Just when you thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse, a survey has revealed that 50% of holiday shoppers have admitted to losing interest in this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales due to the deals that they’ve been offered over the last six months.
That’s bad news for small businesses that can experience more than a 107% revenue boost over the holiday season. This year, you have to offer your customers deals and make your offers lucrative enough for them to be interested in what you’re saying.
But it’s not all black and white considering 38% of consumers have said that they will make a conscious choice to shop at smaller retailers throughout the holiday season to help cover their losses.
So, if you’re an online store, there’s hope as 65% and 64% of shoppers have decided to buy products online instead of in-store to avoid crowds and to shop from the comfort of their homes, respectively.
More specifically, beverage, food, and clothing brands are in for a treat because consumers, who will be shopping from home, will be inclining toward them more than anything else.
Since “Holiday Season 2020” is nothing like the ones we’ve experienced before, it can be tricky to make marketing decisions during such an important time of the year. So, here’s a comprehensive list of all the holiday digital marketing tips you need to equip yourself for the final event.
Optimize your site for smartphone users
Getting the obvious ones out of the way first, you must focus on making your website mobile-friendly this year. If you haven’t already done it, you’re missing out on 42% of the total business from online shoppers.
Source:
Smartphone use in up by 55% in 2020, and if your site doesn’t load in less than 3 seconds on your prospectives’ screens, you’ll experience high bounce and customer turnover rates, which isn’t ideal in today’s economy.
Make your URL search-friendly
Google recently released a guide on best practices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. One of the pieces of advice that stuck out for SEO experts is how businesses should optimize URLs for the holiday season the right way.
The article advises against using the year in the URL. So, instead of writing /sale/2020/black-friday, consider writing /sale/black-friday. This will help you build link equity.
Link equity or link juice refers to URLs’ being one of the most crucial determinants of your website’s value. They help pass authority to the page they’re associated with. Simply put, the longer you keep using the same link, the higher the authority of the page (in terms of SEO).
Using a permalink will also make it easier for you to get found on Google year after year, which will allow you to make more sales.
Raise your email marketing game
Whoever said email marketing belongs to B2B couldn’t be more wrong because 59% of people admitted to emails being a significant influence on their buying decisions.
Email marketing should be a big part of your digital marketing strategy for the holiday season as it’s the best tool for using all that data you collect through your website.
Source: SaleCycle
Stats have revealed that more than 40% of Americans subscribe to email lists to receive savings and discounts and 1 in every three subscribers reported having purchased something from the brand whose emails they receive.
If that’s not all, in 2019, 39% of consumers turned to emails from brands to receive information on deals and promotions before they could purchase from them. So, you should definitely be where your audience is.
Narrow down your target audience
It’s incredible what the entire digital space can do for marketing and sales. Today, you can combine all the data from every platform in the world to create a foolproof marketing strategy for your business.
For Black Friday 2020, 52% of Georgia, 51% of Wisconsin, 50% of Illinois, 48% of Virginia, and 47% of New York will be the top spenders in the U.S.
So, instead of spraying and praying, you can specifically target these states for now you know where the highest spending potential is.
Use keywords that your customers are using to look for you
People probably love free shipping more than free gifts. And if you can combine the words fast delivery with free shipping, nothing can stop you from making more sales.
This holiday season, customers expect free or fast shipping, and 64% of them are refusing to pay extra for quick deliveries. And while we can all blame Amazon for spoiling people, we have to play the hand we’re dealt.
Source: Sellbrite
So, if you’re offering free shipping, make sure to highlight the words in your search ads. Optimize your title and meta description with related keywords to increase your click-through-rate.
Target and retarget your ads correctly
Speaking of ads, many businesses often fail at focused advertising. Because not only are they not reaching out to the right kind of people but also that they’re targeting the same people too often.
And that’s enough to creep people out and make them lose interest in your brand because you’re too intrusive.
Since 96% of people leave your website without buying anything, learning the art of retargeting ads is the need of the hour.
Start by taking care of two things; putting a cap on the ad impressions when you’re retargeting your ads and sending the customer a cart abandonment reminder within an hour of leaving to recapture their interest in the product. This will allow you to avoid missing out on easy closes.
Consider partnering up with money-saving apps
Money-saving apps are the new buzz in the market. They’ve been around for some time but have only begun to gain popularity in the past couple of years.
Usually, these apps can be installed as a Chrome extension and be used during checkouts. One fine example of an excellent money-saving app is Honey.
If you haven’t heard of Honey yet, then you probably don’t watch many YouTube videos because the brand has practically roped in every other YouTube influencer for affiliate marketing. As a result, Honey has a vast customer base of 17 million active users.
Automatically finds and applies valid codes during checkouts, customers find shopping using Honey to be more convenient. So, if you can partner with a money-saving app like this, which already has a vast customer network, you can easily take the guesswork out of your marketing and enjoy better sales figures.
Offer free rewards for recurring purchases
Nowadays, every business is trying to build an ecosystem to keep customers coming back. A good loyalty program for automating future purchases is quite feasible for retaining customers.
So, instead of offering 10% off sitewide upfront, make it a little more interactive. Ask your customers to share feedback on their purchases in exchange for 10% off their next bill.
Source: Milled
For new users, setting up a ‘spin to win’ pop up also works wonders and reduces the bounce rate because the rewards won from the spinning wheel encourage them to check out the site if nothing else.
Remember that getting people to look at your products is as important as closing is. So, if you’re not selling anything, at least make ’em take a look. Because even if you generate a 5% increase in retention through your popups, you can increase your profits by 25%.
Answer FAQs for every product
A 2019 survey by BlackFriday.com revealed that Amazon’s ad was the most-anticipated Black Friday ad in that year — even though it didn’t release an official Black Friday ad, just a list of deals.
There are countless reasons people choose Amazon, but one of the major ones is that Amazon offers a small space for discussions, increasing trust among buyers.
If you don’t have infinite resources like Amazon, this minor addition can help build a community. Moreover, it can also help you increase your domain authority because you’re allowing potential buyers to use your platform to ask questions and get answers.
And why stop there? You can combine the aforementioned loyalty program with the FAQs section and ask customers to answer questions from the FAQs to receive more points/rewards, which they can redeem with their purchases.
See how everything just connects when you’re on the right track?
Seize the opportunity for as long as you can
The final quarter of the year is definitely the most stressful time for the marketing and sales teams. But it also brings in a ton of revenue, so who’s complaining?
Even with the COVID-19 relentlessly breathing down our necks, the purchasing pattern of consumers during the holiday season in 2020 is going to be quite similar to that of every other year, with at least 82% of consumers planning to finish purchasing holiday gifts after Black Friday and 6% reporting they won’t be done shopping until after Christmas.
So, there’s plenty of time to earn. Here’s what we recommend; as soon as you’re done with Black Friday, start making arrangements for Christmas SEO, followed by that for New Year’s. This will allow you to remain relevant throughout the last quarter and rank higher in search results for your desired keywords.
Final thoughts
Although there’s quite a lot of time for businesses to cover up their losses throughout the year, there isn’t enough time to plan and execute effective marketing strategies.
We’re halfway into November, and it’s time to buckle up. So, if you can’t get your head around the holiday season of 2020, allow an agency with 20 plus years of experience in digital marketing to take things off of your plate.
Ring us up and get a custom marketing solution delivered wherever you are. The best part? You won’t have to pay for shipping.
The post Holiday Digital Marketing Tips for 2020: Get Your Business Ready for Black Friday, Christmas & New Years appeared first on Bash Foo Digital Marketing.
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