Holiday Marketing Tips

I'm a firm believer that Q4 scaling starts well before Q4. Here's why. We’ve had calls where a brand approaches us and wants to “get aggressive for Black Friday,” but when we take a closer look, we find that their foundations haven’t been built. Common issues include an undersized email list, a welcome flow focused only on discounts and thank-yous, untested creative assets, and a Meta pixel missing key events. Although the offer may seem strong, shipping, discounts, and customer acquisition costs can quickly erode margins. These issues cannot be resolved during Black Friday week. Q4 performance reflects the preparation completed earlier in the year. The list built in June and July becomes your monetizable audience in November. Creative tests in August inform scalable strategies as CPMs increase. Optimized flows established before peak season help capture subscribers, browsers, cart abandoners, and first-time buyers when traffic peaks. The same principle applies to offers. Q4 is not the time to discover that your best-selling product does not support acquisition economics. While a low-ticket SKU may convert, a bundle, starter kit, or free-shipping threshold often delivers a healthier first order. These strategies should be tested before peak market activity. Accurate tracking is also essential. Effective abandoned cart and checkout retargeting requires a pixel that has been active for some time, allowing audiences to populate and the platform to receive reliable data. This is why the quiet months matter. These months should be used to build your list, test messaging, improve the website, refine tracking, model offers, review flows, and address weaknesses before increased volume exposes them. By the time Q4 starts, the brand should not be trying to build the machine. It should be ready to execute.

Didn’t plan your Black Friday Cyber Monday campaigns yet? You’re not alone (and it’s not too late) Here's the 5 things to think about as you start your planning: 1. Don’t panic-plan. Prioritize. Forget “doing it all.” You have limited time, so focus on the 20% that will drive 80% of results. Ask yourself: Do I need cash now? → Build bundles and push early access. Am I overstocked? → Run tiered discounts that reward higher AOV. Is my goal retention? → Turn Cyber Monday into a loyalty event. Once you know the goal, everything else becomes execution.  2. Launch with momentum, not noise. Instead of dropping a single discount email, build a 3-step arc: - Tease the offer early (“VIPs get first access Friday”). - Drop the real deal with clarity and urgency. - Remind and repeat with new angles: “Last call,” “Encore extended,” “Exclusive for loyal customers.” You don’t need more emails, you need better sequencing. Each send should earn its place.  3. Let your channels play their roles. Email = story, visuals, value. Use it to explain why the sale matters. SMS = urgency and timing. Use it to tell them when to act. Example: Email: “Your VIP Access Starts Now” (morning) SMS: “It’s ending soon… last chance to shop ” (evening) If they’re reading both, you’re doing it right. If they feel spammed, you’re doing too much.  4. The encore is your secret weapon. Most brands go silent after “Sale Ends Tonight.” Big mistake. Schedule an encore window 24–48 hours later with a believable reason: “Extended for VIPs,” “Overwhelming demand,” or “We cleared warehouse space.” That small second wave can drive 15–20% more revenue, and it’s often your highest-margin send of the season.  5. Make Cyber Monday about loyalty, not leftovers. Instead of another 30% off, make it about keeping your new buyers engaged. Ideas: - Gift-with-purchase or bonus points for repeat buyers - Free gift card with orders over a certain amount - Sneak peek of a new product drop Cyber Monday isn’t the sequel to Black Friday. It’s your bridge to Q1 retention. TL;DR: You’re not behind… you just need to focus. Pick one goal and design your offers around it. Use email + SMS in sync. Plan your end just as carefully as your start. Treat Cyber Monday as your retention reset. Want more? Tune into our latest Send It! Podcast with Chase Dimond: https://lnkd.in/dKYrE2pY We break down a playbook step by step for those who need help building or optimizing one. Short episode, very tactical. Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/dKYrE2pY P.S. Thank you to Omnisend and Kintsugi for helping brands this crucial holiday and being a sponsor of our pod.

