Customers At The Gates - Jordan West
While common sense would say if you want to make a sale then your store should never close its door on potential shoppers, marketing expert Jordan West says that actually, it can be incredibly helpful to your bottom line and drive customer engagement.
Build Exclusivity
Gated Launches are the secret weapon to generating excitement and FOMO, the fear of missing out, two major factors to getting modern shoppers through the door and past the checkout.
"What is a gated launch?"
A gated launch is when a store closes all sales and advertising temporarily, often for 24 hours, allowing access only to those special customers who have been invited. Instead of locking the front door and only letting a few people inside, like a brick & mortar store, online gated launches lock all traffic on the site down, blocking shoppers from browsing the site unless they have a special passcode or sign-in to a registered account.
"Who do I allow in, and how do my customers get access?"
While the sense of exclusivity is important to a gated launch, it's all for nothing if you can't get those curious shoppers into the VIP experience. Allow ample opportunities for customers to join your exclusive access list, in exchange for further brand engagement, such as by:
- Joining and promoting a Facebook VIP group for your brand
- Signing up for SMS promotions
- Downloading and signing into an app for your brand
You don't want to make it impossible for shoppers to find the password and gain access, you just want to make sure those gaining access are committed customers. Clearly state how they can gain access, and watch as both your lists and profit margins grow.
DONT FORGET: Notify your customers far ahead of time that you're going to have a gated launch for the next sale or product release. You want to build that excitement and engagement, so that they can't wait to sign in with the exclusive password, not have them trying to go about their normal shopping experience and suddenly find themselves barred from their favourite store.
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