The holiday season is known as the busiest time of the year for businesses. Statistics show that 40-50% of annual earnings are reflected in most businesses during this period. Unfortunately, around 8-12% of transaction mishaps occurred in the same duration, especially with small businesses. Here are some proven and tested marketing strategies to help you beat the holidays.
Start Your Campaign Early
Whether you’re providing products or services in your business, the holiday season is always the best time to have your marketing campaigns in place. The key to successful campaigns to boost the earning potential of your business is to start them as early as possible. This will give you a headstart on what consumers would expect to get during the holidays.
Aside from being able to promote your business early, this will allow you to adjust accordingly based on the feedback and inquiries that potential customers would be sending. Most consumers tend to plan ahead during this season and wouldn’t want to overthink; if they see what they need right away, there is a greater chance that your business would be their preference if your holiday campaigns are all set.
Give the Best Customer Experience
Customers are among the essential foundations of a successful business. May it be an existing customer whom you have already transacted with before or new ones that are in the process of inquiring, you should all give them the best customer experience.
From responding to their inquiries to providing the goods and services that they need, the effort of accommodating them nicely and sufficiently will go a long way.
Tap into People’s Emotions
After the Covid-19 pandemic, this holiday season would be a chance for most people to get together with friends and families that preferred not to go out for fear of getting infected. In workplaces, gatherings are also being set up after months or years of working from home.
In the spirit of Christmas, it is high time to tap into people’s emotions to lure them to your business. From online campaigns to traditional advertisements, you must think of clever ways to tap into their emotions for them to notice what you are trying to offer.
Focus on Customer Loyalty
Most individuals are creatures of habit. They tend to patronize tried and tested products and services that satisfy their needs. Given that you are offering the best customer experience, it will be easier for you to tap into this pool of loyal customers. You can directly contact them to offer your holiday promos or just send them your holiday campaigns.
Since you already have an idea of their preference, they would most likely decide to avail of your products and services for the holiday season.
Show Gratitude to Shoppers
A little gratitude will go a long way. Simply responding to feedback and inquiries shows customers how grateful you are for being considered as an option for their holiday plans. Saying “thank you” is a simple gesture that customers will appreciate after a successful transaction.
This goes along with providing the best customer experience that could brighten up anyone’s day and would make them remember your business.
Offer Irresistible Holiday Promos
The holiday season is flooded with promos as people look for the best option to maximize their budget while businesses ace their games to get customers. However, you can’t just have promos without considering all the factors, such as inventory, manpower, marketability, and profit.
You should always create promos that would make it a win-win situation for your business and your customers. The key to holiday promos is making them irresistible by giving customers their money’s worth.
Collaborate With Other Businesses
In the middle of all holiday preparations, customers would prefer goods and services providers that could lessen the hassle for them. Hence, getting everything they need from one merchant would be their best option. Some businesses have ventured into collaborating with other businesses to make holiday packages to offer the full service needed by customers.
Examples would be catering companies partnering up with food vendors, restaurants with personalized souvenir makers, holiday gift baskets that outsource the basket contents, and the list could go on, limited to your imagination. You can start by finding other businesses that offer products and services that complement your business, then work together to create packages and promos that customers would definitely be interested in.
Consider an Influencer Strategy
In this day and age, influencers have become one of the best ways to get your business out there. It is good if you personally know an influencer who can promote your products and services but it is also an option to reach out to them.
You can come to an agreement with them by paying them to promote your business, sending them free products, or giving them a reasonable discount for the products and services they need in exchange for promoting your business to their followers.
Support Non-Profit Causes
Another way for people to patronize your business is by supporting non-profit causes. Since it is the season of giving, people would most likely support a business that supports causes they recognize.
From animal welfare, helping individuals with disabilities, and education support for the less fortunate, it is up to you to decide which causes you to want to support. You can set aside a margin of your profit to support these causes and let its magic do the work to promote your business.
Don’t Be Too Frequent
Having holiday promotions in place sets the tone for your business that entices customers to check out your products and services. You can post on social media, publish advertisements, send out newsletters, or all other means possible to promote your business. However, there is such a thing as ads fatigue.
Ads fatigue occurs when people see your promotions so often that they become bored with it and just stop paying attention. To avoid this, you should plan advertising accordingly so that your promotions would be effective yet not too overwhelming, passive, or appear too aggressive to customers.
Do Your Keyword Research
Since social media has become the primary means of promotion to reach customers, you should be able to identify keywords that most people search for while browsing online. This includes popular hashtags used by other businesses, and those people look for.
These keywords should be incorporated in your posts so that they would appear on recommended posts, giving your promotions more mileage without having to pay extra for boosting them.
Be Prepared for More Competition Than Ever
Small businesses have grown in number as individuals learn to explore the earning potential of their ideas. This is a good thing, but having more competitors around is a challenge for other businesses in the same industry. This holiday season, you should be able to play fairly with other competitors, especially in the same vicinity as yours.
Aside from providing the best promotions you can offer, your goal should always be to provide the best products and services for your customers and not just profit alone. This will set you apart from your competitors and make a mark on the loyal pool of clients you are continuously getting.