If you’re not planning peak in May Q4 is gonna hurt! Peak season doesn’t start in November. It starts right now. And if you wait until September to fix your fulfillment issues, you’ll be too late. Too late to rebalance inventory. Too late to clean up your SKU catalog. Too late to secure the labor, space, or carrier capacity you’ll actually need when orders spike. Here’s what the brands that actually crush Q4 are doing in May: → Reviewing last year’s split ship rates and rebuilding their allocation strategy → Locking in carrier volume before rates surge and zones bottleneck → Finalizing packaging changes to cut DIM weight before it’s multiplied across thousands of orders → Cleaning up dead SKUs to avoid paying Q4 storage penalties on ghosts → Stress-testing their 3PL now, not while customers are refreshing tracking pages every 30 seconds Your fulfillment strategy doesn’t need to be perfect in May. But if you don’t have a plan by now, you’re not preparing. You’re hoping. And hope is not a Q4 strategy. You don’t survive peak by reacting fast. You survive by planning early. May is when winners lock in the foundation.

You're probably focusing on the wrong things re: "Cyber 5"/"Holiday"/Black Friday Cyber Monday. Especially if your brand is doing <$100M online. Here are 5 things worth focusing on as we approach Holiday 2023: 1. Sense check your plan. Was last year's offer profitable? Did you consider it successful? How many of your BFCM customers came back to buy again? When you pull those numbers, does this year's plan still make sense? You don't need to offer a deeper discount every year, just a compelling one. 2. Build awareness now. Your primary BFCM audience is going to be people who are aware of your brand, but haven't prioritized the purchase yet. What are you doing to build awareness now? And specifically, what are you doing to build a qualified cookie pool in the 30-60 days leading up to Holiday? 3. Turn your team into bug hunters. A functioning website is always important, but it can become a huge missed opportunity during BFCM. Start a "bug hunt" 30-45 days out. Offer good prizes for the team members who spot the most bugs, and then line up resources to fix them before the big day. 4. Close the loop w/ops. If BFCM is a peak period–especially if you're forecasting unprecedented volume–make sure you have the capacity to fulfill those orders. If daily order volume is even 20-30% above average for a sustained period you'll start to form a backlog in the warehouse. And a backlog in the warehouse quickly leads to a backlog with CX. Talk through your forecast with your fulfillment team and make sure you're covered. 5. Put your blinders on. If you're doing under $100M/year in eCom sales, macro trends usually don't matter. The exception = a cataclysmic event like the 2008 financial crisis, but pundits can't predict that. Similarly–offers that national competitors are running don't matter. If you're a $25M brand selling workout gear, Nike's BFCM offer isn't impact you. Don't react to competitors that are much bigger than you are. What does matter: the offers your wholesale partners are running on your product, and the extent to which you'll be battling it out on Google.

As we approach the critical holiday shopping season, U.S. container ports are bracing for a surge in volumes. However, a looming threat of a labor strike at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports is causing concern among retailers and supply chain professionals. The contract between the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance is set to expire on September 30, with the ILA threatening to strike if a new agreement isn't reached. This potential disruption comes at a time when U.S. ports have been experiencing record-breaking numbers. The first half of 2024 saw a 14.8% increase in TEU volumes compared to the same period in 2023. While September is forecast to see a 14% year-over-year increase, the projected growth for the following months is more modest. Strategies for Retailers to Mitigate Risk: 1. Diversify import strategies by redirecting shipments to West Coast ports 2. Expedite orders to arrive before the potential strike date 3. Explore alternative transportation methods, such as air freight for critical items 4. Build up safety stock to buffer against potential disruptions 5. Communicate closely with suppliers and logistics partners 6. Develop comprehensive contingency plans for various scenarios 7. Consider nearshoring or onshoring options for future seasons By implementing these proactive measures, retailers and brands can better protect their supply chains and ensure a successful 2024 holiday season, regardless of the outcome of the port negotiations. Stay informed and agile as the situation develops. #SupplyChain #Retail #PortStrike #HolidaySeason #RiskMitigation

