GOOP’s holiday marketing 101
With Halloween now behind us, everyone is looking ahead to Christmas. While it might seem that Christmas is primarily a holiday for retailers, there’s lots your business, no matter how small or large, can do to maximise engagement and even promote business over the holiday period.
It’s important not to neglect your online marketing efforts – and your customers – during this busy time. By keeping a stream of contact with your customers, even if it’s just confirming your opening hours, you’ll make a positive and lasting impact.
As an early Christmas present, here are some basic tips on how to stay top of mind for your customers throughout the festive season.
On your website
Your website is often your first point of interaction with customers. Make sure it features easy-to-digest important information about your business.
- Update headers and footers with important holiday information – call out shopping hours, shipping deadlines, and promote e-gift cards for last minute shoppers. Please contact the team at GOOP if you would like our designers to create a special banner for you in time for the holidays.
- Blog about or promote your most popular products or Christmas gift guides.
- Link your online marketing channels for a smooth customer experience. Cross-promote any important information or blogs on your social media pages and in your e-newsletters.
Social media
Mix it up with informative and fun posts, keeping on-brand:
- let your customers know your holiday hours, shipping or delivery cut-off dates
- share relevant holiday posts or sayings and wish everyone happy holidays
- cross-promote content from your website, blogs and emails
- run competitions to encourage interaction with customers, reward your best customers and increase brand loyalty.
Retailers should be actively promoting Boxing Day sales and New Year sales, driving people to their website through posts about gift guides, stocking fillers and best-sellers. For service-based businesses, it’s a fantastic opportunity to promote your availability over the holidays, or provide handy hints that tie into your business services, around:
- how to stay safe and comfortable over the holidays – ideal for trades-based businesses or health services
- things to do, attractions to see and places to go – tie-in with restaurants, cafes, health retreats, transport businesses.
The holidays also present an opportunity to make the most of paid online marketing:
- Create an add from your business Facebook page that takes customers directly to your website. Facebook pulls text and images automatically, allowing you to edit the headline and text. You can then choose your audience, daily budget and running time, so you’re in full control of the cost.
- You can also promote a call to action from your Facebook page – whether it’s a shop now link or contact us to encourage traffic to your website.
Email is one of the cheapest and most direct lines to your customers. Take advantage of this by sending gift guides or most popular product emails, including banners for open hours to create a sense of urgency and drive traffic to your website. Promote online shopping, and giftcards if people miss shipping or delivery deadlines.
Customers
Learn from them. They’re telling you what they want to hear about from you, when and how. This time of year is the ideal time to analyse your customers, as they tend to be highly active:
- look at their interactions with your marketing and purchasing behaviour to more effectively appeal to them
- look for trends in the wider market and try to capitalise on these
- look for trends in your own data. Analyse your most active or profitable customers around the holiday period last year – target them with special offers and measure the uptake.
If you would like to find out more about simple tips and tricks to make your online marketing stand out from the crowd, please contact GOOP today.