Last Updated 3 months by Emily Standley-Allard
The holidays have come upon us fast and furious. 2022 has been a challenging year to say the least, but the holidays nonetheless bring a promise of cheer, goodwill and celebration. This is the one year that people all over the world will want to celebrate the holidays with gusto. And even though many have had to pivot in regard to shifting business online, it’s still a time to participate in the festivity of the season. Here are 6 Holiday Marketing hacks you need to now to stay ahead of the game!
This post contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase, we will receive a small commission and we thank you. Read our disclosure here.
What does this mean for you as a blogger and marketer? This is a good time to help your customers make quality decisions regarding gift purchases, not just for others, but for themselves too.
You must recognize that while some may be averse to spending, a good number of people will be willing to part with hard-earned money to make this particular holiday season more meaningful to themselves and their loved ones.
Good marketing capitalizes on a deep understanding of audience wants, needs and aspirations. Therefore, this article will share six marketing hacks to make sure that you generate leads for this period and learn valuable lessons about lead generation.
Let’s begin with the latest findings on consumer behavior as a result of the pandemic.
- According to this article, online shopping is expected to increase in categories such as household supplies, over-the-counter medication, and hygiene products. There’s also a projected increase in clothing, jewelry, cosmetics and skincare products.
- Online shopping increased by about 50% between 2020 and 2022
- Mobile app orders increased by 56% between March and June 2022
- A survey found out that consumers are more likely to shop locally and “purchase from a less familiar brand that offers value-for-money”.
Clearly, consumers want more control, comfort, options, and value for their money. Bearing this mind, let’s consider hacks you can take advantage of in this season.
Six Holiday Marketing Hacks
1. Holiday Marketing Hack – Advertise more varieties of your products.
Consumers want more options; they want to be able to select from a variety of choices. This is the time to showcase more products, if consumers are at a loss of what to pick, it’s a good problem.
There are two outcomes that can emerge: they will be thinking more of your products, trying to select a suitable one, or they will make more provision to buy more, if they can’t decide on one. Either way, it’s a win-win situation for you.
This will require collaborating with the sales department to decide how pricing can keep consumers considering several of your products at the same time. Discounts and giveaways are a good way to motivate customers to keep buying.
Now is the time to bring out old stock and market them along with new products. Last year, my buddy Jake sold out watches and belts out of his old stock when he advertised them along with shirts in his new stock.
He had a cool slogan: “Real men wear watches”, with dashing models wearing his new collection. He had wanted to advertise the products individually, but I told him to use the opportunity to motivate his audience by utilizing the products so they could see themselves wearing it too. It worked!
Ensure that the ease of purchase is clear in your ads.
Consumers want to shop from the comfort of their homes. In the US, online shopping increased by about 50% increasing from 16% in 2019 to 33% in 2020. Consumers don’t want long lines and the stress of physical shopping. They also want speed – they want to think of a need, go online, find it, and order for it within a few minutes. On top of that, they want the product delivered at their doorstep at the earliest possible time.
It’s important to stress the ease of shopping and delivery in your video ads. With more businesses going online, the competition in digital marketing is stiffer, and brand loyalty is constantly shifting. Make your video ads stand out by highlighting the ways that your business makes the shopping experience even more comfortable.
This information can include:
- Shopping assistance in the form of voice chats and live chats.
- The average time it can take to order the product – time is of the essence; consumers are trying to shop ahead of the festivities.
- The types of payment options acceptable in your store.
- Specific timelines for delivery – if possible.
Related
Mobile Monkey the Best Live Chat for Any Business
Create an Affordable App in Minutes
How to Prepare Your Online Store for the Holidays
How To Optimize Your Blog for Voice Search
TikTok Marketing Tactics You Need to Know
2. Make sure your video ads are fun and inspiring
It’s been a gloomy year, so your video ads should add all the fun and colors that will make your audiences feel lighthearted and upbeat. Here’s a checklist of things to look out for in the making of your holiday video marketing:
- Illumination – bright sceneries
- Happy voices and faces
- Funny or heartwarming dialogue
- Upbeat music
When your audiences feel good about your ad, that feeling will be directed to your product and brand. You know the feeling you get seeing actors enjoying a massage in a luxurious hotel and the need for a vacation it stirs within you? That’s how to make an inspiring video that prompts audiences to interact with your brand or the product.
