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December 7, 2022

10 Tips To Improve Your Marketing Strategy For The Holidays

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The holidays may be a time of intense competition, but they also offer opportunities to attract new clients. The National Retail Federation reports that 2021 online sales during the holiday season generated $218.9 billion of revenue, with physical store sales hitting a record $667.8 billion.

But people aren’t just generous with their money during the holidays. They’re especially attentive to holiday-related content, such as visuals, messages, promotions, and anything else that strikes their fancy. Therefore, you have the opportunity to create a positive image of your brand, one that consumers will remember.

Because of that, holiday marketing is an ideal tool for building brand recognition. A thorough understanding of your customers, utilizing customer data effectively, and evaluating campaign performance are all crucial in building out your marketing operations.

Without effective holiday marketing campaigns, you may lose vast opportunities to increase sales, generate profits, and expand your customer base. 

But worry not, we’ve prepared ten amazing holiday-themed tips to give you an edge in your holiday marketing campaign this year.

Tips to Improve Your Holiday Marketing Strategy

1. Analyze Your Competitors’ Campaigns

It is common for businesses to conduct competitive analysis, which usually involves checking out their products and/or services and monitoring their behavior. To take your game to the next level, you need to dig deeper.

Consider conducting social media surveys, sending newsletter incentives, or sharing questionnaires that ask your customers about their past holiday campaigns. This way, you can find what they like, what annoys them, and what really gets them to make a purchase.

You could also keep an eye on your competitor’s 2022 holiday strategies by subscribing to their social channels and newsletters.

2. Giveaways, Discounts, Reward Programs – Bring Them On!

It is no secret that your consumers are smart shoppers. They understand that businesses compete for customers, and they are always searching for special offers and discounts. Prepare your strategy in advance and come up with ideas that will appeal to your customers' bargain-hunting instincts. 

Giveaways are excellent cost-effective ways to connect with your followers, gain a new audience, and promote an upcoming event. You can get even more engagement on your giveaway by asking followers to comment, share, like, etc.

It is also a good idea to bundle products for holiday sales. In spite of the fact that many consumers concentrate on buying gifts, they still find it appealing to buy something for themselves. This is why offering a free product or gift with purchase can be such an effective holiday marketing strategy in 2022. 

The reason they are so popular with customers is that they offer greater value than products sold separately. You can use this strategy to get shoppers to not only buy your product but also make more purchases from your website, resulting in a higher average order value (AOV).

Holiday promotions and discounts are excellent ways to engage customers and grow sales during the holiday season. Whenever you plan to offer discounts on your products, make sure you announce them on your social media channels to let buyers know ahead of time.

3. Maintain Consistency in Your Brand

Branding is more than just a company's name, slogan, and visual identity. A brand also represents stakeholders' physical and emotional connections with the company, as well as the customer experience in general. Simply put, a company's brand distinguishes it from its competitors and makes it unique.

The reputation you've established throughout the year likely plays a significant role in your customer’s decision about where to shop for Christmas presents or even simple gift cards. That’s why you need to ensure that your customer’s experience at this time of year matches that of their previous purchases. 

Taking the time to share not just your products, but also your brand can go a long way toward establishing a lasting impression with shoppers. Your eco-friendly products, for instance, may encourage users to choose your company over a competitor's.

4. Share The Festive Spirit With A “Thank You”

Keeping your loyal customers happy is as easy as sending a Thank You card or email before Christmas. But how, you may ask?

When shopping for gifts during the holiday season, consumers often spend a considerable amount of time contemplating what - and how - they should spend their money. As a result, even long-term customers might shop elsewhere this holiday season.

When you surprise your customers with a Thank You card, they'll feel valued and will remember you when it comes to holiday shopping, making this a great way to engage your audience and build loyalty.

Also, you can reward your loyal customers with an email campaign that offers a generous discount exclusively for them, as well as unique deals for customers who share their thoughts, images, and feedback. To get people talking before the holiday season begins, you could offer early-bird discounts on social media as well.

5. Keep Your Marketing Campaigns Short & Sweet

The rush of holiday preparations can be overwhelming. Every aspect of your campaign, including your ads and social media posts, must underscore how stressful the holiday season can be, and how your business (physical or virtual) can help ease it.

That said, it can be tempting to go big with visuals and content, especially in the name of the holiday spirit. You should, however, take it slow with your holiday campaigns, especially if this is your first holiday campaign.

One way to do this is by using direct and simple elements to clearly present your campaigns. Uncluttered messages that contain short and sweet statements will prove most effective during hectic holiday days.

Your users can also get annoyed if you send them too many campaigns. The best way to communicate with them is to find the right time and hit them with the right message. By doing this, more customers will be convinced to make a purchase, making your marketing campaigns more effective.

