Remember Rachel Ray’s “30 Minute Meals” TV show?

It spring-boarded the celebrity chef to stardom, landing her an Emmy, several more TV shows, a series of cookbooks and her own line of kitchenware. Ray was successful, in part, because she kept the recipes accessible—and short.

So, I’m adapting that premise.

Every so often, I’ll walk you through examples of great customer experiences that take only 60 minutes to execute. Here’s our first, just in time for Father’s Day.

(A quick note about Father’s Day: You might think it’s too late to set a promotion in place. It’s not. According to Google, the search term “Father’s Day Gift” doesn’t peak until the week before. This year, Father’s Day lands on June 15. So, we’re close; but not too late.)

Ingredients:

  • 1 generic Father’s Day email promo creative (700 x 600 px; pictured below)Generic Email

  • 3 category-specific email promo creatives (700 x 600 px; example pictured below)Outerwear Email

  • 3 category-specific onsite promo creatives (960 x 40 px; example pictured below)Outerwear Onsite

Prep (40 minutes):

  • Generate a “generic” creative for your Father’s Day email promo, calling out 2-3 specific categories of products you’d like to promote to gift buyers. These could be high margin categories, categories you’d like to liquidate from inventory, curated gift guides, or seasonally relevant lines.

  • For each of these 2-3 categories, generate a slightly more nuanced email creative, specific to that category.

  • Generate 2-3 corresponding category specific promotional banners to be used onsite.

Execution (20 minutes):

  • Begin your campaign by sending out your generic father’s day promo to the entire list. Be sure to use URL tags for each category-specific call to action (CTA).

  • Deploy category-specific onsite promotional banners based on which CTA a visitor clicked within the email, every page of the visitor’s site experience. This will “anchor” the visitor back to what compelled them to come onsite from the email. (To create additional urgency, use a countdown timer that ticks down to the end of the sale.)

  • Many visitors will not purchase in this session, so re-use those category specific promo banners on their next visit, based on which categories they’ve browsed. Given that those visitors will likely be direct navigating to your site next time, this behavioral history is a key indicator of what to show them upon their return.

  • In the same way, dynamically personalize your final reminder email a few days before your promotion ends, based on the category they’ve most recently viewed onsite. This not only makes the call to action much stronger, but it also eliminates steps from the visitor’s path to purchase.

Does this seem like a lot of work? Yes. Does this break from the traditional “one size fits all” promotion your competitors might be using? Yes. Did I actually create these in 60 minutes using Monetate? Yes.

Is it worth it? Think back to the last generic “25% off everything!” offer you’ve ignored in favor of a helpful, relevant customer experience…and then tell me if it’s worth an hour of your time. Your boss will thank you tomorrow.

Hourglass image courtesy of Shutterstock.