“Alexa, tell me the best deals on iPhone 15 for Prime Day”.

This simple query signifies the onset of a highly anticipated shopping spree. Customers no longer wait for the actual sale to start exploring deals; they begin their search well in advance, to find the best offers.

For marketers, this behavior underscores the importance of early preparation. Effective marketing strategies should start well before the event, ensuring that products are top-of-mind when the sale day arrives.

Let's dive into the nitty-gritties of planning and executing such marketplace events!

Identifying the Ideal Events

Events like Prime Day and the Great Indian Festival, provide exceptional opportunities for sellers. However, the vast array of options can be daunting. Success lies not only in choosing the largest events but also in selecting the platforms that best match your target audience and product categories. 

According to a study by ShareChat and Moj, 47% of Indians are expected to spend over Rs. 10,000 on festive purchases, which is about 2.5 times more than last year.

For example, electronics see remarkable success during events like the Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival, while fashion and apparel brands may find greater benefits in participating in the Wardrobe Refresh Sale. While clothing and electronics continue to dominate purchase categories, home improvement is the newest in the top 3 product categories Indians are likely to spend on.

Moreover, it's crucial to consider your marketing budget. If you face budget constraints, opting for smaller events might be more advantageous. These events typically have less competition from industry leaders, which can help smaller brands achieve better performance.

Perfecting the Pre-sale Preparation

While it is crucial to plan for the D-Day, having a sound strategy for pre-festive activities helps define your goals, allocate resources and align marketing efforts. Depending on the scale of the event, brands must plan their advertising spends before, during and after the event with preparation starting at least 2-4 weeks before such event. Ensuring optimal inventory levels of top-selling products and planning discounts and deals in advance helps to get an edge over competitors.

Creating prospecting campaigns to target new customers before the event and scheduling day parting campaigns based on peak times can also be effective.

Having backup campaigns ready to replace underperforming ones during the event is a smart strategy that many marketers fall back on. 

Navigating Event Day Dynamics

During these events, marketers may face issues such as attribution delays due the sheer volume of products being sold across the platform, reflecting a less accurate ROAS.

Here are some tips marketers may follow for a better experience:

• Track total sales to determine top sellers and underscore real-time category trends.
• Keep a tab on top-performing keywords and adjust bids accordingly.
• Check your performance every 4 hours. 
• Stay vigilant and track competitors' prices and stock outs to adjust your approach.
• Adjust bids in real-time to help maximize performance. 
• Use third party tools, if possible to manage bids and pause campaigns to avoid overspending.

Wrapping up: Actionables Post-Event

Immediately after the event concludes, marketers may implement these actionables:

• Scale down your campaigns by reducing bids to avoid overspending. This practice can help avoid unnecessary spends and maintain consistency even after the event concludes.
• Conducting an impact analysis to compare results against pre-set goals helps marketers optimize future campaigns by leveraging these insights.
• Documenting insights also helps in identifying hero products, effective search terms and newer audiences. Retargeting high-intent customers becomes easier with this approach.

This continuous cycle of preparation, execution, and analysis will help brands capitalize on the massive sales potential of these marketplace events.

By implementing these strategies, sellers can turn marketplace events into lucrative opportunities. Effective pre-planning, real-time management, and post-event optimization are key to capitalizing on the massive sales potential these events offer.