Warm weather, vacation time, and pina coladas by the pool remain the summertime priorities of many marketers today for whom the holiday shopping season still feels an eternity away.
But, alas, the holidays are approaching fast. And so what retail marketers need to think about now — aside from what to throw on the grill — are plans for the looming holiday shopping season. And, auspiciously, veteran retail marketers say July is the perfect time to get serious about planning for the Q4 retail rush.
“Marketers are often so focused on seeing their way through their current campaigns and gearing up for the next, they forget to do the long-term preparation necessary for succeeding during the most important time of the year – Thanksgiving through New Year’s,” notes recent report from Internet Retailer. “While Black Friday can feel far away to plan for in July, it’s smart to lay the groundwork now so your holiday marketing campaigns can be as successful as possible.”
Where to start? Savvy marketers know that the first step of gearing up for holiday marketing is preparation. And in the age of mobile, it’s never been easier or more efficient to plan for upcoming product launches, targeted audience campaigns, holiday messaging, advertising spend, and promotional schedules.
According to Ray Beharry, Adjunct Professor of Marketing at NYU, and Head of Marketing at Pollfish, the world’s foremost mobile survey company, harnessing the power of mobile for research is a powerful yet dramatically underutilized resource today in the marketing planning process.
“Mobile surveys, such as those distributed on our network, have the advantage of reaching a wide audience, where participants respond at their convenience, in-app – where we spend 90% of our time on small screens, are more engaged since surveys are mobile-optimized and shorter,” Beharry recently told MMW. “Further, since the average person checks their as much as 150x a day, chances are, you’re going to connect with your audience a lot sooner than on other platforms.”
Given that they can be as broad or as narrow as one needs them to be, mobile surveys can provide marketers with powerful insight into everything from a consumer segment’s preferred communication and marketing channels, to the types of holiday sales more likely to generate foot traffic or online conversions.
A great question posed by Pollfish in a recent summer shopping trends survey is just as important to pose before the holidays: “What frustrates you MOST about smart phone purchases?” The feedback you receive may help you optimize your online storefront in time for mobile shoppers this Christmas (for inspiration on other fantastic questions to pose in a mobile survey, click here).
At the end of the day, connecting with your audience in a meaningful and relevant way should be the paramount objective of all retail marketers. And, clearly, it’s an objective that should be taken more seriously at a time when somewhere between 70% and 90% of startups and products fail because they “don’t have solid, market-proven research backing them up.”
“Engaging your audience members — on their terms — is a crucial step for every entrepreneur, marketer, agency, or business owner,” the Pollfish team says. “Mobile surveys are the best way to discover your potential customers’ opinions and perceptions, their likes and dislikes, how to better serve their needs, and get as specific as state and city level targeting — critical in this election year and for local market research needs.”
To learn more about Pollfish and how mobile surveys can help retail marketers gain the knowledge and insight they need to execute successful holiday marketing campaigns, check out the company here.
