It’s no secret that consumers spend more during the holiday season.
Brands and companies hurry to catch the wave of the festive season as shoppers are on the lookout for new deals and new product launches. Shoppers save up for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and as years come to an end, so does the Holiday Shopping Season. Right after Thanksgiving, stores start to display their holiday promotions. Every year, consumers believe that big stores bring out their holiday displays weeks ahead to entice and attract customers to shop ahead of the holidays.
We know that the competition has increased tremendously over the past couple of years when it comes to selling your products online and in-store shopping. So how do big and small retailers figure out marketing strategies that help their products stand out and sell more during the holiday season? For marketers, remember it is never too late to leverage the holiday fever.
What Is Holiday Marketing?
Holiday marketing is the process by which various marketing channels increase to grab the consumer’s attention with promotional offers to boost revenue during the holiday season.
In this article we look at 5 Marketing Strategies to Stand Out this Holiday Season:
- Launch Shopping Campaigns Early
- Invest in Paid Social
- Plan Your Promotions and Sales
- Offer holiday incentives shoppers care about
- Do Your Keyword Research
1. Launch Shopping Campaigns Early
Launch your products early! By now, you and your team should start strategizing how to market your products before the holiday shopping season rolls around and aim as early as August or September. Many shoppers plan their holiday shopping one or two months ahead. It’s important to plan Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in advance to ensure that you are giving your campaigns ample time to get traction. Consumers expect significant discounts on this day so thinking strategically about the inventory you want to promote is crucial. What are your best sellers? What are ways to create bundles that are cost-effective & offer a discount to the consumer?
There are too many businesses that procrastinate when developing their holiday marketing strategy and wonder when their profit margins didn’t increase during the holiday shopping season—plan to launch ahead.
2. Invest in Paid Social
Start to advertise on paid social media, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc. The time you start your shopping campaigns and holiday is the ideal time to start to invest in social media advertising because people will do anything to avoid the holiday rush. It provides you with the perfect opportunity to offer some well-timed relief on holiday shopping woes.
Here are some paid social tips:
- Know your audience and customize your audiences based on demographic data like interests, preferences, and behavioral identifiers.
- Use best practices for ad design. Videos and GIFs generally get more engagement than static images. Products in action are also great for the consumer. This way they can visualize themselves with the product in their own lives.
3. Plan Your Promotions and Sales
It is always good to come up with a product and promotion launch calendar.
Plan your holiday offers based on important shopping dates, your shipping cutoffs, and insights from your data over the past years. Also, remember to share your calendar with your shareholders and vendors outside your company for product promotions and sales and to have a smooth run during the holiday season.
June and July: Planning products and themes for your marketing holiday campaign.
August to October: Start producing holidays assets like videos, and digital images, and other assets.
November and December: The kick-off should start in November for your Christmas marketing.
January: Relax, take a breath, reflect on the campaign to prepare for the following year.
4. Offer holiday incentives
Who doesn’t like incentives on goods we like and want?
When creating promotions around marketing, it is important to feature what customers care, like, and need. Lowering the price of products is the number one incentive that all shoppers are looking for during the holiday season. Statistics show that consumers tend to spend more when they feel like they are getting a good deal and will spend less on products and services.
Here are some ideas for holiday promotions:
- Run a holiday sale marathon.
- Gift wrap event.
- Personalized Cards.
- Gift Discounts
- Discounts on Suggested products.
- Holiday Bundles
- Free Shipping
5. Do Your Keyword Research
As a rule of thumb, keywords play an important role in your sales increase and help consumers search for your products. Change the keywords to reflect each holiday marketing season. Many companies fail in this one area.
Bonus Tip: eCommerce Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing is a strategy used to pull prospective customers to a product through a balance of content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and branding. It is perfect for eCommerce because it builds the right marketing strategies to make your brand visible to the masses, drives traffic to your brand, and converts into sales which is your brand’s objectives and goal. Some of the benefits of eCommerce Inbound marketing are listed below.
- Improves Brand Awareness
- Generates traffic, leads, and sales
- Increases Conversion Rates
- Improves search engine visibility
- Improves engagement rates with present and New Customers
- Helps you build a deeper relationship with your audience
- Enables you to educate your audience
Final Thoughts
The holiday season is an opportunity to gain loyal customers and increase your sales. Creating cool themes to reflect the holiday shopping season on your website is an intriguing way to get your customers excited and into the holiday spirit. Start optimizing your website and improve your site navigation. It will help your visitors find holiday-specific products and gifts easily, find the products they are looking for, and convert your shoppers to customers.,
Here at Kingdom Branding, we are passionate about designing with intention and providing marketing strategies to take your brand to the next level. If you want to learn more, visit our website and book a discovery session with us at this link.
