Episode 2: Marketing for the Holidays

The final quarter is in full swing, leading into a busy holiday shopping season. Find marketing advice for your franchise to improve digital performance and drive revenue.

Transcript

Josh Allen  0:03  
Welcome everyone back to digital shop talk the podcast episode two. Coming at you today. Back again are my co hosts Alex Porter and very Shafiq. I am Josh Allen and we are collectively location three. We are back here for Episode Two to talk about the holidays. It's the end of October. We're coming up on Halloween but as marketers we're already thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas at this point. So welcome Alex and Vera before we get started on the marketing piece of today's episode, I want to start off with your personal favorite holiday traditions so Vera What what's your favorite holiday tradition?

Vera Shafiq  0:50  
Oh well I would say my favorite holiday or the winter holidays and you know whether you call that Christmas Hanukkah, Kwanzaa II that the Wally you know, whatever religion you're from, I think that the winter holidays for me are the best. I just love the the feeling of giving everyone's so nice. This is just so warm and fuzzy and I wish everyone could be like that all year round. So yeah, I would say the winter holidays.

Josh Allen  1:16  
Nice. I love it. My favorite as well. What about you Alex favorite holiday or favorite tradition.

Alex Porter  1:24  
This is a great dinner party. Topic starter if conversations are slowing down, because people really really go all out my favorite holiday across the board is Fourth of July, because it's low stress, literally like throw on some hot dogs that everyone gets happy but close second is the the winter holiday season. It said to echo Vera just the kind of the warmth and all just all the the warm and fuzzies is fantastic. Best gift I ever got. I really wanted a diamond back BMX bike when I was about 12 didn't think I was gonna get it. Santa Claus slash my parents were played it really cool. That year came downstairs the bike was built. Apparently it took my dad forever to build it. And I rode that thing for like three years. In fact, when my parents moved out here, I tried to convince my dad to not sell it and bring it out with him. But he refused. So

Josh Allen  2:17  
Oh man, that be perfect for your kids. Now to write. Nice, I am going to second the winter holidays, as I said by Christmas Eve has always been one word like low key, not a big dinner. Usually, you know, Christmas Day tends to be the big dinner, at least in my family. But we do like, you know, hors d'oeuvres and drinks and hang out by the tree and get the fireplace go on that. That to me is my favorite hands down. So well as the holidays are coming in hot. You know, there's been obviously a lot of changes in our world, a lot of changes economically. But the good news, at least from a broader economic perspective is that, you know, reports from firms like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, are estimating roughly collectively between a seven and 9% increase in spending year over year from consumers. And so with all the challenges that COVID has presented, I guess one of the silver linings, you might say is that a lot of folks have built up a bit of a savings, you know, for a multitude of reasons and are at least from economic indicators preparing to spend that. So for marketers perspective, Vera, you know, there's a lot of conversation around supply chain, it seems to be the buzzword right now. What should marketers generally be thinking about, to kind of tap into that increase in consumer spending as we head into the holiday season? 2021?

Vera Shafiq  3:47  
Yeah, so you're absolutely right, people are back out shopping, you know, they're eager to buy jewelry, party clothes, you know, all the stuff that you know, cosmetics decorations, everyone's kind of wanting to get over COVID and they want to go out and buy. And as you mentioned, they've saved up money. And in store shopping, incidentally, is also expected to bounce back this year, due to that pent up demand people want to get back in the store. So as a marketer, you know, you may be having supply chain issues. And I think part of the challenge this year is that we want to be able to really capitalize on all of that pent up demand. But we also want to get our messaging correct and really just reduce friction for the customer. We may not be able to offer deals and promotions that we normally do just because costs are higher this year. And we have you know, even ads and CPMs are higher than they were the year before. But I think the key Yeah, I think the key is really just to get people aware that your product is available right now. Don't wait till Christmas you know this should be part of the messaging don't wait get get it now while it lasts, and really create that sense of urgency so that people you know are aware You have what they need, and it's, you know, available for them to buy now. Yeah,

