For many retailers, the holiday season starts after Thanksgiving—the day after, to be exact. On Black Friday, advertisers begin a month full of campaigns designed to lift sales throughout the holiday season—playing their catchy jingles and touting their unbeatable sales.

But brands looking for more than just an uptick in holiday sales will need to start well before shoppers rush through their doors Black Friday morning. In order to build relationships with consumers—and encourage engagement and loyalty—they’ll need to begin long before Thanksgiving.

How retailers engage with consumers ahead of the busy holiday season is key to sustaining a strong period of engagement and sales from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. Location data can help every step of the way.

Get to Know One Another

Whether consumers are sharing what they’re grateful for around a turkey dinner or spending quality time with friends and family, the holiday season encourages warm conversation and togetherness. Brands, too, can take part in these conversations, using the holiday season to learn more about consumers and engage with them on a deeper level.

With historical location data, brands can discover how and where consumers spend their time, revealing their unique interests and habits. Such information can empower brands to refine their audiences and personalize their messages.

Let’s say a health food brand is looking to target shoppers who’d be interested in buying their products for holiday meals. First, the brand can identify which family members do the household grocery shopping by looking at which device IDs are regularly seen in the local grocery store.

But rather than reaching out to every grocery shopper, the brand should only target those who are health-conscious. How can they use location data to single out the consumers who are most likely to go for the healthy option? They can identify which consumers visit the gym at least twice a week.

To drill down even further, the brand can couple the historical location data with other data insights. By looking at online search histories, for example, the brand can identify which of those healthy gym members have searched online for low-carb or all-natural dinner recipes.

Have Personal Conversations

Once advertisers have identified their ideal audience, how can they start the conversation for the best results? They can deliver personalized messages at strategic times in the day.

Perhaps that health food brand wants to encourage shoppers to take advantage of an in-store Thanksgiving sale. They can use location data to deliver the ad at the time and place most likely to drive the consumer into the store. For instance, if the advertiser knows (thanks to historical location data) that the consumer goes to the grocery store Mondays and Wednesdays around 5:30 pm, they can serve an ad to the consumer’s mobile right before he gets into the car. Personalizing this ad further, the brand can also include something that will entice the consumer to stop by, like a 10 percent off coupon for a pumpkin pie made with natural ingredients.

The brand can also lend the consumer a helping hand once they get to the store. For example, the consumer can receive a useful ad reminding him where to go: “Check out aisle three for some healthy side dishes your Thanksgiving guests will love.”

By demonstrating care and concern for consumers at the start of the holiday season, brands can begin forming positive relationships with their audiences that will last from Turkey Day well into the new year.