‘Tis almost the giving season, and while holiday retail forecasts come into view, consumers ready their wallets for year-end promos, deals, and splurges. This year feels a little different as inflation rates rise faster than brands can pass along these costs to consumers.
Salesforce predicts, for example, that this holiday’s top behavioral change will be even earlier buying, with consumers hoping to purchase gifts early in case prices rise.
So, what does that mean for your partnerships? Simple — plan ahead (nothing new) and do the things that always pay off during the holiday season. Start by reflecting and analyzing past successes and failures to make the most of the peak sales periods. Then share information to empower partners to deliver on your goals and reward partners for the value they deliver during this essential time of year.
Five proven actions for end-of-year success
Partnerships fortify your success during the holidays if you energize partners with the right tools, information, and motivation. Lay the groundwork for a profitable shopping season with these five insightful tips you can implement today.
1. Review and learn from past performance
The festive season ignites nostalgia, where you recognize people who have impacted your life most during the year. Similarly, Q4 is a perfect time to identify your top-performing partners by reviewing clicks, revenue, AOV, ROAS, and other KPIs by partnership category. It’s also a suitable period to pinpoint areas of improvement. Take advantage of your impact.com reporting and analytics repertoire, and use historical performance to inform holiday roadmaps.
- Review what worked and didn’t work during Q4 2021
- Assess the performance of historical placements
- Identify and re-engage partners that were the top performers last year and throughout 2022
2. Sync up
As your partners prep for the holidays, communication helps align your plans and objectives — allowing you to create more momentum together. To engage your partners, try the following tactics:
- Share promo calendars, so partners know what’s dropping and when. Remember, partners love a special deal they can share with their audiences.
- Ask partners early for updated media kits, pricing, or paid placement fee changes so you can plan accordingly and secure paid placements with top partners early.
- Supply assets. Provide partners with banners, images, or ads to incorporate into their holiday content or gift guides. Make generating great content easy for them.
- Share shipping deadlines mainly dates to receive orders by Christmas. Your partners don’t want to let down their audiences, nor do you.
Read more about connecting with partners here.
3. Automate creative updates
Your seasonal creative messaging and holiday promotions need to stand out in a bustling marketplace. Lean on impact.com’s automated features to communicate dates for new content and establish which partners will receive it. Share holiday-specific promo codes and top products with partners early, and review our tips for freshening up your holiday creative.
4. Offer a holiday bonus
Sweeten the deal with your best-performing partners during the holidays with higher commissions and performance incentives. The extra investment will pay off, allowing you to stand out from all other brands vying for holiday attention and content coverage during Q4. Consider creating new Template Terms with increased payouts for special holiday placements.
5. Start thinking about your partner outreach early
When the holiday shopping season begins, start recruiting high-potential holiday partners so they can actively promote your links. Get your non-active partners involved in your holiday shopping promotion as well. Taking a look at your competitors, who they are working with, and how their affiliate program is set up can give you an idea of how your program measures up.
End the year on a merry note and drive success by engaging partners and optimizing your partnership program in Q4. Contact a growth technologist at grow@impact.com to see profitable results and growth before and during the holiday season and keep the momentum going in Q1 2023.
