One of the things that every retailer knows is that sales-wise, the holiday season is the absolute pinnacle of the year. The Christmas euphoria, the Black Friday budget and all the free time that people often have on their hands make them particularly susceptible to your increased marketing activities. Here, however, lies the catch – you won’t be the only one approaching them. All your competitors will be on par with this idea, which leaves you and your business in a tight spot. In order to triumph against such odds, you need to ensure your Christmas marketing strategy is fully prepared and here are a couple of tips that might come in handy.
1. Speaking numbers
In the introduction, we mentioned that the during Christmas, people are more likely to spend or at least to spend vast amounts of money, so how much exactly are we talking here? Well, according to a holiday survey, in the U.S. alone, total holiday sales in 2016 went as high as $1 trillion. Now, while it may be true that a lot of people make up their minds on what to buy long before the holiday season, as much as 13 percent of shoppers are considered to be last-minute decision makers. This means that there is still enough time for you to reach out to them.
Although a lot of people believe that this is something related to the Christmas decoration of shops and malls, the truth is that the world of e-commerce isn’t spared from this phenomenon either. You see, a vast number of the Americans also shop online during the holiday season. In fact, as much as 76 percent of them made a purchase using their smartphone, which is something we will revisit later on. As you can see, holidays are the perfect time for you to go for record sales.
2. Focus on email marketing
While holiday season may be a great time to reach out to new customers, it is much more effective to retarget your regulars instead. As little as 8 percent of your regular customers make up about 40 percent of your profit and a person who has already bought something from you already has a likelihood of 27 percent of coming back. Now, as it happens, email marketing is one of the best methods of re-engaging your qualified leads. However, you need to work on it a bit in order to make it up to the occasion.
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For instance, your email should have a direct add-to-cart button, which can make the transaction a lot easier. Furthermore, it helps turn the phenomenon of impulse buying strongly in your favor. Needless to say, Christmas euphoria and impulse buying make for a truly powerful combo. Apart from this, you might also want to follow up with a coupon or even offer a seasonal sale with special conveniences available only to regulars.
3. Create a holiday design
The reason why it is so easy to understand these increased sales during the Christmas season is since this period has its own completely unique and easily distinguishable decoration elements. Christmas tree, carols, gifts, ornaments, reindeers and Christmas sock are just some of them. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize just how easy it would be to make any or all of these elements fit your website, blog and e-store. Furthermore, in these strategic locations, they might have the same effect on your customers’ willingness to spend as they do in an actual store.
On the other hand, just piling up these elements one on top of the other is not the same thing as creating a holiday web design. For this, you need to contact an expert, like people behind Bapple and at least ask for a quote. You see, a beautiful, immersive and efficient web design can be made even with a minimalist approach, that is far more suitable for a startup or SMB. Nonetheless, pulling this off takes skill, talent and experience.
4. Think about mobile users
In the first section, we talked about a staggering number of 76 percent of mobile users who make a purchase during holidays. This, combined with the fact that mobile users are currently the majority of all online users means that you need to pay a special attention to your mobile marketing. Here, there are a lot of issues that need some improvement, however, the compatibility across different devices is the key. Different smartphones have different screen sizes, not to mention that tablets (although less numerous), still have a significant conversion rate.
In conclusion
Even though preparing your marketing efforts for Christmas is a hard work, it gives best results when prepared ahead of time. Sure, if you failed to act all up until now, there might still be time to get ready. Nonetheless, as soon as this holiday season is over, you would be wise to start preparing for the next one. In this way, you will be able to get the most out your every fiscal year.
