HOLIDAY drop strategy

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I SPENT LOOKING FOR A GIF. I hate myself for it.

I believe in watching the calendar like a hawk.

There are a lot of holidays coming right up. How you plot your holiday promotions makes or breaks your sale. So, here’s what I do… (let’s pretend we’re preparing for Father’s Day and we’re selling clothing). 

TIMING ‍♀️

June 2nd. That’s when I’m going to start talking about Father’s Day for my brands. Think about it like this:

May was a big promo month – Mother’s Day took us all the way til May 14th. Then, Memorial Day hits on May 29th. So the 1st half of the month, we’re pushing hard on GIFTING for Mother’s Day. For the 2nd half of the month, we’re pushing even harder on a BIG MEMORIAL DAY PROMO. Now, where does that leave us for June? 

Coming down from a big month where we were on sale for a long time. So, we let it breath. All the way from May 30th – June 1st. 😉 

JUNE 2nd it’s FATHER’S DAY GIFT GUIDE VIBES… 

THE GIFT GUIDE (AND THE OFFER)

Look at us go! We (the brand) aren’t trying to sell to you – we’re trying to help you figure out that our brand’s products are the perfect Father’s Day present.

The worst part of holidays like this is that they sneak up on you – as a brand – but also as a shopper.

You want to get something good for the recipient, but it’s so hard to choose.

If only we had a guide that lead the way.

If you have a big range of SKUs, choose 8. Some that are lower priced, some that are higher, and 3 that are bundled (1 huge bundle that anchors the 2 others – we don’t need them to buy our big boy bundle – we just need them to see it so that the middle tier option feels like a steal).

On this guide hyperlink out every product – and write a quick 2-sentence description. Not of the product. But, of WHAT TYPE OF DAD this is for. Pretend we’re selling sweaters. “FOR THE DAD THAT RUNS A LITTLE HOT BUT ALWAYS LAYERS AND CAN’T GO AN HOUR WITHOUT CHECKING THE WEATHER”. 

It’s not that you know who is going to buy what – it’s that you know you could describe your product as “A NAVY BLUE LIGHTWEIGHT HALF-ZIP”

But they can see that! It’s going to show a navy blue sweater that has a zipper. So, make it fun. Because if your shopper half-smiles when they’re shopping, that’s good. Really good. $

Let’s throw an offer here too – order now for free guaranteed Father’s Day delivery and 30% off orders over $300. Remember, it’s June 2nd – of course these would deliver before Father’s Day (that’s not til June 18th – that’s not the point). This feels like an offer, but it’s just standard.

Get credit for everything. 

YOUR WEBSITE

Obviously, you’ve just blasted your email and SMS lists in May. So, let’s ease into it. For a June 2nd launch of a Father’s Day Promo, 1 email and 1 text is enough for now. The CTA will lead to our guide. That guide will live on our website – so that we can make sure that if for some reason the 8 products we decided to highlight aren’t what the shopper wants, then they can easily find other products that suit their fancy. 

On site we’ll update our promobar with our single offer: Father’s Day Sale – Save 30% 

In your hero homepage, link out to Best Sellers – keep those separate from the exact products on the Father’s Day Gift Guide – because remember, you’ve just driven a bunch of owned traffic to your gift guide – if they’re landing back on hero homepage – they didn’t find what they wanted. So, show them something new.

WHEN TO REACH OUT

Let’s keep things steady for a little while. Of course we’re running paid this entire time – where our gift guide is battling it out with ads that are just showing the 30% off for Father’s Day. Just because you spin up a gift guide doesn’t mean it will beat an ad that is just about the offer. 

So, run it all. 

‍♀️: 30% OFF FATHER’S DAY AD –> LEADING TO GIFT GUIDE

‍♀️: 30% OFF FATHER’S DAY AD –> LEADING TO EVERGREEN LANDING PAGE

‍♀️: 30% OFF AD (WITH NO MENTION OF FATHER’S DAY) –> LEADING TO EVERGREEN LANDING PAGE

SHIPPING CUTOFFS

It’s Monday, June 12th. AKA the day before your free, standard shipping guaranteed delivery for Father’s Day ends (which is Sunday the 18th)

Email and text your list – warning them of the cutoff and hitting with the gift guide – but focusing on the sweet deal – 30% off (orders over $300 ;))

UPGRADED SHIPPING

It’s Tuesday, June 13th. Now we switch all promos on site to say order today for free upgraded priority shipping and 30% off – guaranteed delivery by Father’s Day.

Upgrade the orders. Because it doesn’t cost as much as losing days worth of promo level sales – UPGRADE YOUR CUSTOMER’S ORDERS FOR FREE. 

Do whatever is in your power to get them to checkout – OBJECTION DEFLECTION. 

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR GUARANTEED DELIVERY DATE HAS PASSED

Time for the Hail Mary: 

Update your PDPs to include a very obvious, underlined CTA that says:

IS THIS A GIFT?

When they click that, BOOM! A branded note pops up that says “SOMETHING FROM [INSERT BRAND NAME] IS ON THE WAY”. This is able to be downloaded right then and there. 

Meaning you’ve now just unlocked a way to keep your customers gifting for a holiday that you can no longer get orders delivered by.

This gift note is so powerful – it’s free to make – and then you just upload it as a Shopify File. Again, free. 

What you’ve done is given your customers the ability to buy a Father’s Day present that can be unwrapped on the big day – a tangible gift for Dad to open. 

Sure, it’s a piece of paper. But, it’s branded. It’s official. It proves that your kids really bought you the present. And, it is just as fun almost as fun as receiving the real thing on time lol. 

HOW TO MAKE THIS EVERGREEN

That PDP IS THIS A GIFT play should not be a note that says HAPPY FATHER’S DAY. 

Because you don’t know if the person gifting wants it to say that. You want them to prove that they bought the gift – and that’s it. Don’t reinvent this note. Keep it generic. Leave room on the card for the customer to write their own note.

See, your $300 sweater is now affordable – no stationary required! 

😉