Back in the day, people would simply visit a local shopping mall to browse storefronts in person, looking for the best deals available while they last. But in today’s age of mobile technology, social media, and online shopping, digital marketing has rapidly become the primary mode of engagement to spread the word about seasonal offerings.
This means that in order for emerging brands to remain competitive during the hectic holidays, it’s critical to develop a digital marketing strategy that stands apart from other brands.
Using these digital marketing tips for the holidays can help you compete in the online market this year.
Tips for keeping your small business marketing organized during the holiday season
With so much going on over the holidays, creating an effective marketing campaign is sometimes easier said than done.
Luckily, it’s fairly easy to put your digital marketing efforts into perspective by following a few simple pointers. Here are several tips that can help you organize your small business marketing strategy before the holiday madness begins.
Get a head start
Don’t wait until the last minute. Avoid holiday marketing stress by having everything prepared long before the season approaches.
Start planning and preparing your digital marketing between August and September when sales are slow so that everything will be ready to go long before the season kicks in.
This allows you to focus on getting your business prepared for the upcoming influx of customer traffic.
Set specific goals
Before crafting seasonal marketing content, take some time to clearly define your objectives.
These goals may include acquiring a certain number of email subscribers, attracting new followers on social media, or beating last year’s holiday sales numbers by a certain margin.
The more specific you are about your expectations, the more effective and engaging your digital marketing strategy will become.
If you’re uncertain about which goals to prioritize, dig into the details of where your business could use improvement and create a marketing campaign that addresses that weakness. For example, if your social media following has started to stagnate or decline, consider focusing on social media marketing ideas that will draw traffic to one or more engagement channels.
Create a marketing calendar
A great way to organize your digital marketing ahead of the holidays is to create a comprehensive itinerary ahead of time.
By creating an online marketing calendar, you can easily review all the holidays most relevant to your business over the months ahead and make the necessary preparations so that you’re not doing everything last minute.
Draft and schedule your email marketing and social posts in advance
One of the most helpful time-saving digital marketing tips for the holidays is to create content when business is slow so that it’s ready to roll out before the busy season starts.
After drafting your social media posts, marketing emails, or blogs, you can schedule your content to publish automatically when and where you want.
Tips for great social media engagement this holiday season
Using social media has become a fundamental part of any successful digital marketing strategy.
Boost your company’s visibility this holiday season by posting content on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Here are a few digital marketing tips for the holidays that can help you get more followers, mentions, and shares across your social media engagement channels.
Host a social media contest
Organizing a contest for your social media followers is an effective way to get people talking and actively involved in supporting your brand.
Aside from the free word-of-mouth advertising your business will receive, holding a social media contest can also help to generate new followers as people comment on your thread or share the contest details with others.
To further increase engagement, consider offering attractive rewards or discounts that would not otherwise be available. You can also host a giveaway or sweepstakes for followers to enter simply by sharing your post.
Use paid ads to promote a product or event
Deploy paid ads across your social media channels to draw attention to an upcoming holiday event, discounted offering, or a specific product.
Paid ads, also called sponsored ads, will show up in the feeds of social media users who have encountered content similar to yours in the past. This makes it far more likely for posts to produce conversions.
It’s also possible to customize the reach of your paid social media before you publish by adjusting details like the age, education, location, or general interests of your target audience.
Post memorable content that’s easily shared by others
To encourage followers to share your content with others, try to create posts that are short, sweet, and immediately appealing to your target audience.
Ideally, the thumbnail image or video in your holiday ad should be attention-grabbing but not overly complex or specific. Consider offering a popular product at a significant discount for a limited time or use a humorous graphic to increase the chances of your ad being shared.
Tips for increasing sales during the holiday season
The most effective digital marketing campaigns will not only help your brand garner recognition but can also result in higher sales revenue, especially during the frantic shopping holidays.
