Marketing Automation Examples: Remarketing Ideas for the Holidays

We know the holidays are hectic, especially for marketers and business owners. Heck, every day is hectic, but when you throw in extended shopping hours, shipping deadlines, holiday promotions, school plays, holiday parties, etc., it’s amazing if we find any time to sleep, let alone stay in touch with customers.That’s why we created our Marketing Automation tools. What is marketing automation? Well, it’s exactly as the name suggests! Marketing automation allows you to automatically reach out to existing and potential customers, increasing your customer touches while saving you time. With ShortStack Marketing Automation, you can easily execute remarketing campaigns by creating both autoresponders and scheduled emails. Your remarketing emails are sent to your inbound leads (folks who submit entries to your ShortStack forms), giving you the opportunity to grow those leads into paying customers.Below are five ShortStack campaign examples our users love to run during the holidays. Along with each type of campaign, there are three remarketing examples you can implement using Marketing Automation.

Giveaway Contest

A giveaway is one of the easiest contests to create. All you need is a form to collect entries, a database to store the entries, and a way to choose a winner. But after the contest is over, then what? Don’t let the leads you generated go to waste. Instead, assume everyone who entered your contest is interested in the services you provide or the products you sell. Reach out to your list and stir up some business by providing entrants with a special deal.

Goal: Brand Awareness, Get Folks through the Door and Increase Sales

Marketing Automation Example: Send an entry confirmation email

After form submission, send an autoresponder to thank entrants for entering and to let them know you received their entry. Along with the entry confirmation, include the directions to your business, a link to your website, and links to your social media accounts. Invite them to visit your business at any of those locations.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Autoresponder

Marketing Automation Example: Announce the winner

Once your contest closes, send an email to announce the winner. However, this email needs to be so much more than an announcement. It should remind people to follow you on your social media profiles to stay informed about upcoming contests. Is one of your goals to get people to visit your location? Include a map to your physical location and a link to Google Maps for directions, as well as a link to your website. This gives customers all the tools they need to get in touch with you and to give you their business.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- send immediately

Marketing Automation Example: Schedule a discount

A couple of weeks after the contest, send an email that includes a discount code to your list. The discount can be something small -- “15-20% off,” or “save $10 on your $50 purchase” or “buy-one-get-one half off.” The goal is to get people through the door. Similar to the previous email, include a map to your business, a link to Google Maps for directions and a link to your website. Create some urgency by only giving people two or three weeks to redeem the discount.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- schedule for the future

Photo Contest

Photo contests are extremely popular; they allow you to collect user-generated content and are wonderful for engagement. When customers actively engage with a brand, that brand is more likely to come to mind when they go to make a purchase. The following remarketing ideas encourage engagement and sharing both during and after the contest.

Goal: Brand Engagement and Brand Awareness from Word-of-Mouth

Marketing Automation Example: Reminder to share entry

After the entrants submit their photo, send an email to remind them to share! This is especially important if you’ll use voting to determine a winner. With our Referral Link template, you can include the entrant’s referral URL in the email. Sharing is a wonderful word of mouth marketing tool, and including the URL in a follow-up email gives folks the chance to easily share their entry. The referral URL is also important for the entrant, as sharing their entry with friends and family is likely to gain them votes (and gain you engagement).

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Autoresponder

Marketing Automation Example: Reminder to vote

An email reminding people to vote is effective for three reasons: it serves as a reminder to vote (duh), it encourages them to share their entry to EARN votes and it keeps your brand at the top of entrants’ minds. Schedule the email to send a week or a few days before the end of your contest. Be sure the email includes the number of days left before voting closes and a “leaderboard” with the top five or 10 entries and their vote totals. This creates a sense of urgency for those who don’t see their names on the leaderboard.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- schedule for one week before voting closes

Marketing Automation Example: Announce the winner and tease your next contest

Once the contest wraps up, send an email to announce the winner. If your next contest is already in the planning stages, mention the contest theme and prize. Suggest folks to follow you on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to be the first to know when it goes live. Why? Following a brand on social media increases an individual’s contact with the brand, which achieves your goal of brand awareness.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- send immediately

Personality Quiz

Buzzfeed-style quizzes make engaging with a brand fun! As marketers we know they are especially useful for collecting user data without offering a prize or discount in return. However, what do you do with the email addresses you receive if you don’t wish to advertise sales or send a special deal? How do you stay in touch with these folks? Well, you could share a resource (e.g. a white paper, a travel guide, tips for better sleep) and ask for feedback on the resource or other aspects of your business.

