Have you planned and prepared all your marketing efforts for the Christmas season of 2021? To get your business in the festive mood and optimize holiday income, follow these suggestions.
Ecommerce (online shopping)
Holiday shopping is certainly adhering to the general trend of people preferring to spend their money online rather than in person. Last year, eCommerce accounted for 25.7 percent of total holiday retail revenue, with online buyers spending $188.2 billion during the 2020 holiday shopping season, up 32.2 percent on the previous year.
Being prepared before the start of the shopping season will guarantee that you acquire as many sales and satisfied consumers as possible. Here are just a few of the steps you can take:
Test the shopping experience: Does your eCommerce website provide search or filter capabilities that make it easy for visitors to locate what they want? Is the checkout procedure quick and easy? Before the hard shopping begins, find and solve any faults.
Examine the website’s performance: During the Christmas season, most eCommerce sites receive a spike in traffic; double-check that your website architecture and web hosting provider can handle the projected increase so your consumers don’t suffer any slowdowns or interruptions.
Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly: For the 2020 holiday shopping season, mobile devices accounted for 39 percent of eCommerce sales, and eMarketer expects that mobile commerce would grow 18.8% to $97.15 billion in the 2021 holiday season. Check to see if your website is mobile-friendly, including a mobile-friendly layout and navigation, readily clickable buttons, and a mobile-friendly checkout procedure.
Examine your stock: With many retail industries dealing with pandemic-related supply chain challenges, it’s more crucial than ever to make sure you have enough stock for the big shopping holidays (see below), as well as any special deals you’re doing. If your product supply is in jeopardy, be prepared with substitute ideas and a customer service strategy for dealing with dissatisfied consumers.
Share useful website material: The Christmas season has its own set of obstacles and possibilities, so don’t pass up the chance to provide your clients with useful content to assist them during the challenging time. Whatever sort of business you run, there’s almost certainly a method to come up with holiday content that is relevant to your industry and customers.
Research the current market: Research Christmas patterns in your business and ask your customer-facing staff what problems, challenges, plans, and ambitions your target audience has over the holiday season. Use this knowledge to produce engaging and relevant content.
Share your thoughts: Last-minute shopping tips, holiday recipes, and local event guides are all popular. Even if it’s only “our workers’ favourite holiday recipes” or “interesting things to do this weekend” in your neighbourhood, find a method to connect seasonal ideas to your firm.
Decorate your site for the holidays: If at all feasible, replace any photographs or visual components on your site with holiday-themed images.
The Internet and Social Media
Social media’s fun, casual character makes it the ideal location to test out new holiday marketing strategies and to foster a sense of community and pleasant seasonal vibes in order to promote your company.
Create a holiday atmosphere on your social media accounts to get your social media followers in the purchasing mood. Consider changing your profile images to something with a festive vibe, including holiday colours or imagery into your normal graphics, and uploading holiday-themed product photographs.
Organize events: If you’re planning any Christmas events or promotions, now is the time to start notifying your followers about them and getting them excited.
Produce content: Publishing fresh holiday-themed material on your social media platforms is the most effective approach to keep clients interested and encourage them to visit your page on a frequent basis. Consider launching a holiday series of postings, such as “12 Days of Christmas,” daily gift suggestions, or employee-created holiday traditions, recipes, or fun crafts.
Activate the message system: According to a poll conducted by LivePerson, 75% of Christmas shoppers stated they would spend more money on a website that allowed them to message with a representative. Now is a fantastic time to set up Facebook Messenger for your business and start utilizing it to communicate with consumers and advertise your holiday specials and events, if you haven’t already.
Email is one of the most successful methods to communicate with clients, and the Christmas season provides a chance to strengthen current relationships and re engage inactive ones.
Give gifts: Send an email campaign to your most loyal customers to thank them for their business—you may also wish to offer them early access to a sale, an invitation to a special event, or a special discount.
Send your seasonal greetings: Send a Christmas email greeting to your consumers, thanking them for their business and sharing some highlights from the year.
Get in the mood: Share Christmas thoughts, recommendations, recipes, or images from your staff with your consumers to show them the human aspect of your business.
Get the word out: Encourage your consumers to tell their friends and family about the discounts you provide them by giving them a free gift or a discount for each referral.
Make it simple: Send them an email emphasizing your site’s “most popular” presents, along with a link to your site to make the purchase.
Also Read: How to Resolve Error [pii_email_cbd448bbd34c985e423c]
SEO
In the coming weeks, people will be conducting a lot of holiday-shopping-related searches, and you want your site to appear high in the results. Make some changes to your website’s SEO to improve your search rating.
For instance, if you operate an eCommerce site, use keywords like “seasonal,” “holiday discounts,” “Black Friday,” “Cyber Monday,” and “gifts” in your content, as well as any special holiday keywords relevant to your business.
Optimize your site for local searches: Create a well-optimized Google My Business page, get your business listed to local listings, manage your online reputation and reviews, and make your business more accessible to local customers to capitalize on local searches.
Provide correct business information: Verify that your firm’s address, phone numbers, and business hours, including any special holiday hours, are right in any listings.
To capitalize on Christmas shopping-related searches, consider creating a holiday PPC (pay-per-click) digital advertising campaign.
Major Online Shopping Days in 2021
Thanksgiving Day is November 26th. Due to the fact that many businesses will be closed on Thanksgiving this year, post-turkey shopping is likely to shift online. In 2020, online buyers spent $5.1 billion on Thanksgiving Day, up 21.5 percent from 2019.
Friday, November 26th is Black Friday. Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving, is the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, as well as a day when many stores offer longer hours and one-day bargains. Online buyers spent $9 billion on Black Friday last year, up 21.6 percent from 2019.
Saturday, November 27th, is Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday, also known as Shop Local Saturday, was founded by American Express in 2010 to encourage people to support their local companies. Small Business Saturday produced $4.68 billion in online purchases last year, up 30.2 percent from 2019.
Cyber Monday is November 29th. Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving, was established in 2005 and has since grown to be the largest online sales day of the year. On Cyber Monday 2020, online buyers spent $10.8 billion, up 15.1 percent from the previous year.
Free Shipping Day is December 13th. Free shipping day, which began in 2008, is a one-day promotional event in which over 1,000 online shops agree to give free shipping with no minimum order and delivery by Christmas Eve.
Saturday, December 18th is Super Saturday. Super Saturday, also known as Panic Saturday, occurs on the final Saturday before Christmas and is predominantly an in-store event. However, buyers who are unable to visit a store or who may benefit from rapid shipping or pick-up-in-store alternatives can still purchase online.
Save money on Small Business Insurance
Take some time out to review your business insurance policies and get the balance of cover and cost that’s right for your business. Getting this balance right can free up funds for marketing campaigns or more stock over the holiday period.