Motionbox.io is a video marketing tool can help you create simple, outstanding and affordable videos that compel your audiences to take action.
Related
How to Create Successful Video Marketing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
How to Start and Grow Your Business on YouTube
Why Livestreaming is a Must in 2023!
3. Holiday Marketing Hack – Use email marketing
Mailchimp reports an increase in click and open rates and a decrease in unsubscribe rates of emails early in 2020. They also reported an increase in engagement with small businesses, showing that emails have a great potential to impact audiences more directly.
Emails have the advantage of being “isolated messages” – much unlike social media where there are multiple posts vying for the attention of the browser.
They are more intimate, direct, and focused because they can be personalized. Email recipients can schedule responses, check out outbound links to the product, categorize emails in important folders and forward them to other interested persons (prospective leads).
You should be using email marketing to discuss more intimately with your audience. Hire a good copywriter – or do it yourself if you have the skills – and develop content that can sway their minds in the direction of your products.
Things to note:
- Let your headers have Christmas themed images or include them in the post.
- Make the tone of the content lighthearted.
- Encourage recipients to not only shop for themselves but for others.
- Send positive vibes – include wishes for a wonderful celebration or for good things to happen to them.
- Use bright colors in the design.
- Try not to say too much, keep it simple. Use elements and icons to replace words.
Related
How to Get Readers to Revisit Your Blog this Holiday Season
4. Use Google Adwords
While countries continue to enforce movement restrictions and the year draws to an end, more people will look to the internet for quick fixes, suggestions and advice. Consumers prefer to google product reviews to asking friends who may even be close by.
This means that more consumers with intent are going to be searching for your products and services on Google and other search engines.
This is why you should take advantage of Google Adwords – to ensure that when consumers search for your products and services, they will find your ads. Google Adwords makes it easy for you to reach specific audiences by buying keywords that they would type into search engines.
You should be driving engagement on social media seriously. Not only is this a good way to keep your brand in the minds of your audience, it’s also an effective way to keep consumers interacting with your product.
At this time, your social media should be talking about the forthcoming holidays – how it affects your audience and what things they plan to do. By now you should also be sharing beautiful images and videos of your products and services and talking about how they will be best suited to your audience.
A note of warning here. While you should drive engagement in this regard, you have to be careful not to make it so obvious that it becomes distasteful. It has to be subtle and interactive.
Let’s assume that you own an interior décor company.
Caption your product images with the influence of color on the ambience of a room. Or you can write about the effective use of space (remember that a good number of people are moving out of big cities towards more affordable towns and cities).
Ask the audience what they think about the image you’ve uploaded (which of course includes your products). Ask them what they would change. Or upload two images and ask them to select the preferable one.
This is an effective way of situating your products within the audience’s mind. It becomes something they start planning towards, whether they currently have a need for it or not.
Say you own a writing services company.
Upload infographics about how to write, or why anyone should write, and ways to write without actually doing the writing. Stress the importance of writing and how it affects mental health – let them see that their stories or ideas are worth sharing.
You can ask fun questions like, “How long do you think it’s going to take to write your book?” or “What would you need to actually write your book?” or “Do you think you’ll finally be an author by the end of 2021?”
Speak to their dreams and let them respond with the hindrances they’re facing (by the way this is a good way to derive content ideas for your blog and email marketing).
Related
10 Copywriting Strategies You Need Now to Increase Your Business
Holiday Marketing Hacks – Final thoughts
Online shoppers are looking for your products and services during the Holidays, you just need to be where they are, or go meet them with the strategic placement of your ads. The holidays are here, you can cash in on the season, just remember to:
- Advertise more varieties of your products.
- Make sure your video ads are fun and inspiring
- Sign up with Hello Bar to collect leads & automate engagement
- Use Restream to live stream your content to over 30 platforms
- Use Crowdfire to auto schedule and develop content for social media
- Use email marketing
- Use Google Adwords
- Create your very own affordable APP
Inspire shopping ideas through social media engagement
With Crowdfire, you can find curated content, schedule your posts, engage with your audience, deep-dive into analytics and create custom reports. Now introducing Social listening. Try it for free!!