Are you close to finalizing your holiday marketing strategy? The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and consumers will spend billions of dollars this season. So, if you do not have a marketing strategy and tactical activation plan in place to enhance holiday sales, you are already falling behind your competitors. What will your business do to ensure that your products or services are at the forefront of your clients' minds when they make purchasing decisions during the holiday season—from Black Friday to Boxing Week?
Here are seven simple Christmas holiday promotion strategies for your business to help you engage your customers more effectively and improve holiday sales this season:
1) Loyal consumers get special discounts
Provide unique discounts to your most valued and devoted consumers. Offer free or irresistible specials on goods that your greatest clients purchase most. This is an excellent way to tie in holiday greetings with your holiday marketing campaigns. Sharing special and exclusive gratitude encourages and reinforces their commitment to your brand. According to a recent OutboundEngine.com research study, getting a new customer can cost five times as much as retaining an existing one. Further, boosting customer retention by 5% can boost earnings by an astounding 25% to 95%. So, this is a good marketing tip for your holiday campaign that you just should not ignore. One technique for increasing holiday sales is to offer a discount to loyal clients who refer family or friends. Specifically, you want to target and track the referrals that made a purchase, leading up to and during the upcoming holidays.
2) Customize emails sent to your customers
At any time of the year, personalizing emails with your customer's name and other essential information is an excellent tactic and marketing effort. Perhaps they've been a customer for more than a year or made orders through your online store on a regular basis. If your customer consistently places comparable orders, personalize the email by recommending a complementary item and explaining why you believe they might enjoy it. In effect, you are encouraging them to continue being a loyal customer by providing a little extra unexpected value. Segmenting your email campaigns based on your clients' transactional history or personal information such as their birthdate can be a highly successful holiday marketing strategy.
3) Weave creativity into your promotional tactics
4) Infuse marketing campaigns with emotion
Consumers make purchasing judgments emotionally, then rationalize their choices. We are convinced by logic but moved by passion. Numerous studies show that up to 90% of the decisions we make are emotional. An effective holiday marketing strategy should appeal to basic holiday feelings such as community, social goodwill, friendship, giving back, appreciation, and being at home for the holidays.
5) Connecting with customers via digital media outlets
- Online influencers: Because they are seen to be more honest, consumers trust blogs more than commercials. Consider approaching bloggers to assist you in reaching a previously untapped audience.
- Social Media: Whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Pinterest, try to invest in your social media audience throughout the year to build real relationships. Consequently the likelihood of your posts being noticed during the holiday season is increased.
Email Marketing: Timing is critical; send an email ahead of, during, and just before your holiday sales end. The fear of losing out on a fantastic holiday deal is an effective holiday marketing strategy. It generates many last-minute sales opportunities. One solution that brands may consider is Salesforce's Einstein Recommendations, which gives you time-optimization capabilities. It increases the likelihood that brand emails are received at the top of a customer's inbox, too. Little techniques like this are what inch you towards those incremental sales.
6) Ensure that the experience is consistent across all channels
By integrating your marketing strategy across all of your platforms, you can ensure that your target audience has a uniform and smooth experience whenever they interact with your communications. It is critical to maintain a consistent user experience across all channels to prevent confusion with your shoppers.
Consumers want a consistent experience regardless of whether it is online, reading email, interacting with you on social media, or visiting your physical location. It's not enough to merely re-create your identity and messaging in advertisements; seasonal promotional offers must also remain constant.
7) Segmentation of marketing is critical
Customers are not all created equally. Avoid squandering profit margins by providing discounts to buyers who are just interested in a one-time bargain and may never return. It may give you a small bump in short-term sales, but how does it affect your margins and longer-term revenue outlook?
It's simple to segment your clients by lifetime value as you construct customer profiles throughout the year. Any investment in higher-value clients results in a higher return on investment. However, keep in mind that you can create ads with material relevant to your less loyal consumers as well.
Segment your clients for a fully tailored experience. Make your campaigns easily shareable. Deliver hot online discounts that are consistent across all of your channels. By taking these steps, you are setting up your holiday marketing strategy in the best position for success this season.
If your marketing is challenged with the need for better automation and metrics tracking to deliver on your strategy, then Contact Us at OSF Digital for a brief discussion. You have many options, such as leveraging Salesforce's Marketing Cloud solutions to take steps in the right direction.