Your Black Friday discount doesn't matter if your listing crashes when traffic spikes. Every year I watch sellers argue about discount depth while their entire Amazon operation collapses under peak traffic. Your competitors are running similar deals. The real difference is whether your Amazon infrastructure can handle the surge without breaking. I've analyzed hundreds of brands through BFCM cycles at MAG managing $1.2Bn in GMV. The pattern is consistent every year. Brands lose massive revenue for reasons that have nothing to do with their discount depth. Listings crawl under peak mobile traffic. Buy Box suppresses mid-morning because account health metrics tanked. PPC campaigns burn through daily budget before most shoppers even start buying. Backend keywords lose indexing under heavy catalog pressure. Black Friday through Cyber Monday puts more stress on Amazon systems than any other period of the year. If your setup isn't stable now, the traffic spike exposes every weak point. This week is your last window to fix the fundamentals. Verify your account health is pristine before complaint volume spikes. Confirm your PPC automation can scale without burning budget too early. Test that your top keywords are actually indexed because what ranks today might not rank Friday. Lock in your FBA restock plan because receiving delays spike hard during peak season. The sellers capturing market share during BFCM aren't debating coupon depth. They're stress testing infrastructure that converts traffic without breaking. What loads fast on your desktop now will crawl on mobile under peak traffic. What converts at current costs won't convert when bids jump and your budget caps out early. The window for technical preparation is closing fast. Test every critical piece of your Amazon operation this week or watch competitors take market share with the same discount you're running.

Q4 is the Super Bowl of logistics. Peak season rewards those who planned, set expectations upfront with their supply chain partners, and who are great communicators. Every operator is facing the same challenge right now: how to meet uneven demand efficiently. The options are simple in theory but complex in execution: • Maintain steady output and build inventory • Use overtime and subcontracting • Blend both to minimize cost Each plan has tradeoffs. More space and inventory mean higher carrying costs, while chasing demand requires labor flexibility and dependable partners. That is the essence of aggregate planning, finding the balance between capacity, cost, and demand. Some organizations keep output steady and absorb fluctuations through inventory (the level strategy), while others flex labor and production to follow demand (the chase strategy). Manufacturers make these decisions through labor, overtime, subcontracting, and inventory costs. In industrial real estate, the same dynamics show up through space utilization, lease structure, and flexibility. Once a plan is set, it becomes a master production schedule, a detailed roadmap that drives every downstream action: capacity checks, labor planning, supplier orders, and distribution scheduling. The best operators do not wait until peak season to communicate. They align forecasts, capacity, and timing across every partner months in advance. Planning is a chain reaction; one team’s output becomes another team’s input, whether that is a supplier waiting on a production schedule or a landlord preparing for a tenant’s next phase of growth. Peak season rewards preparation, communication, and execution. And that is where real estate strategy meets supply chain planning, helping companies turn operational readiness into spatial readiness. Grant La Bounty Chris Vassilian #SupplyChain #IndustrialRealEstate #OperationsManagement #Planning #Warehousing #Logistics

“𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲?” Last week, a client shared their nightmare from last year. Yikes. Lost packages = frustrated customers, angry emails, bad reviews, and lost revenue. It’s a familiar challenge for many brands during peak season. We worked with this client to implement key strategies to avoid a repeat of last year’s chaos: �� 𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 For brands on Shopify, we recommend using Wonderment, a Shopify add-on, to track packages in real time. It alerts teams to stalled shipments—no first scans or no updates for 18+ hours—so they can take immediate action and avoid escalation. 🎅 𝟮. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 Build relationships with your carrier's dispatch center team. This is the first stop your packages make on their way to customers, typically a sortation center in the area. When things inevitably go wrong, having an insider to call can be the difference between a disaster and a quick solution. At Warby Parker, we once had over 10K packages get left in a corner of a sort center and only recovered them when we demanded to walk the floor to check for ourselves. Ask your account rep or your daily pick up driver for the phone number and say hello. Better still, you might be able to drop by with some holiday goodies. Make some new friends this holiday season. 🚀 𝟯. 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝘀𝘁-𝗠𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀 For orders placed after December 16th, you may consider switching to an expedited service ground economy shipping (say UPS Surepost or Fedex Smartpost where the last mile is done by USPS). In my experience, during super peak, the only dependable transit SLAs are for Next Day or 2 Day Air. Everything else gets there when it gets there. 📦 𝟰. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝘂𝗽𝘀 Separating expedited shipments during pickups eliminates mix-ups, boosting accuracy and speed. A simple change with a big impact. At the heart of all this? Making the holidays stress-free for customers by ensuring packages arrive on time. Logistics might not be glamorous, but when done right, it’s pure magic. ✨ Have you faced holiday shipping challenges or discovered game-changing strategies? Drop your tips and stories in the comments—we at Operating Crew would love to hear from you! #HolidayLogistics #DTCBrands #CustomerExperience #ShippingSolutions #NoLostPackages

