Christmas will be a little bit different this year, which means your Digital Marketing will need to be adjusted accordingly. An increase in online sales, social media engagement and virtual customer service are all things to look out for this year when revising your digital marketing plan. Here are our top 5 tips for helping your business flourish online this festive season.
1. Start your Campaign Today
The sooner you start your digital marketing campaign – the better. Everyone is in need of something to look forward to at the moment, so let’s look forward to Christmas! People may have mixed feelings about Christmas lights at the end of October, or Santa Claus Gifs been plastered on your social media. But this year, the festive season will be a warm welcome to those in need of some holiday cheer. People will be buying sooner this year as most of us have more time on our hands, and there may be delays in delivery times. It is important for SMEs to keep up with the holiday digital marketing campaigns of larger conglomerates – and starting the campaign early is crucial to competing.
2. Embrace Social Media Marketing
It is so important for businesses, now more than ever, to embrace social media as an essential marketing tool and to utilise it to the best of their ability. People are spending more time on their phones, using new platforms such as Tik Tok and engaging much more with brands via their social platforms. Perhaps a 12 Days of Christmas social media campaign would help to get your followers in the festive spirit? Or a video campaign with a Christmas theme? Whichever idea you decide to go with, make it engaging, relevant and uplifting. Whether you’re using social media to pay for ads, collaborate with influencers or to improve the status of your own social accounts, make sure to stay active and have a plan in place. Begin your social media campaign today to be ready for Christmas.
3. Online Shopping – Adjust Your Website Accordingly
Online shopping has skyrocketed since the pandemic began, which means that online Christmas shopping will be more popular than ever before. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of supporting their local businesses and reports have shown that customers are happy to support local businesses who sell online. This means that you need to make sure your website is fully accessible to online shoppers, as if they experience any issues along the way, they may turn elsewhere. This is where your bailout rate is important – check where along the online purchasing process your customers are dropping out and this can help to improve your strategy and optimise your website. This is also an opportunity for businesses who currently do not sell online to branch into the world of ecommerce or offer a click and collect option – which is becoming increasingly popular with both small and large businesses. Contact Evolution Digital if you are interested in turning your website into ecommerce.
4. Christmas Competitions
Competitions are a great way of increasing your social engagement all year round – especially around the holidays. Giveaways can be great for businesses who were particularly affected by the pandemic such as hotels and restaurants. For hotels – offer a weekend away for two. For restaurants – offer vouchers (possibly with long expiration dates due to Covid). Giveaways can be great for retail businesses too. Perhaps give away a necklace to promote a new range of jewellery, or a hamper of Christmas sweets are treats. Whatever you decide to put up for grabs, make sure you conduct the competition in a way that will increase your social media engagement. For example, asking consumers to like, share and comment on an Instagram post in order to participate will increase the amount of exposure your brand is getting and will also improve your SEO ranking. Good quality social media competitions can often go viral, which exposes your brand to many more potential consumers – so make sure to give back to your customers this Christmas with an exciting competition!
5. Improve Your Virtual Customer Service
While we may not be communicating with clients and customers the way we usually would at the moment, it is still important to offer as much customer support as we can online. Responding to emails, tweets and direct messages is crucial in maintaining good customer service, especially around Christmastime when shoppers can be busy and stressed-out. Answering customer queries promptly and effectively can be done with ease by using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Other functions such as chatbots or automatic responders on Facebook can be extremely useful to businesses who may not have the capacity to be dealing with a large number of customer queries. Whichever platform you use to communicate with, be sure to be polite and helpful as word gets around quickly about businesses that go the extra mile for their customers!
Christmas 2020 will be different. But don’t let that hinder your success when it comes to marketing your brand. Adjust your strategy, think positively and work with an open mind. With the right approach, anything can be achieved. If you are interested in moving your business online, get in touch with Evolution Digital today.
