The whole Holiday season has all the profitable benefits for small business owners as consumers are expected to spend an average of $1,007 for purchases. (National Retail Federation). This means that you don’t want to miss these Holiday Marketing Sales Strategies and statistics if you want to end the year with a successful sales campaign.
- Know what’s on your customer’s wish list
- Go for the sales and discounts that really matter
- The rise of YouTube vlogs, influencers, and bloggers
- Identify which platforms customers visit the most
- Give special attention to last-minute gift shoppers
- Make it easy for people to pay for their holiday purchases
- Holiday email marketing and newsletter
- Increase holiday sales with marketing in advance
- Christmas or winter theme website design
- Bring out the best customer service
- Keep promoting and exhaust your social media channels
1. Know what’s on your customer’s wish list
It’s quite obvious to give out Holiday promotions to entice people but do you know which ones the consumers dig the most? NRF reported that gift cards/certificates, clothing, and books top the types of gifts people want to receive.
Knowing the various trends that put shoppers into a spending spree will help you tailor your marketing efforts so you don’t lag behind your competition.
2. Go for the sales and discounts that really matter
Holiday discount hunters rank price drop, quality of merchandise, and free shipping as their top three deciding factors to shop a particular store this year.
Brainstorm ideas with a Marketing VA to come up with something creative like this 12 Days of Christmas deals from Avon and a $50 gift card from Amazon so your customers can anticipate special treats from your business.
Source: leadpages.net
3. The rise of YouTube vlogs, influencers, and bloggers
One thing you can add to your arsenal of holiday marketing sales strategies is to reach out and target a YouTube vlogger or blogger in your industry for gift guides. Give them a free sample of your product or free access to an online demo if you are in the service industry.
The goal is that after they try out your item, they might be willing to add it to a roundup of their highly recommended products of 2018 or other holiday gift guides. One sure-fire way to get your products or services highlighted by relevant influencers!
Example: HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE 2018! Gifts Under $20, $40, & $60!
4. Identify which platforms customers visit the most
Is it social media, website, email, newsletter, blog posts, Facebook marketplace, etc.? Get a clear picture of which channels to focus on so you can develop sales tactics for each. Where do consumers plan to purchase Holiday items? Online shopping is still at the top:
5. Give special attention to last-minute gift shoppers
Panic buying is more common during these months when everyone is busy preparing for family reunions and decorating their homes. Make sure to include in your holiday marketing tips to make it convenient for shoppers to grab last-minute gift items from your store before they head home, travel, or visit relatives.
6. Make it easy for people to pay for their holiday purchases
Whether you’re giving away extra discounts, buy-one-get-one-free deals, coupons, or vouchers—all of these are useless if customers abandon your cart. So be sure that you have updated your shopping carts and online stores to avoid losing sales.
Credit card (46%) tops the list of payment methods preferred, followed by debit card (36%), cash (16%), and check (2%).
7. Holiday email marketing and newsletter
Email and retargeting strategies tend to have huge returns. Using a lead magnet for email capture and to fix customers’ pain points will leave them wanting more information from you.
To ramp up your email marketing campaigns, read our tips in creating effective newsletter.
Example: J. Crew’s holiday gift guide email
Source: leadpages.net
8. Increase holiday sales with marketing in advance
Schedule your on and off-site campaign activities ahead of time. Most marketers recommend starting off in September and October so you remain top-of-mind for prospects throughout the holiday sale season.
Also, don’t forget to expand your marketing efforts for all social and mobile shoppers. On Thanksgiving weekend alone, 88% of those aged 18-24 used mobile devices to research and buy gift items.
9. Christmas or winter theme website design
“Wow” your online visitors by dressing up your website and social media pages. Give it a festive, holiday-inspired feel as this helps to heighten the emotional shopping experience, which can boost sales conversions.
Develop Holiday landing pages for specific products and promotions—they convert much better than a regular product page. For example, you can set up a page exclusive to gift cards or certificates. Popular picks are restaurant gift cards, department stores, and entertainment.
10. Bring out the best customer service
Make sure you are adequately staffed for the additional customer-related workload that occurs during the holiday season. Be operationally sound in every aspect of your business processes from inventory, and sales, to order processing and customer support.
Consider adding live chat support to reduce missed opportunities and address customer concerns. Take a look at where you could concentrate your tactics:
11. Keep promoting and exhaust your social media channels
Last but not the least, implementing social media campaigns like giveaways and contests can spark a ton of activity and engagement from fans. Promote in Facebook groups and invite people to like, follow, subscribe, and submit their entries for a chance to win exciting prizes.
Post and share not just your promotions but also your Holiday activities, behind-the-scenes of your business, or pictures of employees celebrating the season of joy.
Based on the above data, you can now focus on Holiday Marketing Sales Strategies that work. Don’t give up just yet because you can still pull off a wonderful and effective Holiday marketing campaign! As always, gauge how your employees should be allocating resources across departments and customer touch points.
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