It might only be September, but the 4th quarter is nearly here and with it many of the most important shopping events of the year fall in the last several months of the year.
You should prepare well ahead of time for the type and content of your marketing and sales promotions through the holiday season.
Start by reviewing past years’ holiday sales data, review the type of deals you can offer and on what products, then start building a calendar of the sales promotional events, and finally the marketing content that will use to support them.
Some of the major sales events you should consider would be fall-type events, tie-ins with a Halloween-themed sale, then black Friday specials that can run throughout the month of November, followed by the various Christmas and New Years’ events.
With the uncertainty of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, many consumers will continue to prefer buying through e-commerce channels. Special attention should be given to e-commerce listings, including optimizing keywords, having quality photos, and any necessary tweaks to the text.
Videos on product pages and e-commerce can be a useful tool as well and improve conversions. Video content can range from case studies, product explainers, and simply quick videos on assembly or how to use the product.
Constant optimization should be a priority on landing pages and e-commerce pages, as a huge percentage of total commerces will remain via e com channels.
The covid pandemic has also put considerable strain on supply chains resulting in product cost increases and a lack of inventory for many in-demand products. This should be taken into account when planning fall sales. Some heavily in-demand products with limited inventory should be featured in marketing, but won’t need to be included in price reductions etc.
Coordinate media across all marketing channels to best release new marketing offers and promotions.
Email Marketing
Email marketing campaigns can be a huge boost to your sales numbers, with campaigns being segmented to include both prior customers and new prospective customers.
It’s critically important that prior customers are targeted via email marketing with personalized emails prompting them to view new offers etc. Many times prior customers can be responsible for over 50% of sales.
Maintain email ads with multiple segments targeted to different elements of your audience. Using email automation software makes this straightforward, allowing scheduled email blasts that will have high deliverability. Incorporating video into email marketing is an effective way to increase click-through rates, and retention. Using video content that includes explainer videos of new products, or case studies is a great option.
Themed Ads
We’ve over the years created a number of themed ads with creativity incorporating fun Halloween images etc to make ads that are engaging and more visually interesting than more typical ads. Typically these ads have seen higher engagement when switching for example to Halloween-themed ads going into October or Christmas themed ads. While Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in the US now, it also points to fresh creative being effective.
Below is an example an October themed ad. This ran on broadcast /cable tv then was also used in social media and digital channels.
Focus on Reviews
E-commerce reviews are massively important, with more eCommerce stores and product options than ever. Comparison shopping is now standard for many shoppers, reviews can be the boost your brand needs to be the selection of choice.
Reviews on Facebook and Google are also incredibly important for SEO ranking, with google preferring to rank firms that have solid reviews, as this is more relevant search results for shoppers.
Often asking customers via email, with an easy link provided, for a review is a great way to build your number of reviews. If you speak with customers in person or on the phone, asking them for a review should be a standard part of any positive transaction.
E-Commerce Functionality
There’s no excuse to have an e-commerce store that looks like it’s from the 1990s, or that doesn’t work well on mobile. Shoppers will be much more likely to make purchases in easy-to-use stores that look highly professional. With services like Shopify and Wix, etc creating an online store that works well and functions well isn’t a major hurdle.
If your company doesn’t offer online shopping, you are missing out on sales. Many customers expect quick and easy e-commerce transactions, the cost of implementing an e-commerce store is well worth it.
Creative Partners
Plan ahead as much as possible on your holiday marketing plan, this includes coordinating media buys and creative work with marketing partners as needed ahead of time. Waiting until the last minute to create ads, fix website issues or place media buys will result in lower quality end products that cost more.
Working with marketing partners requires coordination to properly set up campaigns across multiple ad channels. Video production and creating video ads to replace static ppc ads will take several weeks to create, so having a good idea of the offers and content of these ads should be thought through well before the ads need to start running.
While video ads will cost more, their contribution to ad campaigns will improve CTR, engagement and often result in an ad campaign that is overall more profitable. Once a video ad is created for one marketing channel it can be utilized in multiple ways including organic social media.
Want more effective ads? Want to sell more?
Volan Media is a top Knoxville video production agency specializing in broadcast production as well as digital video and social media ads. For top Knoxville trade show video, social media video ads, digital video ads get in touch!
