How to create a post-Christmas campaign to encourage social sharing

Christmas may be over, but that doesn’t mean you should slow down your marketing efforts! Now is the time to consolidate the relationships you built with customers over the Christmas period and retain the new customers you acquired in the long-term!

In order to retain these customers, there are two types of campaigns you should be sending:

• A campaign to encourage social sharing
• A post-Christmas / New Years sales campaign

Each of these campaigns should start the day after Christmas and run into the new year.

So let’s get started!

Encourage Social Sharing Post-Christmas Campaign

Encouraging happy customers to share their love for your brand with friends and family on social media is a great way to find new customers and strengthen the relationship you have with loyal ones.

While some customers may post about your brand on their own accord, others may need encouragement. Because of this, it could be beneficial to add an incentive to the campaign, offering customers free shipping or a small discount on their next purchase if they post about your brand on social media.

Step 1:

As you are running a Christmas related campaign, you need to create a list of contacts that singles out customers who have purchased in the Christmas period. Head to lists and create a new dynamic list with the following conditions:

• Last made purchase = after December 3rd
• Include contacts that meet all conditions

Step 2:

Now head to the templates page and create an email template. This email will be sent to everyone who makes a purchase during the Christmas period. It will ask your Christmas customers to take photos of themselves (or their loved ones) enjoying the product purchased on your site and post it on social media. You can then offer them a discount or free shipping coupon as a thank you.

When creating this type of ‘reward discount’ you shouldn’t include the code in the initial email. Ask your customers to tag your brand in their post, then send them the discount code individually once they’ve held up their end of the deal.

The email should include:

• A text box, where you explain the post-Christmas social sharing deal you’re offering
• Some recommended products that will perfectly complement their previous purchase (that they may wish to buy with their upcoming discount)
• A ‘follow us on social media’ section

Step 3:

The next thing you need to create is an SMS template. This SMS will be sent to those who don’t receive the email and it will alert them to the social sharing deal on offer.

You should include:

• Text, asking customers to share their love for your products on social media and letting them know about the reward on offer
• <Contactfirstname> tag
• <SiteTitle> tag 

Step 4:

Now it’s time to configure your campaign! Head to the campaigns page and create a campaign with the following specifications:

• Campaign goal = engagement
• Never stop the campaign
• Time trigger campaign
• Start date December 26th
• Not recurring
• Add the Post-Christmas Social Sharing list you created earlier

Step 5:

Switch from the configuration tab to the workflow tab and you’re ready to design your customer journey! For the optimal customer journey, follow these steps:

• Click the start block, select action, then find the email template you created
• Next, click the email block and choose failure. From there, input another action and select the SMS template to send to those who didn’t receive the initial email.
• Now go back to the email and this time choose success, then insert a 1-day time delay.
• From the time delay, insert a trigger. This trigger will be used to find the customers who received the email but didn’t open it, so input ‘last action opened within 1 day’
• Click the trigger and select false, then insert the same SMS as before

And there you have it! Your campaign to encourage social sharing after Christmas is ready to launch!