Knowing how to craft marketing materials that compels leads to take action is the critical first step. Here are several additional digital marketing tips for the holidays that can help you increase your sales volume.
Create product bundles
People like saving money, and if you can offer multiple products together in a bundled discount, you’ll be more likely to see higher sales this holiday season. In addition, since a bundled deal will often cost more than a single product, the total at the checkout screen will be higher per individual customer.
Try bundling items that are often purchased together anyway. For example, if you’re running an ecommerce store that specializes in mobile devices and accessories, consider bundling a pair of earbuds with an MP3 player at a 10% or 15% discount.
Focus on targeted campaigns
You can improve the success of your digital marketing campaigns by identifying and connecting with your target audience.
Create content that appeals to people based on specific demographics by evaluating analytics data available on various engagement platforms. Consider the products or services you’re offering and what types of customers have converted from an email, landing page, or paid ad in the past.
If you’re selling toys and clothes for toddlers, gearing your marketing toward 20-year-old gamers probably won’t result in higher sales. In this case, it may be better to restrict the reach of your ads to older individuals whose previous online behaviors reflect an interest in similar types of products for children.
Try a new platform to increase awareness
While digital marketing may appear to be dominated by just a handful of platforms, there are actually dozens of social networks, review websites, and online forums where you can spread awareness about your brand.
The platform Quora, for example, has emerged as an excellent source of valuable information for customers seeking information on businesses. And answering a few simple industry-related questions on the platform may help establish your brand as a trusted authority.
Claiming your business listing on sites like Yelp and Foursquare can further increase brand awareness, and help you to manage customer relationships by providing an opportunity to address questions, concerns, or customer complaints.
Partner with a local charity and create cause-related promotions
Showing your support for the community by sponsoring a local charity event can help your business build the reputation needed to attract new customers.
Customers today are becoming more thoughtful about the businesses they support, and by partnering with a non-profit or charity organization, you’re signaling to others that you’re committed to objectives beyond simply increasing profits.
Offer exclusive discounts and promotions for loyal customers
Another way to boost sales this holiday season is by providing unique discounts available only to select customers.
Promote a limited-time coupon for individuals who sign up for email newsletters or design a point system that rewards double cash back for holiday purchases. Creating a customer loyalty program will incentivize people to buy your products, especially if they can unlock special prizes or marked-down prices on popular items.
Tips for a successful holiday marketing season
By following the digital marketing tips for the holidays provided above, you’ll have a much easier time attracting and retaining the long-term customers your business needs to grow.
However, there are a few more things to keep in mind that may help your content stand out from the crowd. Take a few moments to explore a few extra pointers for creating a successful holiday marketing campaign.
Use cross-channel marketing
In today’s age of mobile technology, using only one channel to promote your brand could be stifling your engagement efforts. Instead, build a digital marketing strategy that covers all the bases, including email, social media, SMS, and more.
With cross-channel marketing, you’re essentially maximizing the reach of your ads and promotions to appeal to the widest audience possible. Later on, you can review the performance analytics of your content on each channel to reveal which approaches are most effective at garnering leads and what could be improved.
Make it memorable
Create marketing campaigns that appeal to people on a more personal level by touching upon the values shared between you and your customers.
The most memorable marketing campaigns should create meaningful human connections that go beyond discounts, limited-time offers, and promotions.
When you can, look for opportunities to deliver a broader message in your holiday marketing that speaks to the overarching vision of your business and how your customers contribute to these objectives.
Holiday marketing campaigns can increase conversions and overall business growth
By keeping in mind these digital marketing tips for the holidays, you’ll have a much easier time creating engaging campaigns that increase conversion rates and ultimately help your business grow.
Start by defining your target audience so you can create marketing content that is both relevant and appealing to your customers. Once you’ve narrowed down a buyer persona, all the other pieces of your holiday marketing strategy will begin to fall into place.
The post Digital Marketing Tips for the Holidays appeared first on Constant Contact.
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