Light up the sky for the Fourth of July. The summer season is at long last upon us, and consumers are busy vacation planning, contemplating a new bathing-suit purchase and dusting off the barbeque. However for proactive marketers, now is time to prepare for a wave of patriotic fervor.
With inflation creeping down and the economic outlook looking a little more positive, it’s good news for retailers. So while consumers might still be economizing by switching to a lower-priced dog food, or skipping dessert when dining out, they’re ready and willing to spend big on cultural holidays.
Last year, a hefty 87% of U.S. consumers celebrated the Fourth of July weekend — surpassing the figures for Valentine’s, Father’s and Mother’s Day. With almost a third of consumers (32%) intending to purchase patriotic items this year (source: NRF), forward-thinking, always-on marketers are poised to capitalize on this uptick in consumer spending.
The challenge, as ever, is standing out amidst marketing clutter and securing top-of-mind awareness when consumers are ready to make a purchase. Here are five digital marketing tips for a tea-riffic Fourth of July.
Be a star-spangled planner
Like any cultural holiday, Fourth of July weekend requires a well-timed marketing plan to win the dollars of consumers. Given that a substantial portion of spending occurs in the week leading up to it, it’s crucial for retailers to be well-prepared for this relatively short buying window. Launching your marketing activities in early June offers a strategic advantage that caters to both early planners and last-minute shoppers.
Get the easy things ready now — set up your automation and triggers and move on to showcasing your best USA-themed or American-made merchandise and emphasize why consumers should choose you over the competition.
Liberate yourself from third-party tracking cookies
For decades, third-party tracking cookies have been the lifeblood of the digital marketing ecosystem. However, cookie depreciation is now in full swing, with Google expected to fully curtail their use in 2025…so now is a great time to learn how to live without them before the BCFM and the holidays.
At Wunderkind we have long-questioned the ability of cookies to effectively drive value and sales. With competition for ad inventory at a premium during the Fourth of July surge in activity (and the ever-present 2024 election cycle), relying on cookies is an inefficient solution. Fortunately plenty of alternatives exist, including using your owned channels or an identification partner.
Identification is yan-key
Brands collaborating with performance marketing solutions this Fourth of July, equipped with identity resolution technology can transcend the limitations of cookie depreciation. They significantly enhance opportunities to re-engage consumers by leveraging first-party data to identify substantial portions of anonymous traffic and utilize high-performing owned channels like email and SMS to drive sales.
Wunderkind, by identifying online shoppers across various devices, browsers, and sessions regardless of cookie or login status, is generating 6-11% of all digital revenue for its clients, surpassing competitors by 6x.
Oh say can you see this on mobile
Consumers expect seamless purchasing experiences from your brand, regardless of the channel they engage on. While they will likely interact with multiple channels on their purchasing journey, often unpredictably, mobile is the preeminent channel for sales conversions. Exclusive 2023 BFCM data from Wunderkind reveals that over three-quarters (76.6%) of website visits were on mobile, and two-thirds (66%) of conversions.
However, it’s not uncommon for brands to provide a mobile experience that doesn’t align with its desktop counterpart. In today’s digital and interconnected world, your Fourth of July strategies need to be mobile-first, rather than merely mobile-responsive. We recommended prioritizing optimization for mobile, then desktop, then tablet.
Stars, stripes and SMS
Instead of simply mimicking email campaigns, SMS is most effective as a follow-up to reinforce messaging a day before an deal expires, communicate last shipping days and any special offers. There will always be individuals who leave their preparation until the last minute, and text is perfectly positioned to instill a sense of urgency to drive swift decision-making.
Providing real-time customer updates, time-sensitive offers, and tracking information will elevate your text initiatives and enhance the overall customer experience.
Use Fourth of July to prepare for BFCM
With BCFM and holiday spend anticipated to start as early as October this year, now is the opportune moment to be implementing and optimizing your technology and identity solutions. By testing your messaging, campaigns, triggers and identity strategy ahead of Fourth of July weekend, you’re not only making the most of this spike in activity, but are ready for the major revenue opportunities later in the year.
Last year, Wunderkind identified over 9 billion consumer devices (roughly double the amount of active global consumers), equating to trillions of browsing events and crucially, $5BN in revenue for our clients. With the launch of our new AI-powered Autonomous Marketing Platform we’re empowering marketers with even more self-service tools to uncover valuable data insights and maximize revenue.
So start early, personalize and embrace creativity. Offer gifts or experiences that resonate with the swathes of patriotic consumers ready to celebrate, that can be purchased with just a click. Remember, insights from what works or doesn’t can inform your campaigns for back-to-school, Halloween, BFCM, and beyond.
Identifying website traffic can play a key role in increasing your database of contacts.
Learn all about identity resolution in our ebook.
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