The holidays are here and it is the most exciting time for both, consumers and marketers. As soon as the (holiday) bell rings, companies start bombarding customers with holiday marketing campaigns. You can see promotions in every form – social media posts, holiday emails, posters, banners and many more! However, some brands do this better than others. Why? Companies that are successful create campaigns that are in sync with customers’ preferences.
Take the example of REI that made waves with its #OptOutside campaign. The brand closed down all retail locations, headquarters, and distribution centers on Black Friday to allow employees to take a break and do what they love the most – be outside. REI invited its community to join their employees and the brand is now back with its campaign in full swing. REI has managed to attract some big names such as National Parks Foundation, which joined the #OptOutside campaign as well.
REI also encouraged brands to add the charity element to the campaign. For example, Outdoor Research will donate $10 to Paradox Sports for every Instagram post containing both, #OutdoorResearch and #OptOutside hashtags.
The campaign was able to strike the right chord and engage people in the desired manner. Therefore, if you want to stay ahead of the curve and make the most of the holiday season, let go of the same old ropes and try something new and innovative.
Here are a few tips that will help you offer a one-of-a-kind experience to your customers and attract attention instantly:
Make the Most of Your Holiday Marketing Campaigns
The holiday season brings with it a lot of opportunities for marketers. They can attract more customers, drive sales and improve the overall image of the brand. However, nothing comes for free! You need to put in extra effort to make this happen. Valuable promotional deals will not be enough;you will need to do a lot more.
In fact, online holiday shopping is expected to increase by 19 percent in 2016 compared to that in 2015. The National Retail Foundation survey reveals that more than 56 percent of holiday shoppers will purchase gifts online. Moreover, about 80 percent shoppers will research gifts online even if they purchase the items from physical stores. So, it is time for the marketers to pull up their socks and get ready.
#1 – Send Seasons Greetings to Customers via Email
Holidays are the best time to express your gratitude to people (for being with you through ups and downsthroughout the year). Your customers stuck by you, purchased your products and helped you sustain your business; so now it is your turn to show them some love.
The best way to thank your customers is by sending a personalized email. ‘Personalized’ does not mean including only the name of the customer in the email.It should be crafted in a manner that engages the customer and encourages them to stick with your brand.
Think of an impactful subject line as most emails with boring or promotional subject lines get dumped instantly. Take the example of inContact’s holiday campaign with ‘Happy Holidays from inContact!’ as the subject line. Once you click on the email, you find it’s no ordinary email. Along with the holiday greetings, there was a CTA button that prompted customers to ‘Draw a Snowman’ on the email’s sidebar.
Upon clicking the button, the customer is directed to a canvas where the snowman can be drawn.
Once the customer is done, a magical scene unfolds, which asks the customer to draw a key. The moment a customer finishes, a secret message is revealed.
This is the perfect way to cut through clutter and engage customers innovatively. You compel the customer to take a specific action by capitalizing on the holiday spirit!
#2 – Use Content Marketing to Stay Ahead of the Herd
Most businesses interpret content marketing as business blogging, but in reality, it is a lot more than that. Content does not only mean blogs.It is presented in other formatssuch as videos, images, social media and even sounds.
For example, Target’s Pinterest feeds strike the right chord and are perfectly in sync with the spirit of the holiday season:
Holidays are a time to spread happiness; so gift guides are very useful, especially the ones that talk about cheap, yet attractive gifts. Pinterest allows users to save the recommended items and purchase them when required.
Moreover, in order to help customers make better purchase decisions, businesses must rev up their website content as well. The following types of content are the most useful to customers:
- FAQ
- Gift Guides
- Tutorials
- Product Reviews
- Videos (about products/ services)
- Social engagement (to understand what people want, what they are talking about and how you would satisfy their needs)
If necessary, create a content calendar, and get the content organized and scheduled accordingly. Remember, valuable content is still the most important element of any successful marketing campaign.
#3 – Be Mobile Ready
According to NRF, 25 million holiday shoppers would use their mobile devices to purchase gifts online on Cyber Monday. Moreover, as per Statista, 20 percent of all the digital e-commerce dollars were spent via mobile devicesin the U.S.
Studies show that 80 percent consumers used a mobile device inside a physical store to look up product reviews, compare prices, or find store locations.
If you want your customers to be satisfied, provide them with a happy, helpful online experience. If your website is still not mobile-ready, not is time to get this done.
Here are a few features that customers look forward to for a seamless mobile shopping experience:
- Quick Load Time: With mobile Internet becoming faster than ever, it has become necessary that the pages of the mobile website load faster. The loading time for an average retail mobile site in the U.S was 6.9 seconds as on July 2016. But, according to recent data, 40 percent customers would leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. 79 percent customers who are dissatisfied with a specific website are less likely to buy again from the same site. Hence, optimization of the mobile site, in terms of loading time, is crucial for success, especially during the holiday season.
- Easier Payment Options: A number of customers back out of a purchase at the last moment even when Web pages load quickly. Why? The most common reason is the difficulty in making payments on mobile devices. A quick solution to this problem is offering customers reliable payment gateways such as Apple Pay, Android Pay, PayPal, and options such as credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, and so on. Moreover, make sure customers can enter information without hassles and can save it, if desired.
- Better User Experience: Customers often have problems navigating mobile websites due to smaller fonts, smaller links, cluttered navigation, etc.To solve these problems, keep the website design simple and clutter-free, make images larger (so that customers can view every detail), leave ample white space around the important links so that other links aren’t clicked accidently, and ensure thatthe text is clear enough.
Take the example of the Elf on the Shelf‘s website, which features clean Web design and allows users to swipe left and right (rather than the traditional long, text-based list that has to be scrolled up and down) to check out the type of elves available.
The uncluttered Web design allows customers to browse seamlessly and purchase the desired products without hassles. Even Huffington Post alters headlines on its mobile website to help mobile users read the content easily. Compared to the desktop website, the headlines are shorter and there is less content on the homepage.
There is a clickable menu on the top left-hand corner to help the readers browse through the various categories.
Conclusion
Holidays bring along numerous opportunities, which when leveraged in the right manner can do wonders for your brand and eCommerce business. The basic idea is to cut through clutter and offer customers seamless experiences that they remember throughout the year (if not throughout their lives). With the help of the above tips, you too can ensure the success of your holiday marketing campaigns.
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