Your Secret Weapons for Holiday Marketing Success
The holiday season is a hectic time for both businesses and consumers. As shoppers are actively searching for gifts and are more receptive to marketing messages than at any other time of year, they are bombarded with deals, offers and promotions. A well crafted marketing strategy is key to leaving a lasting impact.
In this blog post we explore three tools that you can utilise to maximise your marketing success around any holiday period, not just Christmas.
1. Email Marketing Automation
- Personalisation
Personalised messages resonate with customers. Email automation allows you to directly address a consumer within your target audience by name, and include only the information that is relevant to them, which helps to improve click through and conversion rates.
- Timing
Timing is everything. With email automation you can schedule emails to hit your audiences inbox at the most opportune moment. Have you just launched a new product in time for the festive season? Maybe you are offering a festive discount? Why not let your audience know the moment it goes live.
- Efficiency
Seasonal marketing campaigns take time. Content creation, project management and A/B testing are just some of the tasks that require consistent attention and execution, not to mention planning. Automating your email campaigns helps to streamline the process, freeing up your team to work on other crucial tasks.
Email Marketing Tips:
- Engaging templates
The holiday season provides the perfect opportunity to create eye-catching email templates that align with your brand while incorporating holiday elements.
- Audience segmentation
Segment your email list based on factors like purchase history, behaviour and demographics. This will allow you to send relevant content such as personalised product recommendations or exclusive offers directly to specific audience groups.
- Automated follow ups
Don’t forget about post holiday follow up emails. Sending personalised thank yous, request reviews, and promote clearance sales. Maintain engagement even after the holiday rush.
2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
- Increased visibility
SEO helps your website to rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). During the holiday season when consumers are searching for gifts, a high ranking website is more likely to attract their attention and drive conversions.
- Targeted traffic
SEO ensures that your website appears in relevant SERPs. This means that the visitors landing on your page from a query are much more likely to be interested in the products and services that your business offers.
- Cost effective
Compared to PPC advertising, SEO can be a cost effective method of maintaining a strong online presence during the holidays. With a well optimised website, you can capture organic traffic without a constant advertising spend, that will feature long term benefits that continue past the holiday period.
SEO Tips:
Keyword optimisation:
- Research and incorporate holiday specific keywords into your website content to help specific pages or products to rank higher for the festive season.
Local SEO:
- If you have a physical shop or aim to target local audiences, ensure that your local SEO is up to date. Many shoppers include ‘near me’ in their search queries, so feature information about your location, opening hours and promotions across your online channels.
Content integration:
- Combining SEO strategies with content marketing can help to drive engagement and ensure that your brand stands out to potential customers. On average customers need to see your brand at least 7 times before they commit to a purchase decision, so increasing visibility through SEO on both social media SERPs is key.
3. Website optimisation
- Increased conversion rates
You can optimise your website to increase load speed, include clear CTAs, streamline your content and more. Optimising with a clear goal in mind helps to improve the overall user experience of your website and streamline the user journey, leading to an improved conversion rate.
- Search engine visibility
Optimising page titles and descriptions with relevant keywords, and improving the quality of the content on your landing pages can encourage more frequent clicks to your website from SERPS, helping your site to rank higher in organic search results.
- Reduced bounce rates
Making sure that your content is aligned with the needs of your target audience, and that your website is easy to navigate with clear conversion elements will help to encourage users to move through your website. When was the last time that you clicked on a website that was difficult to use, and how long did you stick around?
Website Optimisation’s Tips:
- Mobile optimisation
With mobile shopping on the rise, your website should be as mobile-friendly as possible. Google also considers mobile-friendliness in its rankings, so optimising this feature will also help with your SEO strategy.
- Site speed
A slow website increases bounce rates. Optimise your site’s speed to streamline the user journey and keep rushing holiday shoppers engaged to increase conversions.
- User experience
Ensure that your website is easy to navigate and that the journey to your desired conversion is smooth. A positive user experience helps to reduce bounce rates, increase conversion rate and is an overall best practice technique.
Maximise your success
Effective planning and consistency are key to any marketing strategy, and you can use these tips and tricks to promote your business all year round. Implementing a stategy with clear goals in mind and high quality design elements can help you to interact with your consumers in a way that maximises conversions. If you want to get started and need some help, don’t hesitate to get in touch below and one of our team will be in contact about your project.