Understanding buyer intent must be the core of your holiday PPC strategy, especially during Christmas. Most brands jump straight into budgets, bids, and keyword lists… But if you don’t understand who is buying and why they’re buying, your spend becomes guesswork. Because holiday shoppers behave differently: They browse faster, compare quicker, abandon more often, and convert only when the offer fits the exact intent they had in mind. This is why most wasted ad spend in December comes from one thing - misaligned targeting. So I built this Christmas PPC cheat sheet to help brands focus on what matters first: 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 → 𝘁𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 → 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. Here’s a preview of what’s inside ⬇️ 𝟭. 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀 ↳ Reach people with clear seasonal buying intent ↳ Tap into audiences actively exploring gifting categories ↳ Avoid broad traffic that clicks but rarely converts ↳ Re-engage warm shoppers still comparing options ↳ Use complementary SKUs to raise total cart value 𝟮. 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮���𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 ↳ Communicate “gift fit” in seconds ↳ Reduce friction with simple, decisive visuals ↳ Test multiple angles to match different shopper mindsets ↳ Highlight value clearly for faster decision-making ↳ Use formats that capture attention during peak scroll hours 𝟯. 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗯𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 ↳ Allocate spend during the exact hours when buyers surge ↳ Support only SKUs that can handle increased velocity ↳ Use structures that guard against inflated CPCs ↳ Prioritize placements that win early attention ↳ Adjust pacing around evening mobile activity 𝟰. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 ↳ Cut low-intent seasonal traffic ↳ Prevent your own variants from competing ↳ Keep funnels clean as competition rises ↳ Remove terms that drain budget without buying signals ↳ Focus spend on true converters 𝟱. 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗴𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 ↳ Guide shoppers to curated gift collections ↳ Segment by price point, recipient, or theme ↳ Ensure the landing experience matches the ad promise ↳ Reduce bounce with focused, intuitive pathways 𝟲. 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 ↳ Tight performance reviews during high-volume days ↳ Cut losing targets quickly ↳ Reinforce winners with more coverage ↳ Watch conversion shifts as rivals scale spend ↳ Stay agile as demand patterns change weekly If your PPC strategy starts with buyer intent, the rest becomes far more efficient and every dollar you spend works harder. P.S. Want seller tips and strategy from brands doing over $200M in revenue? Check out the ZonGuru Growth Newsletter: 🔔 https://t2m.io/j6Po32q

October Prime Days are just around the corner, but it won’t be a typical event. Q4 has officially started, and that changes everything. This season’s Prime Days are not a standalone moment. It is the first in a rapid-fire sequence of high-intent shopping surges: • October Prime Days • Black Friday • Cyber Monday • Holiday sales Your strategy should not just focus on this one event. It needs to learn from the past and prepare for what is coming next. Look at last year’s data. Your previous Prime Day results are a goldmine. → What campaigns performed best? → Which keywords spiked in spend or conversions? → Where did your margins suffer? → What changes did you observe with customer behavior This is the time to study those patterns and build a smarter plan. Think ahead to Black Friday and beyond Any coupons, discounts, or promos you are considering for Prime Day need to fit into a broader Q4 pricing strategy . If you go too aggressive now, you might have nothing left for the next surge in demand. Here is what we recommend: 1. Review your past Prime Day performance Use real data to identify trends, wins, and overspend areas so you can double down or adjust. 2. Create a monitoring game plan Decide in advance what metrics you will track and when you will actually step in to adjust bids, budgets, or targets. 3. Protect your Q4 budget Allocate spending wisely across the season. Do not let Prime Day drain your ability to compete in November. 4. Document everything What you learn from this Prime Day should help you refine your strategy for the rest of Q4 and for next year. High-traffic events like these can wreak havoc on campaigns. But the sellers who stay calm, and follow a plan will be rewarded. How are you planning for this Prime Day and the weeks that follow?