Behavioral targeting strategies for ecommerce brands during the holidays | Simon AI

Behavioral targeting strategies for ecommerce brands during the holidays

Author: Brad White

Table of contents

What is behavioral targeting?

Before we get into the strategies we need to define behavioral targeting. It's a tactic that delves into the past, keeps an eye on the present, and even peers into the future – much like the spirits haunting Mr. Scrooge. Behavioral targeting involves tailoring your marketing strategies based on a user's behavior - past, present, or predicted.

Customer behavior can be defined by a range of activities, including website visits, searches, social media interactions, and purchase history. By analyzing these behaviors, e-commerce brands can gain valuable insights into their customers' preferences, needs, and intentions. During the holiday season, understanding and effectively utilizing behavioral targeting can be a game-changer for reaching your intended audience and driving the action you want them to take.

Behavioral targeting based on historical data

Targeting holiday shoppers broadly

Nearly every ecommerce brand has a list of customers acquired in the previous years’ holiday season and haven’t engaged with the brand since, OR are known to only shop during peak season. By tracking how customers have interacted with your holiday promotions in the past, you can create targeted campaigns based on preferences and include personalized offers, product recommendations, and trending holiday promotions. Be sure to warm up this list in the weeks leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday to avoid any deliverability issues.

Interest or wishlist-based campaigns

You can measure customers’ interest in a certain product or category based on a number of behaviors including product or category page views within a certain time frame, wishlist additions, engagement on social with product-specific content and even recent purchases. We suggest creating cross-channel campaigns that dynamically feature exclusive promotions on the products or categories that your customers have shown an interest in.

We’ve seen this strategy deployed effectively in holiday countdown campaigns - i.e. 8 days of Hanukkah or 12 days of Christmas - where each day reveals a sale item tailored to a customers past product engagement.

Targeting customers based on their location

While not a behavior per se, location-based marketing uses a user's known location to inform a brand's interactions with them. The location data can be gathered across past interactions with the brand. The execution of this strategy can vary during the holidays. Location-based targeting can offer a ton of value to brands with brick and mortar stores. For instance, you can set a geofence around a store location and trigger a push notification to customers in the surrounding area with a special offer to entice them to stop by.  You can also use customer location to personalize the content of your email.

Use weather data

Similar to the previous strategy, you can use a weather API, such as WeatherAds, to personalize email, SMS, push and even paid social promotions to dynamically feature weather-appropriate products based on the customers location, or even trigger weather-specific campaigns. Your website is a great channel to deploy this strategy because it doesn’t require any dependence on 3rd party cookies.

Targeting based on loyalty

Rewarding your most loyal customers is an excellent way to show your appreciation and keep them engaged with your brand.  Build a segment of customers with the highest customer lifetime value and offer them exclusive discounts, free gifts, or early access to holiday sales.

Targeting trendsetters

Build a segment of customers that frequently engage with items marketed as new or popular. Send them targeted communications across email, SMS and paid social featuring hot or trending items, holiday gift guides and influencer-generated content to provide social proof.

Behavioral targeting using real-time data

Ensure your abandonment flows are optimized for holiday shoppers

In an e-commerce context, the definition of abandonment is relatively simple: did the shopper make a purchase, or did they leave your website?  But if you dig deeper into the customer journey leading up to a purchase, you can quickly uncover that “abandonment” is an oversimplification of a much more complex set of customer behaviors along the path to purchase.

This is especially true during the holidays. Most buyers who abandon a purchase right before hitting the payment button can be brought back via targeted communications. Here are a few strategies to consider:

Abandon Cart Strategies

Abandon Browse Strategies

Optimize your post-purchase experience

Getting the customer to convert is great, but one-off orders don't make for great brand longevity.  Brand loyalty is not built on products anymore - and many brands fumble the ball when it comes to post-purchase experience.

Use SMS

According to Crazy Egg, SMS messages have a 98% open rate within the first 90 seconds of sending. This means if you're not using SMS in your post-purchase experience, you should. Here are some strategies to incorporate SMS into your post-purchase journey:

Create a separate post-purchase experience for gift purchases

If a customer places an order during the month of December, adds a gift note, and ships it off to an address that's not their own - they're practically screaming "I'm sending a gift!" Brands should treat these gift orders uniquely, creating an experience that is relevant. Your first email should include a reference to the fact that their purchase was a gift. You may want to include relevant information about returns if there are any complexities there.

Behavioral targeting using predictive analytics

Leverage predictive models and algorithmic personalization enables you to deliver a customer experience that is close to 1:1. We've seen predictive models used effectively in the following ways:

In conclusion

As the 2024 holiday season approaches, remember that the magic of effective marketing is simple: by understanding your customers on a deeper level, you'll be able to connect with them in more meaningful ways. Behavioral targeting is a critical marketing strategy that allows brands to create impactful experiences and memorable connections.