Josh Allen  5:05  
no, that's, that's great points. I think the planning early, whether you're a consumer or a marketer seems to be the motto right now Home Depot, I think. And CNBC mentioned that did an early release of Halloween decorations, which was probably in like July, to be honest with you, and they sold out. So yeah, you know, at the same time, you know, executives from Walmart, Dick's Sporting Goods in the same article, from a few weeks ago, continue to point out that folks, in an effort to get back to normalcy in many ways want to celebrate the holiday season in a traditional way. And part of that includes that consumer spending that we've talked about. So putting gifts under the tree, right, or by the fireplace, or whatever your tradition might be. On the supply chain side of things when it comes to planning, you know, Alex, a lot of franchises themselves, are still battling some business irregularities, as a result of COVID. In general, some may have just only recently opened back up, depending on where they're located over the last few months, still seeing kind of restrictions in place at the state level in terms of how they can engage with their customers, knowing marketing dollars are at a premium, especially at the local level. Any thoughts on where, you know that individual franchisee could potentially focus or at least get the most ROI from a local marketing spend this holiday season?

Alex Porter  6:34  
Yeah, I think that anyone that has a EECOM slash pick it up in your location program running right now is going to be at a significant advantage. Because we've been talking about supply chain inventory, and this that the other, if I can do a search, I find the product, I can buy it, and then just go pick it up, or I know it's in stock, that local inventory ads are available, those sorts of things. So if you have any kind of, you know, product feed or local product feed now this is something that you needed to get going probably six months ago, because it's pretty hard to put together. But if you have anything like that available, I would put so much money into li A's over this next month or so because as we know, right, we the two buzzwords in our industry right now are Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and then Cyber Monday. Now Cyber Monday is a term that it's been in our on our radar for a long time, I've been an advocate that the Cyber Monday that they say is not the actual real Cyber Monday and we have real data to back that up. But you know, if you are following trends and following your inventory, I would triple down on local inventory ads if you have them available, and if not, still try to target those folks in your local market and let them know that things are in stock coming today and get them tweak the ad copy manipulate that creative to really talk about the immediacy of that purchase. Because I think that as of this week, there's $22 billion worth of goods sitting off the Port of Los Angeles, and who knows when those things are going to get through so that you can let consumers know that it's available and ready, you're gonna have a huge advantage.

Josh Allen  8:23  
Yeah, that's a great point. What about, you know, franchises, we have many partners who, you know, their primary customer experience is in person. So think, you know, Fitness, Health and Wellness group activities, kind of those experiential engagements where, you know, there's less of a product necessarily versus that experience itself, the service, if you will, a Thoughts On one, how to capture that demand, but to and this may be more around messaging. Vera, when we think creative is really calling consumer concerns. For those that still exist writer that may be hesitant to go in and pick back up from a gym membership perspective, or book a large group activity, because they don't know if all their friends will participate. You know, those folks still have a business to run any feedback and thoughts on how they can approach this holiday season season two, to capture some of that consumer demand and bring folks back through the front doors.

Vera Shafiq  9:26  
Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said it's all about the messaging. I think it's just talking about being positive and ensuring that your customers understand that your business is still a safe place to do business. To get you know, to get them back in the store, obviously you can offer discounts. But I think above all, highlighting your safety protocols and giving your customers that sense of comfort and trust is going to be key. Other things that you can do if you're a gym or you know a business that is brick and mortar that requires COVID Mr. Comment, as you know, increase your store hours potentially teamed up with other local businesses to offer discounts and offers. And really focus on your existing customers and your loyal, you know, customers that that keep coming back. Because those are the people that have faith in you as a business and are gonna, you know, come back and then refer to refer you to friends and family. So, a lot of things you can do, I think key really, at the end of the day, also is customer experience, make sure that you're giving best in class customer experience and gain advantage over your competitors at this time. Because, you know, the competition is is very, very ripe out

Alex Porter  10:40  
there. If you're that's an awesome idea. I'm curious, have you? Is there any, is there any thing that would be stopping you or you would be hesitant to do to run a campaign to your existing customers? So just do you have their email addresses, obviously, you know, do a campaign on Instagram that says, you know, thanks and bring a friend or something like that. Is there any

Josh Allen  11:02  
absolutely roadblocks to that?

