What is Your Business Season?
Business season varies from industry to industry and even product to product within one business, but the holiday season brings opportunity for every small business to boost sales.
For this very reason, every business must be “Holiday Ready”!
Statistics from the eCommerce and Retail sectors show that Holiday shopping counts for more than 40% of the annual sales. It should be like this; because people don’t just buy for themselves, but for everyone else in the family and friends.
According to a survey conducted by LivePerson, 29% of the holiday shoppers are actually early bird shoppers who want to avoid the holiday rush and so they start shopping right in the month of October.
Holiday shopping takes the actual boost with the start of November, so a small business startup, newbie Holiday Marketers or even those who have been testing multiple strategies for quite some time should know the best Holiday Marketing tactics that actually generate sales.
Let’s get started with this quick list of 5 highly effective Holiday Marketing strategies that work most and have a better conversion rate that others.
1- Email Marketing: Having Email right on their mobile or tablet makes it the most effective direct communication. Timing is very important, so make sure you target them with three emails, i.e. pre-sale, during the sale and a final notification of sale ending in two days/tomorrow.
2- Facebook Ads: It works great when you have a huge targeted followership on your Facebook Page. If you do not have a big audience there, for now, do not panic to invest in getting more likes on your page for now, rather use Facebook Ads and sponsor posts to promote Holiday deals.
3- Twitter: Using the right hashtag plays a vital role, however, you may also consider using the paid options.
4- Pinterest: It sells, but only when the presentation is a show stopper. Work on great graphics to make most out of Pinterest during the holiday season.
5- Instagram: People who buy anything online need to see it first. Make sure to have Instagram in your list of platforms while running holiday campaigns.
The above five Holiday Marketing strategies are the ones with highest conversion rates. So with a careful Holiday Marketing Plan, you can have a better ROI with these.
On the other hand, there are a couple of more options that work great during the holiday season, but conversions may not be that higher. Including these in the plan can, however, increase the sales, but an increase in profit depends on various factors, like an investment (both money & human resources), strategy and timing.
6- Company Blog: It may not be that effective for a B2C brand, but B2Bs can take big advantage of it; Get a detailed post on Holiday Offers and distribute it through RSS subscription, eMail and Social Media.
7- Search Marketing: As the CPC might shoot high during the season for moderately competitive keywords even, if you have hands-on running PPC campaigns or have hired an excellent agency to do so, it should work great. However, if you or your marketing department is not much experienced with PPC, better is to avoid it.
The key to success with the Holiday Marketing is to plan the right strategy according to the industry trends and your business model. For example, Linkedin may not work for certain B2B businesses in the holiday season while they generate huge sales from it normally. Similarly, an entertainment business may have huge sales with Video Ads running within Youtube Videos.
So, review your audience and pick the right holiday marketing strategy for your business before the actual holiday season starts.
