Giving mobile users acquired in Q4 a second life with post-holiday promotions, all year long.

If you are a mobile app developer in the shopping, food, or gaming space, the end of year giving and the holiday season is a critical time if you are looking for exponential growth, to acquire new users, players, and customers while also keeping your current users engaged. 

Q4 is the most strategically valuable quarter of the year. Mobile commerce increased by 18.8% to $97.15 billion during the 2021 holiday season. What’s more — most of that revenue is expected to have come from mobile apps, as opposed to the mobile web. By the end of 2021, it’s predicted global mobile eCommerce sales will reach $3.56 trillion.

Another signal of the importance of Q4 is the plethora and popularity of online content providing tips on how to maximize the holiday season revenue opportunity. From guidelines to white papers and blog articles, there’s an endless array of information on how to prepare for the holiday season; starting in November with Singles Day in Asia/MENA and Black Friday in North America, White Friday in the Middle East, Boxing Day in December, all the way until early January when most people are going back to school after the holiday break.

Make a plan to add value

While the breadth of information is useful for planning - what happens after the holiday season is over? Once mobile marketers spend a large chunk of their annual budget on growing their business during the holidays, how can they create additional value in the following quarters, with post-holiday promotion tactics? Even more pressing: how can app marketers keep engaging new users they specifically acquired in Q4? Should these users be segmented and treated differently in post-holiday promotions based on their specific group?

Before we dig into these questions, it is integral to have a clear plan already in place in order to enhance the value of users you acquire in Q4 even before the holiday season commences. If you’re still not convinced that planning ahead and executing a robust re-engagement strategy is critical then consider research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company (the inventor of the net promoter score). It shows that enhancing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits from anywhere between 25% to 95%. And who doesn’t want to increase profits? 

Finally, even if you did not prepare a robust retargeting strategy for post-holiday promotions, never fear! It’s never too late to kick your re-engagement strategy into full gear and our team can help you.

How to re-engage users during the holiday season

  • Segment your users by activity (download, action, purchase, etc.) and recency (before the holiday season, from the past day, 7 days, 15 days, etc,)
  •  Launch a cross-promotional strategy that retargets users that have made the 1st purchase with a second offer.
    1. For an eCommerce app, this could be re-engaging them to buy a product from the same category. 
    2. For a food delivery app, this could be re-engaging them to order another type of food the day after their 1st order. 
    3. For a game app, this could be suggesting another game from your own portfolio or to buy extra credits for the same title with a special discount.
  • Prevent cart abandonment by retargeting the same group of users with a special promotion. This could be free delivery or a special discount for certain types of orders (for example, all orders made before midnight). Remember, these are users who were about to check out but got distracted before completing their purchase. That being said, their interest levels are still active and high. To re-engage them now!

How to re-engage users after the holiday season with post-holiday promotions

Keep communications separate and customized for the group of new users you acquired during the Holiday season. You can also separate the users within this group who you consider have converted into a customer or paying player. Continue re-engaging these users with post-holiday promotions after the holiday season is over.

It’s a good idea to combine your internal CRM strategy with your retargeting campaigns. Try offering a special discount and rewards to new users who continue engaging with your app.

  • Offer special discounts available only for a few days in January to create a sense of urgency. You can also start announcing upcoming special events, such as Valentine’s day, etc. to this new segment of recently acquired users to keep their interest levels high. 
  • Design specific creatives for the segment of new users that have not converted into paying users yet. Create new ad variations for after the holiday season. It’s important to ensure your campaigns remain relevant and that your dynamic creatives suggest additional products that are complementary to the ones users’ purchased during the Holiday season (complimentary article for a shopping app, a similar gaming app from the portfolio, etc.)
  • Motivate your segment of recently acquired users to share your app with their friends so that they will become your new high valued users for the next Holiday season! 

Takeaways on Re-Engagement & Post-Holiday Promotions

The Q4 holiday giving season is a critical time to grow your business by acquiring new users and keeping them engaged with your app past the holiday season. Research shows that raising customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits from anywhere between 25% to 95%. A robust and effective retargeting strategy for Q4 should not only engage users during the busy holiday season but also keep them active, afterward, into the New Year.

To re-engage your users during the holiday season:

  • Segment your users by activity and recency.
  • Launch a cross-promotional strategy that retargets users that have made the 1st purchase with a second offer.
  • Prevent cart abandonment by retargeting the same group of users with a special promotion.

To re-engage users with post-holiday promotions following the holiday season:

  • Offer special discounts available only for a specific period of time to create a sense of urgency.
  • Create specific creatives for your segment of newly-acquired users. Create new ad variations for after the holiday season to prevent ad burnout.
  • Motivate your segment of recently acquired and engaged users to share your app with their friends since they are the best ambassadors of your brand.

Ready to Re-Engage Your Users?

Yes, the holiday season boom is coming to an end, but your year of growth is only beginning! Book a meeting to chat more with our EMEA lead Xavier, to jump-start your retargeting strategy today!