The same principle is true for social media. Considering that 81 percent of people have a social media profile, leveraging these platforms with simple but effective marketing strategies will allow you to reach new customers and influence existing ones.

6. Build Emotional Bonds By Tapping Into Nostalgia

As we approach the holiday season, we are surrounded by happy memories of our childhood – back when the snow piled high and Santa Claus was real. Don't let the holiday spirit pass you by. Now is the best time to build an emotional connection with your target audience. 

What if you designed your marketing campaign to appeal to your customers' holiday nostalgia? You could also put a smile on customers' faces by wishing them a “Happy Holiday” or engaging them in a heartwarming holiday marketing campaign.

Positive emotions like kinship, generosity, and gratitude are already prominent in the minds of your audience, and you can easily leverage them in your marketing campaigns. 

As you plan your holiday marketing campaign, give special attention to the emotional appeal of your promotional material. Use social media to share motivational messages, for example, or to demonstrate how your company celebrates holidays in order to create a genuine emotional response.

7. Recommend Gifts & Highlight Return Policies

When people purchase gifts for others, it can sometimes happen that they get the wrong size or end up buying something their loved ones dislike, forcing them to return it. Therefore, your return policy should be clearly, accurately, and prominently displayed on your website. By doing so, you can establish trust, show confidence in your products, and eliminate all possible risk factors.

There are many brands that are not as concerned about return policies as you, so doing this will also put you ahead of the competition.

8. Use Optimized Content To Your Advantage

The prevalence of online shopping has increased customers' familiarity with holiday campaigns more than before. In many cases, customers see the same thing over and over every year, making traditional sales and marketing tactics seem boring to them.

You can keep your customers engaged by making sure your content is relevant while also including important keywords by making sure your website content is optimized for search engines. 

Your company’s performance during the holiday rush depends largely on how you approach SEO. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will not only help your content attract your customers’ interest, but it will also boost your rankings on search engines, meaning more organic traffic to your site.

9. Give Your Social Pages & Website A Holiday Look

The holiday shopping season isn't just about gifts; people also want to feel festive. An easy and effective holiday marketing idea is making your website and social media accounts bright and colorful. Bring warmth and sparkle to your window display, lighten up your main page with Christmas banners, and decorate your landing pages with warm holiday images. 

Whether you've had a website for years or just started one this year, it's important to dress up your site for the holidays. You could also include things like:

  • Illustrations with a wintry or holiday theme
  • A variety of fun decorations, including Christmas trees, Santa Claus, snowmen, and Hanukkah candles
  • Christmas banners featuring popular holiday cheers

Of course, this doesn’t mean completely rebranding your website. You can add a festive touch to your campaigns while still staying true to your brand.

If you’re planning to invest in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, consider designing ads that incorporate holiday themes either in the copy or the actual ad. It is possible to apply this strategy to your content as well.

Don’t forget, your website shouldn’t just be visually appealing. The design of your website should be user-friendly too. Providing a positive user experience should be a top priority, as you will lose customers if your website is hard to navigate. It is only when your customers are satisfied with the functionality AND design of your website that they will be able to take action. 

10. Remember The OG Marketing Method: Email Campaigns

What makes email the best tool for holiday marketing?

Holiday shoppers have one goal—to get the best deal or find the best gift—and there is usually a plethora of those in their email inboxes.

Holiday and Christmas promotions make email marketing even more crucial for driving traffic to your e-commerce site. By using well-crafted emails, you will be able to attract different subscribers depending on the occasion, such as Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year's. 

Email is the best method for direct communication with your target audience because it can be accessed straight from your mobile device or tablet. Furthermore, email marketing is highly cost-effective. When combined with a limited-time seasonal giveaway, sales are guaranteed to increase. 

Your email marketing campaigns should help you distinguish yourself from your competition and make it clear why your customers should turn to you instead of your competitors. By providing incentives to new subscribers, brands can expand their audiences and build long-term relationships with their customers through email marketing.

Final Thoughts

As the holiday season marches on, the buyer base automatically increases, offering a great opportunity to acquire more customers. Therefore, it is also necessary to develop an innovative and efficient holiday marketing plan that can reach a wide audience. 

As a digital marketing and growth consultancy, we understand that organizing and executing your holiday marketing can be a pain. Your goal is to gain new customers and close out the year on a high note, but where should you start? Or if you’ve already started and haven’t seen much success, how can you pivot now before it’s too late? Which method will work best for you? What will appeal to holiday shoppers, especially those shopping at the last minute?

There is no such thing as a “cookie cutter” business, which is why we at JM&Co. create campaigns that are tailored to each company we work with, supplying you with exactly what your business needs during the holidays and throughout the rest of the year.

Are you ready to get started? Let’s talk!

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