Holiday Digital Marketing Survival Guide: 6 Smart Tips for the Season

Holiday traditions tend to stay the same every year, while holiday marketing is an entirely different story.  Shopping for the holidays is about to go full-throttle in the next week, with the National Retail Federation is reporting sales in November and December to grow by $82 billion, a 13-15% increase from 2012.  And nearly half of consumers will be taking digital avenues to the path of holiday purchase, according to a Google consumer report.  With that in mind, it’s time to prepare your digital marketing efforts to gather and maintain the most customer engagement through the chaotic hustle and bustle of this upcoming season.  Believe it or not, there’s still time! And we’ll show you with this handy holiday survival guide:

Extend Black Friday

Let’s start with Black Friday since it’s coming up next week. The big day when shoppers will be on-the-go with mobile devices in hand.

Many other companies will be pushing maximum efforts to stay relevant and capture customers’ attention at this time.  What might be smarter for businesses is to do is to turn the day into a week.

Treat Black Friday as a big week event or a series of smaller events:

• One idea is to create either one big Black Friday event or a series of events and share and update these events through social media, website landing page, or through a strategic email marketing campaign (for those who are anti-social media).
• Take each day of the week leading up to Black Friday to highlight a specific product category or deal offerings.  This gives customers a reason to stay engaged with your business all week and for the rest of the month.

Sweeten the Deal

We’re not saying to give everything away for free in the spirit of holiday giving, but a few deals that run for more than a day that offer just a bit more incentive than the competition could give you an extra boost in customer engagement.  This could be free shipping, free consultations, free opportunities to win big prizes and rewards.

• Customers will be looking for that magical four-letter word throughout the month of December.  The more you can afford to ‘add-on’ to a current deal, the more they’ll be likely to buy.
• Be sure to update these deal add-ons through social media and mobile advertising. Local advertising campaigns can be set in place, effective immediately to bring customers in locally and based on specific profile and behavioral demographics.
• Don’t be shy with sending emails. Econsultancy gathered email insights from marketing experts who recommended that more emails should be send these next few weeks than any other time in the year (just be sure to segment, which we’ll cover later in this post).

Create Shareable Product Wish Lists

Wish lists or gift suggestion lists are the biggest way to promote products and services while offering helpful information that engages users.

• This can be done by creating boards in Pinterest, sharing tips in a blog post, or creating a visually-appealing album to share on Facebook.
• Word-of-mouth marketing will increase exponentially this year with users tweeting about purchases.  Last year, 80% of those who interacted with a brand’s social channels ended up buying from that brand (Fast Company).

Host Special Events

Part of this holiday season is creating the best deals and promotions to get the customer in the door, but efforts don’t have to stop there.  Hosting special events make a grand impression with customers and keep your brand top-of-mind.  Try planning small, local events that interest your target audience and community.  Even better, create a charity campaign that does some good for others while reaching out to customers.

• Clothing or retail store? Offer an exclusive VIP preview party before opening hours.
• Corporate? Host a casual costume-themed dance party where proceeds go to a specific charity or non-profit organization.
• What excites shoppers the most is getting the best deal or opportunity to access brands beyond regular business hours and to feel important to those businesses.
• Be sure to record snippets of events to create shareable videos that you can send out via email, embed on your website, or share through social media.

Segment Customer Email Lists

Customers will be expecting a plethora of emails in the next few weeks.  What will make customers open emails is if they feel they’ll be getting the best, exclusive deal.  When collecting email addresses, either though pen-and-paper or via QR codes that take users to a Hubspot landing page, be sure to collect holiday customers into a separate list.

• Sending out campaigns with exclusive deals or discounts to this list of holiday customers can be a way for customers to keep coming back and shopping with you this season.  This lets the customers know that they are appreciated for their business and helps them become huge advocates for your brand.
• Have a watch and see attitude: take a look at email analytics and pay attention to those customers who are opening emails, but not clicking or converting into customers.

Give a Post-Holiday “Thank You”

Finally, to stay afloat from all the holiday gift-giving and marketing overload, send an entirely non-promotional email thanking the customer for shopping or doing business with you.

• Make a bigger impression by embedding a custom company holiday video thanking them for a great and memorable year.
• Additionally, this can be the ideal time to receive feedback about products and services when customers have more time off and are willing to share their recent experiences.

By taking a few ideas from these effective, strategic techniques, you could be on your way to maximizing profits, gaining new consumer insight, growing customer engagement, and making sparks in your marketing efforts now and for the upcoming year. 

Need some help with your overall digital marketing strategy this holiday season? Sign up for a free, 32-page, extensive marketing analysis. You’ll receive insight on your current web presence as well as a few tips and recommendations from us. 

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