The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year for eCommerce businesses like yours – but it can also be the busiest and the craziest. It’s when you need magical holiday marketing ideas to captivate customers doing Christmas shopping online, ramp up your sales and cap off the year on a merry note. It’s also that time for your brand to launch meaningful holiday campaigns, create a memorable customer experience and stand out.
But for successful seasonality marketing, there are retail seasonality trends during this time of the year you need to note:
• People have a higher intent to buy.
• Time-sensitive holiday campaigns create a sense of urgency pushing customers to buy.
• Brands must redesign their search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. Holiday SEO strategies can generate more qualified traffic than “regular season” SEO tactics.
• Shoppers tend to use social media to find gift ideas and inspiration. (Kantar and Catalysist’s State of Ecommerce 2021)
Apart from sound awareness of eCommerce seasonality, you also need a well-planned strategy to maximize the holiday economy. If you’re just getting around to this year’s seasonality marketing activities, we’re here to help.
Since most holiday marketing tips cover pointers on what you should do, let’s take the road less traveled and show you what NOT to do. Stay off the naughty list by avoiding these six holiday marketing campaigns:
1. The “Visit-Our-Website” Campaigns
These campaigns involve the use of captivating holiday ads to convince customers to click links. However, these links bring interested buyers to the main website.
The Flaw:
You may be thinking, what’s wrong with this holiday advertising idea? Aren’t ads supposed to bring leads to our website?
The flaw in this kind of campaign lies in your website.
Holiday shopping online can get hectic; people have limited time to buy many things at once. So, they want to skip chunks of text to get to what you promised in your ads right away. Your main website would typically contain general information about your business. It’s not what your visitors want at the moment. It’s just something that delays their Christmas shopping online journey.
The Fix:
You don’t need to revamp your whole website for your holiday marketing strategy. Rather, create new landing pages designed specifically for seasonality marketing. This allows you to implement your Christmas or New Years marketing ideas quickly and cost-effectively. It’ll also help you attract busy shoppers doing holiday shopping online and enhance their user experience.
Here are some holiday marketing tips to make your landing pages even more effective:
• Include countdown timers to let shoppers know how much time they have left to access your offer. This encourages them to take action soon.
• Have an enticing pre-exit pop-up to encourage shoppers to stay on your landing page and consider your offer.
2. The “Same Ol’ Keywords” Campaigns
These are campaigns that successfully capture the holiday cheer in terms of visuals and messages. However, something seems to be amiss with the keywords they use…
The Flaw:
Search engine optimization involves understanding your audience and their search behavior. It entails targeting search terms consistently, too. With that said, it also includes recognizing the changes in search intent throughout the year.
Targeting the same old keywords in your holiday campaigns keeps you from maximizing brand awareness and sales opportunities that can only be found in tapping holiday-related search terms.
The Fix:
Put your brand in front of audiences with a high purchase intent by studying holiday SEO, watching the holiday economy and capitalizing on seasonal searches. Use tools like Google Trends to identify trending keywords and incorporate them into your messages. Partnering with an agency that understands holiday SEO can also help you show up in relevant search results during this busy time.
3. The Hashtag-Less Campaigns
Festive-looking landing pages, all set. Holiday keyword research, all complete! These types of campaigns seem to have everything. Except for one thing: relevant hashtags.
The Flaw:
It’s easy to be too focused on the big picture of your holiday or Christmas marketing ideas to miss out on the small details, like hashtags. However, remember that your special deals or offers need to be seen first before they can generate the results you want.
This is why hashtags are important. They help put your holiday posts in front of audiences in the middle of holiday shopping online so you can generate greater brand awareness and reach a wider audience.
The Fix:
Strive to find the hashtag that best represents your brand or your holiday campaign. If you’re feeling stuck, get inspiration from trending topics relevant to your business.
You also have to be creative with how you’ll integrate your hashtags into your campaign. For example, you can use them to:
• Compile all updates about your sales and promotions in one convenient space.
• Encourage shoppers to use the hashtag and create user-generated content featuring your product or service.