Goal: Brand Awareness through Sharing a Resource and Asking Individuals for Feedback

Marketing Automation Example: Send the quiz result and a bit of information about your business

It’s a good idea to email that includes the entrant’s quiz result and some information about your business. Why is this important? It boosts brand awareness. Sometimes people take online quizzes without knowing anything about the brand that created the quiz. After all, quiz takers might really just want to know where they should travel, which Harry Potter character they are, the type of beer that best fits their personality. The follow-up email gives folks the opportunity to get to know your brand, so include a little information about what your company has to offer and a link to your website.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Autoresponder

Marketing Automation Example: Announce and distribute a resource

You created a quiz to grow your email marketing list, so send your new subscribers something. Assuming your quiz topic was related to your business, try providing folks with a complimentary resource. This would work especially well for a service-based business. But what kind of resource should you send? “A guide to winter skin care,” “a white paper on social media marketing,” “a map of the best restaurants in the Pacific Northwest” -- the options are limitless! Make your resource downloadable, and be sure to include your business’s branding (e.g. your logo, your website URL, your phone number) within the resource. This will ensure your business comes to mind whenever the recipient uses the resource.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- send immediately

Marketing Automation Example: Ask for feedback

Make sure the content you provide your list is worthwhile by dispatching a feedback request. Feedback allows you to learn more about both your resource and your customers. For example, maybe you thought the people on your list would love a summer travel destination guide, but they are more interested in packing tips and money-saving ways to book flights. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know! Schedule your feedback email to go out a few weeks after you send your resource; this gives people time to use the content you have provided them.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- schedule for the future

Holiday Giveaway Calendar

Holiday calendars incentivize folks to visit your campaign over and over again during a short period of time. Don’t lose out on all of this engagement after all of the prizes have been given away! Try a remarketing campaign where you hold a special contest for everyone who submitted an entry during the holiday calendar period, plus a discount code a few weeks later.

Goal: Brand Engagement and Word-of-Mouth Brand Awareness

Marketing Automation Example: Reminder to enter the next day’s contest and to share the campaign

It might seem rash to shoot out a reminder to enter your next contest immediately after someone submits an entry to the current one, but with a Holiday Giveaway Calendar, time is of the essence! The email meets both your goal of encouraging engagement by reminding people to enter the next day, and your goal of increasing brand awareness when entrants see your business’s name in their inbox. What’s more? Your entrants can forward the email to friends and family who might be interested in the contest, nurturing brand awareness through word-of mouth.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Autoresponder

Marketing Automation Example: Share a grand prize contest

You can imagine you’ll receive quite a few entries when giving away a different prize each day. However, this also means there will be a lot of folks who don’t win. Try combining your lists for each day of the contest, and send an email announcing a grand prize giveaway for non-winners. This prize could be a combination prize package of every item you gave away during the contest, or any type of prize you desire. This promotes top-of-mind brand awareness for your potential customers, a huge plus when folks are out shopping during the holiday season.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- send immediately

Marketing Automation Example: Send a discount

Before the holiday shopping season is over, send a discount code to everyone who submitted an entry to your giveaway calendar contests. If your goal is to get more folks through the door, encourage recipients to share the discounts with their friends.--the more the merrier!

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- schedule for the future

Discount Campaign

Let’s face it, at the end of the day, sales are what keeps us in business. With a discount-centric campaign, the main goal is increased sales. Make sure your remarketing campaign focuses on prompting people to use their discount by sending reminders to redeem, sharing products and announcing upcoming promotions.

Goal: Get People through the Door, Increased Sales and Brand Awareness

Marketing Automation Example: Send a discount code after form submission

Requiring a form submission to receive a discount code can tempt some folks to submit fake email addresses. To ensure the email addresses are valid, send deal seekers the discount code via email. Reducing the possibility of fake email addresses on your list promises a more quality leads long term. Along with the discount code itself, give people the tools to locate your business, either with a map to your physical address or with a link to your website.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Autoresponder

Marketing Automation Example: Promote your products/service and a reminder to use a discount code

Creating urgency to redeem a discount code can lead customers to take action. A few days before your discount code is set to expire, send your list a reminder to take advantage of the deal. Draw special attention to the date and time the discount code expires, and highlight some great products customers can purchase.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- schedule for future (about one week before code expires)

Marketing Automation Example: New sale announcement

Your discount code has expired, so now what? Well, the folks on your list are obviously interested in great deals. When your next sale comes around, send an email announcing the sale and prompting some of your new products. Use your list to share a storewide sale or distribute discount codes specifically created for your subscribers.

Type of Email Marketing Automation: Scheduled email -- send immediately

Remember, one campaign is all it takes to get started on a great email marketing list. Once you have a list, don’t be shy! Your relationship with folks on your list has only just begun when contest or promotion closes. Marketing automation allows you to engage with your customers and nurture these leads. The bottom line: Keep in touch with your fans; your business will thank you.

Try a ShortStack email template and create your first contest fast and easily.

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