With the holiday season right around the corner, you should already know what your marketing and sales plan will be for the next few months. If you don’t have a plan yet, now is the time to make one! Here are three questions you should be asking yourself about your digital marketing for the holidays plans.
What’s Your Social Media Plan?
When it comes to social media, it’s important to stand out among the noise. There will be plenty of sales and specials for holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Hanukkah, Christmas, etc. Your competitor likely already has a marketing plan for the holidays—how are you going to make your business stand out and appeal to that shared consumer base?
Stand out from the crowd with your specials that have a unique twist. Make sure to launch even more promotional ads at this time than you usually would during the rest of the year, as other businesses will be advertising their specials too.
Another popular and effective tactic on social media is doing a holiday-themed giveaway on your social media platforms. You can choose to do separate giveaways on each major platform (one for Instagram, one for Facebook, another for TikTok), or you can do a cross-platform giveaway. Don’t make it too complicated to enter, but use the giveaway rules as a way to bring more customers to your business.
For example, many businesses choose to make one of the giveaway rules, “For a bonus entry, repost this to your story” or “Tag 3 friends in the comments”. These rules bring more people to your page, resulting in more followers and more people entering your giveaway. In addition, your giveaway prize should be a good one!
If your business is a restaurant, it could be a three-course meal on the house or free drinks for a month. If you own a bakery, maybe it’s a free 6-inch cake or a dozen cupcakes of the winner’s choice. You know your customers and what item or service is most popular at your business, so consider that when deciding your prize.
What’s Your Email Marketing Plan?
You’ll also need to make your mark in the inbox among all the sales emails your customers will receive this holiday season. Think ahead about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and schedule out your eblasts accordingly. Use email marketing to send exclusive discount codes to customers that sign up for newsletters or text messages.
This makes sure customers are on the lookout for your emails, making them more likely to see your other promotional eblasts. Resending eblasts to non-openers also maximizes how many people see your emails. Constant Contact is a great digital marketing tool for the holidays for resending eblasts and setting up automated follow-up emails for subscribers who open and/or click on specific parts of the eblast, or even those who don’t open.
What’s Your Website Plan?
If you’re planning on holding mega sales and giving out great deals this holiday season, you need to make sure your website is airtight. There’s nothing more annoying to customers than waiting for a sale or new product to drop, finally putting it in their cart, and then getting stuck on a loading page—only to find out that the product is sold out.
If your business is on the smaller side, you may not run into these problems with your site, but there have been numerous instances of small businesses having great sales that go viral on social media, causing massive website crashes and an enormous influx of orders that take months for those businesses to fill. No matter your situation, it’s always important that your site is fully optimized.
In addition, your website should reflect those holiday sales and offers through website banners and pop-ups to bring cohesiveness, ensuring customers that what you’re advertising on social media is indeed true. It’s easy for a customer to give up on buying something if they doubt that the sale is there on the site. Make it clear by optimizing the e-commerce section of your website. If your site applies a specific coupon at checkout, make that clear on your social media and website. If the customer needs a particular discount code, advertise it everywhere. Your website should be ready for holiday shoppers!
Need help with your marketing plan for the holidays? GOA-TECH can give you the best game plan for your business, including the graphic design, website optimization, and online advertising you’ll need. Give us a call and schedule your free consultation!