Surveying our retail customers, we found that about two-thirds of their holiday season site traffic comes from familiar faces. With so many new shoppers onsite, customer acquisition should be a cakewalk, right?

Of course, it’s not that simple. Still, the fact remains that the influx of holiday shoppers represent a huge growth opportunity. As you think about retail customer acquisition during the holidays and creating repeat customers into the next year, here are four things to keep in mind.

1. Personalize Your Onboarding

Our client survey found that retail marketers overwhelmingly cite email as the most effective channel for turning November’s new customers into February’s fans. Once you’ve captured someone’s email address, whether they’re a new subscriber or a first-time purchaser, adjust your existing welcome series to focus on holiday shopping. Incorporate your popular recommendations and if you add an incentive, make it a time-bound discount.

During the overindulgent holiday season, Thrive Market is all about helping people make healthier choices. That extends to the welcome series. New Thrive Market subscribers can expect their onboarding to include recipes for lower-sugar desserts like lemon lavender sorbet.

2. Look to Lookalikes for Customer Acquisition

GlobalWebIndex estimates that we spend an average of two hours and 22 minutes per day on social media — and that survey was commissioned before quarantine. With customer acquisition tools, you can leverage lookalike models and target audiences with similar behaviors to your best customers, growing your audience along the way.

3. Rev Up Your Re-Engagement

Go down memory lane and remember those customers you haven’t seen since last year’s holiday season. Use winback messaging to re-engage those people. While you’re at it, re-engage all your lapsed customers, including those who signed up for your emails and never actually became customers. It’s also a good idea to include best sellers in the creative, as they tend to be particularly high converts among first-time customers.

MZ Wallace uses its annual gift guide to re-engage holiday shoppers from the previous year. The medium Metro tote on the left is one of MZ Wallace’s most popular bags.

4. Create Cross-Channel Retargeting

Social media doubles as a fantastic retargeting opportunity. Use your platforms together for customer acquisition to serve a cohesive experience across site, email and retargeting ads. This applies to nonpurchasers, cart abandoners, lapsed customers, and loyalists alike.

Customer acquisition is just one thing to consider to crush Q4. Download Marigold Engage by Sailthru’s 2020 Holiday Marketing Playbook to learn more about holiday season must haves, the most relevant recommendation algorithms, ways to sell with storytelling and more.