Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Super Saturday – the holiday season is packed with shopping days! Online shopping only grows bigger and better every year, with shoppers eager to snag the best deals. How can you channel your brand’s online marketing to tap directly into this and boost your sales over this period? Here are five essential holiday marketing tips to get you started on the right track.
Tip #1 – Timing Is Everything
This holiday marketing tip is a crucial, foundational strategy to set the tone for nearly everything you plan to accomplish during the holiday season. Planning ahead gives you the upper hand when implementing the other actions. This is because you will have the time to adjust or pivot your strategies accordingly when you begin planning early. Plan your marketing at least a couple of months before the holiday season to avoid any rushed, rash decisions that may work against you.
Tip #2 – Tap Into The Season
A great way to tap into the spirit of the season to drive relevancy and appeal is to find creative ways to link your brand with the holiday(s) you intend to be most visible on. Adjust your customer service/experience by including the traditions of the season. For instance, you can customize your responses so that they are in line with Thanksgiving practices.
Personalization can go a long way in enhancing your customers’ experience while interacting with your brand. Creating custom holiday gift sets or product bundles is a great way to drive conversions while charming your audience and, ultimately, boosting your brand’s appeal.
Tip #3 – Use Paid Ads
This holiday marketing tip will be used by many companies in the coming weeks. Use paid ads across your social media channels to draw attention to specific holidays and what your brand offers. These ads will be visible to shoppers who have come across content or products similar to yours, thus making promoted ads an effective tactic to drive conversions during the holiday season.
Tip #4 – Elevate Your Email Marketing
Toward the end of the year, holiday shoppers tend to have their heads on a swivel for great deals to pounce on. One of the places they look for discounts and promotions is their email inbox. With this in mind, email marketing is most effective during the holiday season.
The downside is that many other companies will also increase their email marketing efforts. Standing out should be your priority. The best way to do this is to segment your audience and craft personalized emails that notify them of deals and provide value by giving them access to relevant information. Here’s more on email marketing. Essentially, being strategic can help keep your emails out of the spam box and in the read box. Speaking of being strategic…
Tip #5 – Use Strategic Promotions
Promotions, discounts, and giveaways are prevalent in the holiday season – Black Friday is all about getting the best deals. According to Neil Patel, promotions are a great way to drive traffic and boost conversion rates.
However, promotions have a significant caveat that might devalue your brand long-term. Here are a few ways promotion can be bad for your business:
- Shoppers whose first purchase is motivated by a discount are less likely to make a second purchase from your company. This is because their initial purchase was driven by price, not value.
- Customers’ purchase behavior is driven by sales seasons. And when they do buy, they buy in bulk and store up so they have enough supply to last until the next sale.
- Consumers increasingly focus on price over product differentiators and perform mental trade-offs based primarily on cost/benefit versus emotional attachment to the brand.
- Brand loyalty could be jeopardized because shoppers switch brands as they pursue lower prices.
- For your company, this could mean perpetually selling your product at a lower price throughout the year and offering even steeper discounts to attract customers back from your competition.
- Sustained discounting (over several years) could ultimately eat away at your profit margins, which in turn erodes shareholder value.
So while considering using discounts and promotions over the holiday season to increase footfall and conversion, strategize how to implement them carefully to preserve your brand value.
The holiday season is a great time to boost your digital marketing efforts. You can reach more people who are shopping online and looking for deals. Here are more strategies to set your company apart during the holidays. To maximize your results, consider booking a strategy session with our expert team. We can help you develop a plan that targets your ideal customers and helps you stand out from the competition.
