Five Prime Day Lessons For Freight Marketers

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"Prime Day" is here again! We've talked a lot about the "Amazon effect" in transportation, but carrier capacity isn't the only thing impacted by this e-commerce event. Is there anything marketers can learn from this annual sale?
 
100% yes.
 
And here are just a handful:
 
  1. Start with a strong foundation
    OK, yes, we can't all be Jeff Bezos. But what we can do is look at Prime Day in the larger context of Amazon as a company and the efforts that had already occurred prior to the 2015 launch of this holiday to lend a hand in its success. If you're thinking about introducing a new marketing campaign or tactic, take a minute to ensure you have a strong foundation first looking at your overall brand awareness, values and strategy. Not sure where to start? Here's one easy source for inspiration: Amazon's "Day 1" culture. 
  2. Make your own narrative
    If you DO have established brand awareness then this one gets a whole lot easier too. Way back in 2015, Parse.ly found more than 36K media mentions of Amazon Prime Day, an entirely fictional holiday promotion that was started to drive sign-ups for a paid subscription service during a slow sales season. Take a minute to let that sink in and then consider how much it has grown in more recent years. Marketers can still learn from this even if they *don't* have an Amazon-sized paid media and PR budget. Consider how you can create a sense of urgency, exclusivity or community for your audience—can you match your new narrative to their psychological needs or desires?
  3. Embrace a repeatable format
    Prime Day was invented to be culturally agnostic to reach a worldwide audience and over the last decade it has become a repeat extravaganza that competitors are eager to replicate. But why? One key to that success is a very simple premise coupled with repeat, frequent exposure. Marketers can use this format easily with a repeated content series or a sale or deal of their own, but the big trick is to keep it clear and simple.
  4. Take bets, but double down on data 
    The ecommerce giant hit nearly $575 billion in net sales revenue worldwide in 2023 so it's easy to see that they have access to a bit bigger data set than most marketers even without Prime Day. All the same, the platform looks meticulously at results and continues to iterate every year on the experience.  That's something we could all likely stand to do a bit more of! Former executive creative director of Amazon’s in-house agency Michael Boychuk writes more about the experience of launching Prime Day advertising and how the company uses data here saying "Four years working at the most highly measured company in the world taught me to embrace data while at the same time not losing sight of the importance of emotion in advertising."
  5. Encourage user-generated content
    Has Amazon essentially reinvented the home shopping network, but made it cool? The Amazon Influencer Program offers content creators an opportunity to earn commission on qualifying purchases, but Prime Day encouraged user-generated content sharing even in the first year. Marketers who want to make the most of their existing customer relationships should consider - is there anything we can do to get more engagement from our community? Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful tool and even B2B brands can surprise and delight customers with exclusive deals or promotions or unique experiences worth sharing!
 
What would you add to this list? Join us on LinkedIn to sound off!
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