Festive Season Digital Marketing Campaigns – Our Top Tips
by Colleen Mustard on October 20TH, 2020
The holiday shopping season is fast approaching and businesses all across the globe are gearing up to entice customers to purchase their products or take advantage of their services. Television channels, social media pages & websites are all saturated with festive season advertisements reminding shoppers of seasonal promotions and special offers from their favourite retail stores.
The shopping season ball normally starts rolling with Black Friday & Cyber Monday. For years, Cyber Week was confined to the United States and is seen as the start of the holiday shopping season. It has since been adopted by shoppers worldwide who all go into a frenzy searching for the best deals they can find.
As the old proverb goes: “The early bird catches the worm.” “The person who takes the earliest opportunity to do something will gain the advantage over others.” It’s no different when it comes to your holiday marketing campaigns. If your company has not yet devised a holiday promotion strategy to drive sales, then you’re already behind.
Being prepared early means you have a greater chance at success over your competitors. To help kick-off your festive season digital marketing campaign, we have a few tips that we hope will help your business connect with customers and attract more Christmas shoppers to your website.
Plan Your Campaign Early
Never leave your promotional campaigns for the eleventh hour. Scurrying around and trying to think of ways to entice consumers a week before the season starts means you are already way behind your competitors. A huge amount of time and effort goes into creating holiday campaigns so it’s best to pre-plan. Your website will inevitably be a lot busier during the festive season and consumers will not want to waste time on an uninformative page that is not user-friendly. Make sure they have easy access to your promotions, your customer support is top-notch and your FAQ page has the relevant answers to common holiday season questions. Update your site when products are sold out or re-instated. There is nothing worse than losing a sale because an annoyed customer left your out-dated site. Get your landing pages in order. Improve your site security so they feel safe when shopping with you.
Choose Strategies That Connect With Consumers
The holiday season is all about making your customers feel like they are part of something special – Like they are family. Engage them with content that they feel compelled to share on their social pages. Build connections and trust by delivering on your seasonal promises timeously. Be socially active, always be available & communicate and personalise your brand. It’s imperative that you do not have a campaign that over-promises and under-delivers. If this is your first holiday season as a brand then it’s advisable to start off with a small, yet fun and festive campaign that inspires urgency. Put yourself in the customers shopping shoes. If you’re not enticed by the campaign then chances are that they won’t be either. Avoid jamming their inbox with countless annoying promotional emails. Instead, use social media to connect with them as they are sources of inspiration for gifts.
Be Prepared For Competition
Never under estimate your competition. They have the same end-goal in mind as you do – To drive sales. The holiday season is always jam-packed with promotions so yours needs to draw customers to your brand. Your campaign needs to stand out and be noticed. Your incentive game has to be on-point so lure them to your site with discount codes, free delivery, free samples, free gift wrapping or a buy one get one free option. Over the years, customers have grown to become accustomed to them and expect them over the holiday season. You can even be adventurous and try something unique that you know will speak directly to your target audience. Make them understand the benefits of shopping with you over your competitors with campaigns that speak to their needs and wants.
Create Real Reasons To Purchase
Provide consumers with value-for-money and quality products that will have them re-visiting your website and repeating purchases. Because online shopping is not as social as shopping at an offline store, your campaigns will need to play to your brands strength. Buyers may find it difficult to purchase certain products online so
creating a false sense of urgency needs to be avoided at all costs. Consumers know that Cyber week and the rest of the holiday season that follows, are known for huge discounts. They have become accustomed to bargain hunting and getting the lowest prices possible. Make sure that your campaign does not put your brand across as “cheap” though. Instead, give them real reasons to click that “Buy Now” button. Don’t give them too many irrelevant product choices, make sure you have a purchase guarantee, payment assurance and a sound shipping policy. You will want these customers to return to purchase from your store off-season
In Conclusion
Online shopping has been around for many years and shows no signs of slowing down. Consumers have become accustomed to seeing the same online marketing tactics year after year. To ensure your marketing campaign is a cut-above the rest, we have put together a few additional tips to “wow” your customers. Bring your A-Game by incorporating these strategies into your marketing plan this festive season and get ready to reap the rewards.
- Don’t forget about your existing customers. They are more likely to spend more on your products and services than new clients.
- Learn from previous campaigns and build on what worked and re-think what didn’t.
- A content-driven approach to marketing is the way to go. Focus on creating and publishing content that reaches and engages audiences that are important to your business.
- Learn to react and adapt to technical problems very quickly. Educate your team about the importance of fixing issues on your website that deter customers from purchasing. These can include a slow loading site, a site that is hard to navigate, slow or costly delivery options, a complicated check-out process and annoying pop-ups.
Optimise your site for mobile devices. A huge percentage of online shoppers use hand-held devices so make sure that your site is optimised for mobile.
Until next time…here’s your QOTD
“One good thing about Christmas shopping is it toughens you for the January sales.”
Grace Kriley
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