So, are you sweating bullets thinking about the holiday shopping season? You are not alone!
Last week we kicked off part one of “Holiday Marketing Tips & Tricks,” and we are back with round two to help you prep for the business season of the year. No long intros this time – let’s get right into 10 more tips you can use for your holiday marketing campaigns.
Ready? Let’s go!
Know Your Best Sellers (and Audiences) – With AdBeacon
To meet your holiday sales goals, you must put the right products in front of the right people.
AdBeacon also helps you understand which products are your bestsellers. Use this information to help you determine which products you should feature to make this your most profitable holiday season to date. Want to know what audiences are making these purchases? AdBeacon can help you with that, too.
Featuring Gift Guides
Did someone say gift guide? Yep, we did.
This strategy is all about batching your deals for a better user (and shopping) experience. Think gifts for dad, gifts for mom, deals under $25, stocking stuffer doorbusters, etc. If you have a plethora of deals on the horizon, batch these into gift guide pages and feature the guides on your home page.
(Not enough room? Update your site navigation options so hungry shoppers can find what they need fast!)
Improving Site Speed & User Experience
Garbage site speed is a conversion killer—and this is especially true during the holidays.
Customers are primed for rapid research and even faster purchase decisions. They are not going to wait around for your site to load when there are plenty of other options out there (not that yours isn’t the best!).
Holiday Branding & Featured Products
Speaking of streamlining the purchase process, get your holiday branding and featured products on point. When holiday shoppers land on your site, make sure they can access your holiday deals right away (or at least get a taste!).
Brand product images for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas so customers know your deal has an expiration date. If you have more than can fit on your home page, that’s okay! You can always create a gift guide to house your best deals in their entirety. More on this in the next section.
Simplifying Checkouts
Your goal should be to put as few steps as possible between the customer finding what they need and completing their purchase (so you don’t see dozens of abandoned carts due to unforeseen taxes or exorbitant shipping costs!). Ask for the minimal amount of information you need, and break the checkout process into no more than three steps:
1. Add to cart
2. Payment info with shipping address
3. Confirm and purchase
During this rapid-fire purchase season, keep it simple—you can upsell and cross-sell after.
Guaranteeing your Shipping & Delivery Dates
Everyone has felt the anxiety of not getting that gift delivered on time— especially over the past couple of years. Wherever possible, you should be pointing out your guaranteed delivery dates as a selling point. Granted, we all love free shipping, and if you can offer that, more power to you. However, with fractured supply chains still a lingering issue, being able to guarantee delivery in time for the holidays is just as valuable!
Streamlining Promotional Shopping carts
Faster checkouts = more holiday sales! If you can’t rework your entire checkout process before the holidays, create a separate promo checkout for the season. This could also just mean adding a “guest checkout” option for those new holiday shoppers. Everyone gets tired of creating yet another account just so they can give you their money. Again, make these promo checkouts simple, and worry about getting more information later.
Pre-Promoting “Coming Soon” Content
So now that you have identified your deals for the holiday season, you just need to wait for the shopping season to begin, right? Wrong. Instead, give your customers a preview of what’s to come! From your website and email follow-ups to social media and newsletters, you can fuel anticipation (and possibly pre-orders) by giving everyone a sneak peek.
Adding Promo Countdown Clocks
There are two very powerful concepts you should use during the holiday season: anticipation and scarcity. And a countdown clock can cover both bases. As the season rolls around, show customers countdown clocks for your featured promotions— when the promos will kick off and when they will end. If customers know their favorite gift has a time limit attached, they are more likely to make the purchase.
Launching 12 Days of Deals
This one is great for building anticipation, drawing in new customers, and bringing back last year’s customers. This is also a proven strategy for methods like Facebook ads. Rather than just featuring every product at once, give customers a new deal to look forward to for the days leading up to the holiday(s). You can even make these “unlocked” promotions complementary to each other to increase repeat purchasing and average order values.
Are You Ready For The Holidays?
Need more ideas for the holidays? We have more coming – not to mention we are about to release our “Jumpstart to Holiday Marketing Success for 2022” ebook very soon!
However, if you need another set of strategic eyes on your campaigns this holiday season – you should contact our team ASAP to get the ball rolling. We also have limited holiday jumpstart packages just for the 2022 holiday season. Click here to visit our contact page, and you can check out some additional helpful resources by clicking here.
Stay tuned for more great content from National Positions!