• Generate more buzz for your business.
Hashtags are very effective on Twitter and Instagram, but they’re not as popular or useful on Facebook. Take this into account when building your holiday marketing strategy.
4. The “No Ads” Campaign
These are holiday campaigns comprising wonderful Christmas marketing ideas, icon and header updates, sales announcements and cute hashtags. They skip paid ads, though; those are only an added expense, right?
The Flaw:
Paid ads are not just another additional expense in your holiday advertising campaign, so don’t leave them out. When done right, pay-per-click (PPC) and social media advertising gives you higher visibility, improved holiday sales performance and better returns on investment (ROI).
The Fix:
Craft your time-sensitive offers or holiday promos as you normally would. However, take time to build your paid advertising strategy, as well.
Take time to write your holiday ad copy and design eye-catching visuals. After this, strategically place your ads on major platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also consider investing in PPC ads to drive more traffic to your website or landing page.
If you aren’t confident about overseeing your holiday advertising efforts on your own, there’s also the option of enlisting holiday marketing services.
5. The “Lackluster Customer Experience” Campaigns
Although the holidays are merry and bright, these campaigns don’t seem to have that festive flair. They deliver the same customer experience you encounter at any other time of the year.
The Flaw:
Christmas shopping online and offline isn’t all fun and games. And with holiday shopping stress and long lines dominating Christmases and new years, marketing ideas should be aimed at addressing these pain points. Moreover, you need to understand these time-specific trends and prepare your online store for eCommerce seasonality.
If you see any of these in your current eCommerce marketing approach, it’s high time to switch things up:
• An online store unprepared for a sudden influx of visitors and orders
• An eCommerce website design without a hint of holiday cheer
• A frustrating checkout experience
The Fix:
Make it your ultimate goal to reduce your customers’ stress. Here are some tips worth following to provide a magical experience for online shoppers:
• Pay attention to retail seasonality trends and prepare your inventory ahead of time. Doing so enables you to quickly cater to the needs of customers doing holiday shopping online.
• Answer customers’ queries through an easy-to-read FAQ page or a live chat feature. You may also share gift ideas or tips for hassle-free Christmas shopping online.
• Work with your web developers to ensure your eCommerce store runs smoothly and quickly.
6. The Connection-Less Campaigns
These campaigns are all about spreading the word about holiday promotions and limited-time offers through social media platforms. The wider the reach, the better, right?
The Flaw:
There’s nothing wrong with aiming to reach large audience groups with social media. But, you also need to have and maintain that personal communication with your prospects and existing customers. Failing to cover this area may keep your business from becoming that memorable and personable brand for customers.
The Fix:
Build that solid connection with your leads and existing customers through personalized holiday email marketing. Highlight promotions or seasonal products relevant to them based on their previous interactions with your brand. You can work with an agency specializing in holiday email marketing to ensure your emails appeal to their emotions and display well on their mobile devices.
Dive Into a Magical Holiday Marketing Season With an Experienced Agency
For businesses that wish to have more successful Christmases and New Years, marketing ideas for these seasons should be clever and carefully planned out. After all, the holidays are the most opportune time for building emotional bonds with audiences, boosting fourth-quarter sales and closing the year on a merry note.
All these considered, you need to spend time generating your holiday marketing ideas and understanding eCommerce seasonality. You must plan your holiday campaigns thoroughly to get the most out of the holiday economy. Doing so also helps you steer clear of the unproductive campaigns listed above and, instead, generate the ROI you deserve.
If you’re still unsure how to tackle seasonality marketing for your online store, having experts by your side, even only for this season, makes a huge difference. Thrive, an award-winning agency, is your one-stop-shop for bright holiday marketing tips and eCommerce marketing solutions. Our team of eCommerce consultants, SEO professionals, PPC specialists and content marketing experts is always ready to turn your holiday marketing ideas into a fruitful holiday campaign.
From eCommerce optimizations and holiday email marketing campaigns to New Years marketing ideas, we have all you need to spread gifts and cheer to your customers. Get in touch with us today and let’s create a magical season for your business.