Vera Shafiq  11:05  
No, no, absolutely. That's a it's a great idea. So it's part of the remarketing or retargeting strategy, whatever you want to call that. And, yeah, I think using that first party data to bring people back through the door, get them, you know, excited again, about your business, they may not have come to to you for a while because of the pandemic. But once you get them back in the door, you know, the chances that they're gonna refer you to friends and family is that much higher? So I think that's a good

Alex Porter  11:33  
idea for the fitness industry in January. I mean, we know like the holiday season ends, and the very next thing, you know, January 1 through the 20th, I think that I would I would hazard a guess that 60% of fitness advertising budget is spent in the first three weeks of January. And if you could tap into those existing ambassadors and you know, Hey, bring somebody in, and we'll we'll do this for you. We'll do that for you. It's safe. I mean, that's that that would be an amazing strategy.

Josh Allen  12:01  
Yeah, absolutely. New Year's resolutions, picking right up at the turn of the year for fitness in particular. only have a couple minutes left here, I do want to also talk about, you know, the recruitment efforts from a business perspective. So there's roughly, you know, 10 million jobs that essentially are unfulfilled at the moment, you know, not even counting necessarily the seasonal hiring spike that many retailers experience. But I also think when when it's related to franchising, you know, we do a lot from a franchise development perspective. And a lot of folks are starting to switch their career and move in the direction of franchising and lean into becoming a business owner. So any thoughts around, you know, especially at the end of the year, people make a new resolution to potentially start a new career from a recruitment strategy standpoint. Where do you think franchisees, or franchisors, I should say, could focus to bring new franchisees into their system, or even folks to to support their existing franchise locations from a hiring standpoint, any particular channels or tactics or media, Vera that that you've seen, be really effective and could be a use as we head toward the end of the year?

Vera Shafiq  13:22  
Yeah, absolutely. We're doing a lot of recruiting initiatives right now with our client partners. And I think the key is to spread out across the channels, don't just stick to one channel, don't just do paid search or, you know, Facebook, but really leveraged full funnel marketing, even for recruiting. So things like CTV, digital, audio, display, YouTube, all of these really play a part in kind of getting people to know about your brand to know that you're hiring, to let them know why you're such a great company to work for. And then also on the organic side. So it's not just a paid initiative, I think, you know, making sure that your listings are talking about the fact that you're hiring, using Google posts to advertise that fact making sure that your career page is SEO and up to scratch for you know, people to visit and, you know, apply for jobs. So a lot of things that you can do, and again, I think it's all down to full funnel strategy.

Josh Allen  14:27  
Excellent. All great tips. Before we leave. Alex, you mentioned your favorite Christmas gifts your diamond BMX bike, give one gift to the listeners in the form of a marketing tip that they should think about and take advantage of this holiday season. Boy, um I'm gonna

Alex Porter  14:49  
go with Viras idea with a retargeting to existing customers referral program. I think that's brilliant. So, if, if, if none of that made sense Then talk to us or your agency.

Josh Allen  15:05  
right all right here, since he stole yours, you have to give us one more tip and also tell us what your favorite holiday gift was of all time, if you can think of it.

Vera Shafiq  15:15  
Okay, so Well, I'd say my gift or tip to people out there, you know in the marketing realm is give your customers that world class experience that I just talked about, so that they will get wowed and come back for more. So when things truly do get back to normal, you know, that staffing wise supply chain wise with all those problems that are happening now once we're back to normal again, these people will be your loyal customers for life. So that's what I say there. That's my tip. And then in terms of best Christmas gift, was probably when I was about eight years old. We had a family gathering every year without you know, uncles, aunts and everyone getting together. We had a gift exchange and everyone got the usual suspects of gifts you know, these little small boxes, perfumes, little toys, chocolates, mine, the gift that I got from one of my my aunt's was this huge life size box that was the size of a, you know, a human like six foot and everyone was in awe as to what could be in that box. And it turned out to be a life sized handmade doll that my aunt had made for me. It was like a rag doll. Yeah, size of well, probably about five foot so I was just so chuffed with that. That gift. I felt so special that year. So that's my favorite gift.

Josh Allen  16:28  
I love it. I love it. I feel like I personally might be terrified by that depending on how old I was. That's fantastic. Well, good stuff today. Thanks again, for everyone tuning in holiday season is a promise. Suffice it to say if you're not thinking about the holidays now as a marketer turn off Apple podcasts get to work immediately because it's coming around the bend. Thanks to Vera. thanks to Alex. Thanks to everyone for joining us for episode two of digital shoptalk. We hope to see you back here again in a few weeks. Thanks everyone.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai