7 Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales This Holiday Season
In today’s digital era, businesses have never been more able to connect with their customers – both locally and all over the world. And this holiday season, 34% of consumers say they plan to spend more than they did last year; 36% plan to spend more online, according to research by Qriously.
So what can your business do to attract these spending customers and increase sales this holiday season? The following seven strategies are the most exciting marketing campaigns that your business should embrace this year:
1. Provide an omni-channel experience
Omni-channel marketing means providing your customers with a seamless, consistent, and cohesive experience over multiple marketing channels. Consumers expect to receive a consistent experience, whether they're in a store, online, reading email, engaging with social media, or using a mobile device.
Even if you are not a big retailer that can spend big bucks on marketing, you can still focus on consistent branding and messaging to offer a great buying experience to your customers.
2. Start webrooming
Webrooming is the opposite of showrooming; in other words, customers research products online and then later purchase them at a retail store. To outrun your competition this holiday season, create an online catalog showing holiday discounts of your products and also offer bonus discount delivery.
3. Don't forget Facebook Ads
With over a billion users worldwide and hypertargeting options ranging from ethnicity to income level and specific interests, Facebook ads allow you to reach your target audience. In addition to driving sales, the ads will create awareness and educate potential buyers about your company, your story, and product offerings.
4. Leverage the power of hashtags
People like to follow trends, and everyone wants to get their hands on the products that people are talking about. Spread the word about your discounts and holiday promotions with the power of hashtags on Twitter and Instagram. Hashtags make it easier for your campaign to reach more people and to get more people talking about you.
When you use social media campaigns, however, you need to take care to manage these platforms. Your presence on social media must be constant as customers tend to engage, ask questions, and, of course, expect immediate answers.
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5. Go visual—shoot a video
People like to see things in action, to feel part of your campaign. Use Instragram, YouTube, and even Vine in your marketing campaign. Can you believe that for six seconds you can sometimes create a better advertisement than one that goes two whole minutes? Sometimes less is more.
6. Go mobile
TV advertisements still have their viewers, but your business should be targeting the people who are more likely to make a purchase. As people today are spending more and more time on their mobile devices, it is likely that digital campaigns will have more success selling products over other marketing campaigns. Even desktop apps are being overrun by mobile applications, and in order to satisfy this tech wave and to reach more customers, companies must create seasonal marketing strategies that are a step closer to the innovative minds of their customers.
Mobile marketing is becoming more and more popular -- and it really works. People enjoy being one click away from the product they want to purchase. Make sure that the content of your website is mobile-user friendly, and that people can actually access the products you offer from their mobile devices. Customers should never feel overwhelmed with the purchase process.
7. Good old-fashioned email marketing
Do you know that many customers do their online shopping from their workplace? This season email marketing campaigns will have a strong presence on the market strategy horizon, so don’t miss the opportunity to share holiday discounts, vouchers, and promotional offers with your customers via email.
Since these customers will be doing their browsing while they are at work, keep the copy of your ads as simple as possible, highlight the value of your offer, and use bright and comfortable colors, not the flashy and eye-catching strong colors that you might use in other campaigns.
