Last year, a total of $108.15 billion was spent on online holiday shopping. Like many other small businesses, you are looking to take advantage of this opportunity and boost online sales. Although many customers tend to start holiday shopping in October , Nerd Wallet reported that 47% of 2017’s holiday shoppers planned to buy their gifts between November 29th and December 23rd! A trend which will surely repeat itself this year – so it isn’t too late to start implementing your holiday marketing strategy!

Gift Guides

Since everyone is looking for the perfect gift around the holidays, gift guides are the perfect way to inform consumers and generate buzz around your brand. Remember that as a business, your recommendations or promotions online can have a huge effect on customer purchases. According to the National Retail Federation, more than 50% of holiday shoppers purchased an item that the retailer recommended to them online. There are many different ways to organize and promote your gift guide, depending on the type of business you have.

One of the best ways to organize your gift guide is to promote your bestsellers. This is also the best strategy when you are a new business or unsure of your target demographic. If you know which groups support your business most, try targeting them by making specific gift guides segmented by characteristics like age or gender. This is especially helpful for return customers that may already be familiar with your product or service but want an original recommendation. If your business is active in a niche market, gift guides are even more effective in raising awareness and bringing in new customers. Organize your gift guide by product type or price.

Depending on how many and how detailed your guides are you can share them directly on social media platforms like Facebook or just tweet out the link. Make sure that your guides are published on your website and easy to find. Sharing your gift guides on your website also promotes a ton of seasonal keywords that can increase traffic and boost your general SEO ranking. It also doesn’t hurt to dabble in email marketing since gift guides are sure to generate a lot of clicks.

Social Media Marketing for the Holidays

Holiday marketing should be a major element of your yearly social media marketing strategy from September through December. Holiday marketing centers around promoting your products or services online to boost awareness and interest, especially when it comes to purchasing gifts. One strategy every small business should be using in their holiday marketing campaigns is retargeting previous customers and website visitors. Since these users have already expressed interest in your company, the likelihood of them making a purchase is much higher than the average social media user.

Limited Time Offers

Urgency is a huge driving force in the e-commerce world. Promoting or selling certain products for a limited time only is a great way to generate buzz around your brand and boost the number of impulse buys. In order to create an atmosphere of extra urgency, include a live timer on your website which counts down to the last date which purchases are guaranteed to be delivered before Christmas Eve. This way, customers know how much time they have and may provide that extra push to making a purchase so they don’t miss out on the perfect gift.

Don’t Forget To Spread Holiday Cheer!

Everyone loves the holidays! So, don’t just focus on product promotion but also remember to spread some holiday cheer. If you only focus on marketing tactics, you will be losing out on some customers, especially millennials, who are searching for a real bond with the small businesses they support. Speaking of millennials, check out our previous blog post about the social generation and how to target them specifically.

Start Working on Next Year’s Strategy

But keep in mind that once January comes around, your work is still far from done! As a small business owner, you should constantly be working towards improving your strategy and presence not only online but in your local communities. With a full 12 months to prepare, you can test out which consumer personalities are most profitable to your business and react to your campaigns. You also have time to find out which products are your bestsellers around the holidays and can begin to develop an extremely effective holiday marketing strategy for the 2019 season. If you are in need of some more advice or tips regarding getting holiday sales, don’t hesitate to contact our team of social media experts and client success managers.