Join In On The Holiday Spirit

The holiday season is the perfect time for small businesses to boost sales and engage their customers. A survey by LivePerson showed that 29% of shoppers start their holiday shopping before October and 63% of their shopping will be done online. With so many shoppers avoiding the holiday crowds in stores, having a strong digital presence will help attract customers and boost your holiday season sales.

Digital Marketing Strategies To Keep In Mind

• Facebook
  Facebook is a great social media site if you have a large audience. Share photos of your products, launch products and actively engage your audience. If you don’t have a large Facebook following, boost your posts or try using Facebook Ads to promote your holiday deals and products. According to LivePerson’s survey, 75% of shoppers use Facebook to find discounts.
• Pinterest
  Pinterest is an ideal platform for businesses that can create high quality images and graphics. Because images are an extremely popular form of digital content, small businesses can reach a large audience by creating engaging visual presentations.
• Twitter
  Twitter gives you the ability to reach a large audience and by using the right hashtag(s), it will help you reach your target audience.
• Instagram
  Like Pinterest, Instagram is a visually centered social media platform. According to Business Insider’s report from BI Intelligence, over 90% of Instagram’s users are under the age of 35, with a majority of users being women. If your target market fits within these demographics, Instagram can help you create buzz about your products through the images and graphics you share.
• Search Marketing
  Optimizing your search results and ads through search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) advertising can also help you drive traffic to your website. Using SEO and PPC strategies will increase your digital visibility and improve your online visibility. However, SEO and PPC strategies can be challenging to integrate and maintain. If you are currently doing your own digital marketing, consider hiring a SEO and PPC professional to guide you in these marketing strategies. Contact me if you need recommendations for qualified professionals.
• Email Marketing
  Email marketing is a great way to reach your target market directly. Since many people have email on their mobile devices, you have the ability to communicate with them wherever they are.When employing a holiday email marketing strategy, break up your messages into three categories: pre-sale, during sale and a reminder when the sale will be ending. By structuring your messages into these categories, you can effectuate timely communication with your target audience without overwhelming them with too many emails.
• Blogging
  Depending on your target audience, a company blog is a great place to have detailed information about new products, product features or holiday discounts. If you’re also using Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, you can drive traffic to your blog by sharing your blog posts on these platforms.

As with any marketing strategy, you should know your target market(s) before you start implementing these or any other marketing tactics. Once you have a clear idea of who your target audience is, you’ll be able to shape your marketing messages and efforts to reach your target customers where they are actively looking for information. The more familiar you are with who they are and where they are, the better your chances that your marketing messages will reach them. Your holiday sales figures will help you quantify how well you did.

Featured image courtesy of Melissa Brawner.