For small businesses, the holidays have already arrived. Elevated holiday spending is the perfect opportunity to attract new customers, increase overall sales, and even make up for any dips in revenue your business may have experienced earlier in the year.
That said, it’s also the season when customers receive ramped-up messaging from businesses all over. It’s vital to create a smart holiday marketing strategy designed to cut through the noise and attract as many customers as possible. Here are some online marketing strategies to implement this season.
Leverage Historical Data
Everyone knows businesses run on data. Historical data is key to learning from previous failures and successes. So, go back one year in time:
- Who were your top competitors?
- What were your top-selling products?
- Which campaigns brought in more customers?
- Which social media marketing channels were the most effective at conversions?
- What were your top converting keywords?
Use this data to optimize your marketing campaigns. Keep in mind that a lot could have changed since then, including website traffic size, products, competitors, and even your target market.
Show Gratitude to Shoppers
The holiday season is also about gratitude and giving back – two elements that are crucial to keeping long-term customers happy and loyal. An excellent holiday marketing strategy should show your customers how valuable they are to your business. For instance, you could:
- Reward returning customers with promotional discounts
- Send out a thank you email after each purchase
- Include a thank you card with each purchase
- Offer free gift wrapping
- Include a gift with large purchases
Such simple acts of gratitude will endear you to your customers, making them more likely to recommend your business to others.
Brand Your Business, Products, and Promotions for the Holidays
In other words, prep every aspect of your brand for the holidays. The right branding can help enhance your business’s credibility with new customers while increasing holiday sales. Make your website more festive. The holiday season is all about love, cheer, and joy. As such, branding yourself accordingly could help people associate these characteristics with your brand.
What’s more, you can offer holiday products and collections. For instance, you could bundle existing products into ready-made gift packs. Provide holiday offers and add holiday-focused category pages, such as:
- Gifts for Him
- Gifts for women
- Gifts for dad
And so on… the idea here is to make it easier for your customers to find what they’re looking for.
Enhance Customer Experience
Make it easy for customers to shop with you. That means making your website appealing and easily navigable both on mobile and desktop. It also requires you to enhance your customer service experiences. Incorporating live chat into your website and responding to messages on social media is one of the best ways to help your customers out and increase sales.
Providing transparent and fair return policies is yet another way to improve customer experiences. Make it easy (within reason) for customers to return products they’re not happy with, as they are more likely to purchase from you again.
More importantly, inform your customers about any offers, holiday sales, and discounts well ahead of time but be careful not to overdo it. You want to entice your customers the first time around.
Bonus Tip: Start Your Marketing Campaign Early
It’s never too early for holiday shopping. Even though a lot of customers are prone to last-minute gift shopping, people are getting savvier about online shopping. They know about early bird discounts and offers. Capture this audience by sending out holiday promotional material and seasonal offers ahead of time.