reliable, so what's a Shopify or e-commerce store owner to do when one of these golden geese fail to lay an egg?

Explains Lucas, customer feedback is one of your greatest assets and tools at your disposal. Often ignored or dismissed  as disruptive to plans and already active campaigns, customer feedback is the canary in the coal mine of profitability and sustainability. The first people to know that your latest sales push won't work are the people it is being sold to, and the importance of understanding why they're disinterested cannot be understated for the continued health and success of your brand. Here are some easy and engaging ways to keep your customers interested, while listening to their needs and addressing their concerns.

1. Don't be too repetitive. If every point of contact from your company is a predictable discount, or announcing a sale, customers are going to tune out and eventually ignore you altogether. Use your email and SMS campaigns to get your customers involved, not only promoting your brand but directly asking them for feedback, be it on which campaigns worked, or what products they prefer to see or may be interested in seeing.
2. Use interests to gain attention. Not every communique from your brand has to serve a specific sale. Consumers want to feel like they're engaging with a brand made of and run by people, people with individual personalities, interests, and lives, not soulless sales algorithms that only seek to push the next purchase. Post fun content about your employees, your hobbies, how you relax around the office, how you're celebrating a Social Media Holiday or your opinion on an innocuous and non-contentious cultural debate. The more real and human your brand seems, the more feedback and engagement it will receive.
3. Challenge your customers. Watching your office perform a sea shanty on TikTok may gain you some great traffic, the attention of consumers who may never have heard about you, and endear your current customers, but following that fun content up with a challenge to viewers to reply with their own will drive engagement and feedback exponentially more. People love being involved, people love that feeling of community and shared experience, regardless of where it comes from, and they will be far more likely to consider a purchase or peruse your site with the purse strings loosened if they have that positive association and received deeper relationship with your brand.
4. Reward your customers. Loyalty is an incredibly important and powerful tool for any e-commerce store owner, once they've earned it from a customer base. Don't let the loyalty slip away or be forgotten; free prizes, membership rewards, give aways and contests never fail to make your closest consumers feel like they're appreciated, and shows that your eye isn't only on the bottom line, but on the joy and happiness of your valued customers. If you're giving away free samples or overstock, this can also be a terrific way to take full advantage of influencers, who would they promote your product for you, with whole organic and authentic excitement.
5. Pull it all together. So instead of an email rolling out mid June with the typical "summer is here and so are our sales, check us out" message, consider having an office beach outing on International Picnic Day (June 18th), documented with some video or photos to share on social media, coupled with a call and response challenge that viewers show how their office plans to beat the heat and take some time out to enjoy the summer, with best alfresco spread winning the hottest new product available.

Positive experiences with your brand will lead to positive associations with your brand, which will lead to purchases and profits far greater than any blasé or predictable sale could ever generate.

Our Sponsors

Omnisend - Shogun - ShipBob - Gorgias

Mentioned in this episode:

Triple Whale - Whale Mail