How to Make the Most of the Holiday Season

If you have visited any retail store recently, you have seen the over abundance of holiday decorations. The holidays are approaching us quickly and many companies are brainstorming about ways to capitalize on this time. Ecommerce sales exceeded $45 million dollars last holiday season, and an upward trend of consumers doing their holiday shopping online will most likely cause 2014 to beat the 2013 numbers. Consumers spending will increase exponentially over the next two months, and it is a good time for businesses to close out their year strong. We have covered some tips to help your business attract more buyers during this holiday season.

The first thing to do is for your company to stay true to its’ values. This is especially important for smaller companies because you may not be able to slash prices like big corporations during the holidays. However, this time allows you to strengthen your relationships with your customers. It would be nice to offer a 25% off site-wide special, but this may not be feasible for every situation. Instead, try to focus on packaged promotions that highlight your core products and give your promotion a theme, to set your company apart. Also, don’t forget about your loyal customers. Offer them a special promotion as a holiday “thank you”.

Another way to attract attention to your site is to offer a freebie along with purchase People love free things, so consider giving something away with certain purchases. This could be a way to incorporate your Holiday ‘thank you” gift.

If you want to plan a campaign to attract more customers to your site, you could use a remarketing strategy. This allows you to market to customers who have visited your website. If you are currently running a pay-per-click Adwords campaign, you can simply add code to a specific product page on your website and market to the customers that land on that page. Once you establish your list, you can market to these people by displaying a specific ad. For example, if you have an eCommerce website that sells virtual games, you could create a list from those visitors that research a specific game on your site and then create an ad that highlights the game. The display ad of the game they were just looking at will then follow them around the Internet. This will help increase the odds of them returning to purchase the game.

Social media is a great way to promote your site, specials, or other marketing campaigns over the holidays. Facebook is a great advertising platform that can be used to drive traffic during the holiday season. Facebook had many tools that allow you to target your current followers or reach out and target a whole new demographic. They have many different targeting options in their advertisements as well as remarketing abilities similar to Adwords. There are other popular sites such as Twitter and Instagram that can be used in collaboration with Facebook or each social media site can offer a different promotion. The opportunities with social media are endless. Be creative, get followers engaged, and don’t be afraid to try something different!

One thing that gets lost in the shuffle of the holidays when it comes to companies is customer service. This should be your time to focus on the service you are providing for the influx of customers you are serving. This is something that will set you apart and help with customer retention, especially for small businesses. The holiday season is stressful for many people, so a positive customer service experience can go very far with customers.

Another great thing to do when planning out your holiday season is to have a calendar or map that lays out the different promotions, e-mail campaigns, advertising, and other marketing offers. This will keep you on track through the holiday season. Put a plan together ahead of time so that you do not lose focus when you begin to get very busy over the holidays.

Infographics are always an effective marketing tool. Infographics are graphic, visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present complex information quickly and clearly. People love pictures, so if you can find a way to deliver your message through an infographic, it will be well received. People like to “share” graphics and this gives you the ability to introduce your company to a wider audience. You can create a holiday themed infographic that will build brand awareness as well as promote a specific product or holiday sale. You want to promote the infographic on your website, social media sites, and anywhere else your company typically advertises.

Increased holiday website traffic is great, but you also want to keep a watchful eye on cart abandonment. If your cart abandonment is high, consider using a special offer if the customer purchases right now, in an effort to convert more sales. You want to create a sense of urgency. This can be done on your site through discount schemes. Examples of a different discount schemes would be a special discount coupon for today only, a buy one get one free discount, or a special discount for buying bundled items.

The holiday season can be a great way to boost sales at the end of the year and now is the time to begin planning how you will gain the extra sales, if you haven’t already started. Follow these tips and tricks to help your business during this busy time of the year. BMT Micro is here to help as well! Our system can be used to setup many different discount schemes, and our experienced customer service staff is here to give your customers in need a great experience. We now offer Marketing services as well, so please feel free to contact us for more information.