The holiday season has begun, and business owners are racking their brains once more on what Marketing Strategies to apply to bring in more sales.
If you notice inflatable Santas and other Christmas decorations popping up in stores, it’s an indication that the holidays are here once more.
To say that 2020 has been an unprecedented year is an understatement due to the pandemic and all but life must go on, and holiday marketers should be preparing for strategies they can execute for this year.
Online marketing will be essential for the 2020 holiday season. Covid-19 has changed the way consumers behave as more and more people have been spending time at home and buy their stuff online.
We can expect less travel, more online purchases, and socially distanced gatherings with loved ones.
With a little creativity and preparation, your business can adopt a marketing tactic that can take advantage of the “new normal” this holiday season.
Here are some tips from the experts.
Great Marketing Strategies From Pros
Digital Marketing Strategies are different this 2020 holiday season due to the impact of the coronavirus. Gear up your business and apply these marketing strategies from the pros.
Virtual Events
Since the pandemic started, large gatherings have become restricted in most places. Companies have responded to this by hosting virtual events.
You may have attended one of these events or have been invited to one. The holidays will be different this year, with people staying put and not going out to attend the usual parties and reunions.
A virtual event is an excellent opportunity to build relationships with your prospective clients.
This is your chance to introduce a new product, share a holiday initiative, or host a virtual party to celebrate with your team and customers.
Optimize Your eCommerce Site
Here’s where your trusted SEO company comes in handy. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed eCommerce ahead of retail in 2020. Online buying has risen by 30% since the lockdowns started, and some experts say that the virus sped up the shift to eCommerce by 4 to 6 years.
Your website represents your company. People learn more about you and buy your products and services through your website.
Make sure that your eCommerce website is ready for the wave of activity this holiday season.
Your SEO expert can help you come up with a site or improve your existing website.
Today’s consumers want a site that is easy to navigate and has a responsive design that loads quickly.
No matter how good your product or service is, your website can drive people away and look elsewhere if they have a hard time navigating your site.
A site that is not optimized for mobile makes fonts and images appear jumbled or too small on screen.
Amazon reports that a mere 1-second delay in loading may cost them $1.6 billion in sales every year. A fast loading site is vital to your
eCommerce success.
Video Marketing
Video marketing has been growing steadily, even before the pandemic started. The trend since COVID-19 hit is more people watching videos online. Stats show that online video consumption has quadrupled during this pandemic.
You can take advantage of this trend by adding video marketing to your holiday marketing strategy.
Create video ads or go live on social media to share what your business has been up to for the holidays.
For traditional businesses, it’s time to think outside of the box. Video marketing is not only a trend, it is here to stay.
Work With Influencers
Keep in mind that you are not the only one making a marketing strategy for the holidays. As a business owner, you should learn creative ways to stay ahead of the competition and build connections with your customers.
Influencer marketing is an excellent way to promote your products and services through a known personality that people trust.
If you know someone who has a large following online, you can collaborate with them on a holiday product or in your virtual event.
Holiday Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
The holiday season is crucial for eCommerce as consumers spend around $1,000 on average on gifts and holiday items. We share some holiday marketing mistakes that were done in the past that you can avoid.
Poor planning can be disastrous to your business, especially with the influx of orders during the holidays. Plan to have excess workers and extra inventory, so you don’t need to turn away disappointed customers.
Web hosting is essential as more traffic comes into your site. You don’t want your website to crash due to the wave of customers navigating your site. Upgrading your web hosting plan may be a good idea to make sure that your website is ready for the extra traffic coming your way.
Having a poor cart checkout experience is one way to lose customers fast. Minimize the number of fields on your checkout form, customer impatience is high nowadays, and you need to adjust.
Allow customers to buy without creating an account, and stop using captcha forms if you can. Offer an express checkout for customers who are in a hurry.
As more people shop using their mobile devices, you should not make the mistake of failing to optimize your site for mobile. A 2018 report from Salesforce shows that 68% of all eCommerce customers are using mobile devices.
Optimize by adjusting fonts and make landing pages render well on mobile devices. If you don’t, you can lose half of your customers who are engaging with you through their mobile phones and tablets.
Conclusion
Marketing strategies have shifted this 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus.
The changes should not discourage you, learn to adapt, and you will be fine. Go to where the customers are and provide them with valuable holiday-themed content.
Combining the tips mentioned above or focusing on one can help boost your holiday marketing campaign this 2020.
Let’s all make a positive impact as we look forward to a better year ahead.