The highly anticipated holiday season is a valuable time for your business. Whether you’re looking to gain more prospects, increase sales, or cash in on the festive shopping craze, focus your holiday marketing on strategies that work. Here’s a look at some holiday marketing campaign ideas that will help you connect with your target market.
Plan Ahead
While the holiday season is often the best time of the year to make your business stand out and succeed, it also comes with its fair share of challenges. Before you start adjusting your marketing efforts for the holiday season, make sure your business is prepared for new customers. Are your staff, inventory, and website ready for the rush?
Branding
The holiday spirit is spreading, and consumers are flooding the market. This means that they will likely peruse your goods as well as your competitor’s. That’s why it’s a great time to enhance the parts of your brand that make you stand apart.
Celebrate your company’s culture so that customers identify with your product. Start by enhancing your online store with your branded message. Train new and old employees with your mission statement and core values in mind. Maintain continuity between your staff, store, and website with a call-to-action message.
Website
One of your most important tasks should be the management of your website’s API functions. This allows customers to access your webpage and make purchases. API functions are the basic codes for your website that let it run smoothly and properly. Managing these codes is essential to the prosperity of your online business. Check that your FAQs, email chatbots, and support chatbots are working properly on your website as well. Without these important website design functions, your consumers may be left confused and unable to purchase.
Channel Strategy
Planning early also means looking at your channel strategy. Your channel strategy includes everything from purchasing the materials needed to create your products to getting your products to the consumer. If you don’t adjust your purchasing strategy for the busy season, you’ll miss out on a lot of profit.
Marketing Campaign Tips
Now that we’ve talked about preparing your business for an excess number of consumers, let’s talk marketing. Here is a detailed list of top holiday marketing campaign ideas that will guarantee your business’s success this year:
Implement A Content-Driven Approach
Building a proper brand is key to your marketing efforts. To make your brand stand out you will need the right content strategy. Content marketing is the process of creating relevant and effective imagery, blogs, and other forms of content to develop your company’s voice.
Start by using innovative content that conveys your message. Then, deck out your online store with festive landing pages to draw your holiday-crazed consumers’ attention. Offer seasonally themed information to pique your consumer’s interest and help them in the buying process.
Incorporating a content marketing strategy for your holiday campaign will help you reach a new client base. It also affords your business the chance to deliver a more personalized shopping experience. Give your content extra oomph by adding in value. Create a holiday gift guide or personal shopping assistance for your unique customer personas.
Use Digital Ads
Digital ads are among the most important form of advertising these days. Research shows that on average, people spend almost seven hours online a day. Don’t miss out on targeting your consumers where they spend most of their time.
Design personalized ads that will grab attention and draw people to your website. Create online commercials, targeted imagery, and banner ads to appear on the websites your consumers frequent most.
Design Email Marketing Campaigns
A proven method to attract potential buyers to your website is through email marketing. This type of marketing opens the door for communication. You can easily inform customers about your brand, sales, and inventory. It’s a great way to show people why they should shop with you.
Develop a well-built message that outlines what makes your range of services and products stand out from the rest.
Include a holiday theme in your emails. Choose colorful designs and striking pictures that scream holiday cheer. Predominately mention discounts and free shipping; everyone loves something for free.
Leverage Your Social Media Marketing
A 2016 study reported a 30 percent increase in the number of messages sent through social media to retailers during the holiday seasons. In 2019, this traffic has increased substantially. Social media makes it easy for customers to communicate about the products and services they want.
With that in mind, use social media to connect with your consumer base. Here are some suggestions for leveraging your social media this holiday season:
Content Calendar
Develop a content calendar. Outline what holidays your business wants to be a part of and what your goals are. This will help you to develop a message that is enticing for your audience. Note: the four biggest days for shopping include Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday.
Listen to Your Customers
Pay attention to what your consumers really want. If you’re getting more likes on certain products, comments asking for something to be changed, or messages asking about specific deals, take notice. Use insights that are coming directly from your consumers to create content or develop new holiday promos.
Be A Resource
Don’t forget that you are a resource. Your consumers are in the middle of a stressful purchasing period, so don’t add to that stress. While social media is great for promos and sales, you don’t want to bombard people with sales pitches.
Choose to be a resource by offering tips and suggestions. If you come off as more personal for your consumers, they’ll remember it when they’re finally ready to purchase products.
Evans Alliance is a marketing agency that creates amazing, year-round marketing plans for businesses in any market. If you aren’t prepared for the holiday season rush and need an extra boost to your online presence, contact us. We work together with our clients to create personalized marketing plans that cater to your audience.
