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The holiday season is around the corner. Deloitte’s retail and consumer products practice projects that holiday sales will increase by 4-6% this year, totaling $1.45 to $1.47 trillion between November and January.
That’s great news for retailers. But you must engage your customers in the right place and at the right time to take advantage of this trend. Since only 4% of U.S. holiday shoppers did not use digital channels last year, retailers must up their digital marketing game.
Digital Marketing Ideas For the Holidays
From email and social media to website content, here are some promotion ideas to help you reach more shoppers this holiday season:
Holiday Gift Guide
Publish a gift guide on your website to highlight your best products and offer gift ideas at different price points. You can add filtering, search, and interactive features to help shoppers find the right items. Use blog posts and videos to drive traffic to the gift guide and boost your SEO. And don’t forget to promote to your email lists and social media following!
“Use blog posts and videos to drive traffic to the gift guide and boost your SEO… and don’t forget to promote to your email lists and social media following!”
Early Bird Discount
50% of shoppers say they’ll start shopping earlier this year. Capture these sales by offering your email subscribers and loyal customers an early bird discount. You can build momentum for the holiday season and gain consumer insights, which can help guide your subsequent promotions by featuring the most-wanted products with the right messaging.
Bonus Gift and Free Shipping
Who doesn’t like perks? Encourage customers to spend more by promoting a holiday-theme bonus (e.g., gift cards) or free shipping for purchases over a specific amount. You can add dynamic messaging on the website header or shopping cart to show how much more shoppers have to spend to get the bonus gift or free shipping.
Social Media Contest
Launch a fun, holiday-theme photo contest on a topic relevant to your brand by asking your email subscribers and social media followers to submit pictures and tag you on their posts. The user-generated content (UGC) helps you increase engagement while getting your brand in front of your audience’s friends and followers.
Top Tips For Successful Holiday Promotions
You must support good marketing ideas with effective strategies and tactics. Here’s how:
Create a Holiday Promotion Plan
Start planning your holiday promotions sooner rather than later. Since many consumers intend to shop early this year, you should get ahead by establishing a timeline and budget to ensure that you have all the pieces lined up for your campaigns.
Understand Your Audience
Research to see what your customers are talking about this holiday season so you can highlight the most relevant products and position them strategically. The insights also allow you to order and organize your inventory ahead of time to avoid last-minute scrambles.
Send Targeted Promotions
Make sure your promotions are relevant to the audience. For example, use location-specific hashtags to promote an in-store discount on social media. You can also segment your email list and send personalized product recommendations and offers to drive sales.
“Consumers don’t interact with brands on a single channel…connect with your audience via multiple touchpoints”
Craft Timely Messaging
Map out your communication strategy for the entire holiday season to orchestrate your email newsletters, social media posts, and in-store promotions. Besides Black Friday and Cyber Monday, consider how you’d keep the holiday spirit alive throughout the holidays.
Streamline the Buying Journey
Make it easy for customers to find the products they want and take advantage of your offers. For example, if you promote a discount for a product in an email, you should link customers to the specific product page and apply the discount automatically at checkout.
Win With an Omnichannel Digital Marketing Strategy
Today’s consumers don’t interact with brands on a single channel. You must connect with your audience via multiple touchpoints to get in front of the right people and at the right time.
Our integrated digital marketing solutions helps you cover all the bases and ensure that your marketing channels work together seamlessly to engage your audience and drive sales.
Learn more and get in touch to see how we can help.
The news and editorial staff of the Bay Area News Group had no role in this post’s preparation.
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