The weather is cooling down, leaves are falling and wallets everywhere are stacking up savings in anticipation of this year’s Cyber Monday sales. CNBC reported that shoppers spent $10.7 billion last year during Cyber Monday and the brands who reaped the most benefit understand the value of converting customers on deadline year round.
Yup, you read that right. Planning for success on Cyber Monday sales shouldn’t start weeks before the day comes up. In fact, the work begins at the start of each calendar year.
When brands take the time to plan ahead and allocate a large portion of their marketing budget to advertising year-round, they’re able to drive success on Cyber Monday (and for every holiday sale after that).
The brands that follow this methodology treat every holiday like Cyber Monday by building up their sales initiatives year round. This approach ultimately builds a high level of brand awareness and trust that allows customers to expect great deals from these brands come Cyber Monday.
While there are many brands who do this well, we’ve pinpointed three companies we admire for their approach to marketing and ability to treat every holiday like Cyber Monday. These are not clients of Precise TV – although, we’d certainly love the opportunity to work with them in the future, these are simply standout brands that we tip our hats off to.
Afterall, at Precise TV we’re committed to maximizing the value of online and digital marketing campaigns year round. Because of that, we understand that the brands who do this well with and without us deserve their flowers. Let’s dive in.
Target
As a legacy company, Target certainly knows a thing or two about treating every holiday like Cyber Monday. Afterall, Target is on the top-five list of brands that shoppers look forward to the most in regards to Cyber Monday deals, according to Finances Online.
Finances Online reports that nearly half (41%) of shoppers look forward to Target’s Cyber Monday deals, which is a huge portion of the market considering 56% of shoppers place Amazon as the number one location they look forward to shopping from during the holiday season.
Target is able to pull this off and go toe-to-toe with giant brands like Amazon because their marketing budget is massive. Last year, according to Statista, the corporation allocated $1.5 billion to marketing and for good reason as Target’s level of brand awareness is undeniable.
By using tools like SMS marketing and encouraging customers to secure deals year-round on the Target Circle app, the company certainly has a handle on letting shoppers know when they secure the most savings. This practice allows shoppers to mentally bookmark Target as a go-to destination for savings and sales.
Because of this, they’re able to build a standard of trust between shoppers and when Cyber Monday comes around, shoppers know to look forward to securing Target sales.
SKIMS
Shapewear and e-commerce clothing company SKIMS has been an active business for three years. Despite being an emerging player in the space, the company doubled its valuation this year and is now worth $3.2 billion.
Backed by media personality, model and businesswoman Kim Kardashian, the brand does have the competitive advantage of celebrity endorsement. However, outside of the Kardashian name ringing bells, the company’s marketing tactics are a huge contributing factor to its success.
SKIMS operates on a drop model, meaning the company only releases a select amount of pieces per collection. This approach allows the company to create buzz around the exclusivity behind their purchases.
By creating a feeling of “FOMO” amongst shoppers and only releasing a certain quantity of clothing each collection, SKIMS enables customers to anticipate their releases.
In addition to creating buzz around each collection, SKIMS also engages in sales for every holiday. Through SMS marketing and social media marketing, loyal customers know to expect a Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Cyber Monday sale from SKIMS amongst other holidays.
Because SKIMS falls on the high-end price range, the company’s decision to offer deals every holiday makes their clothing more obtainable – especially to customers who may have missed out on particular collection drops.
Considering the fact that SKIMS predicts they’ll reach $400 million in sales this year, it's safe to say that their year-long approach to marketing and gifting customers with sales is paying off.
LEGO
Cyber Monday sales offer the perfect opportunity for families to get ahead on holiday shopping for children. One classic toy brand that always delivers on increasing brand awareness and offering customer-friendly Cyber Monday deals is LEGO.
As another legacy company on our list, LEGO certainly has had decades of success. A huge contributing factor to LEGO’s on-going relevance is its licensing agreements with companies like Disney and Warner Brothers. By establishing partnerships and releasing collections around new movies, LEGO stays present in the hearts of children and adult consumers.
LEGO also has a huge social media presence that contributes to their brand awareness. The company’s Youtube channel is one of the most popular on the platform and had 10.4 billion views alone in 2020, according to Contact Pigeon. The channel offers building tutorials and connects Lego enthusiasts of all ages to share insights on what they create.
While LEGOs are sold everywhere, the company’s deals and Cyber Monday markdowns at stores like Walmart and Target are massive as the company sold $58 sets for $29 last year (nearly a 50% decrease).
LEGOs ability to stay relevant year-round with movie themed releases and offering sales allows them to be on top of mind for shoppers, especially as highly anticipated sales like Cyber Monday come around.
The big picture
Cyber Monday offers a huge window of opportunity for brands to succeed. Because of that, taking a strategic approach to proper ad placement and increasing brand awareness throughout the year is key.
At Precise TV we help brands do just that. By using our data-driven technology, we look at the full marketing funnel from top to bottom and use our Contextual Intelligence Platform to power campaigns that help predict audiences and video ad placements that are more likely to drive purchase or registrations.
As brands think of ways to elevate their approach to Cyber Monday, holiday sales and all other marketing approaches, they can reach out to us here.