With Christmas so close, the most frustrating thing for online retailers is the habit of shoppers clicking “Add to Cart” on all the items they want to buy, only to leave without actually checking these out. If you’re wondering how to move your shoppers towards a successful purchase, we’ve put together 12 holiday marketing ideas to boost your ongoing e-commerce campaigns. Get ahead of the competition and boost your online sales this holiday season.
Website
Incorporate Christmas elements into your banners
Before anything else, it’s important to decorate our digital homes. Nothing makes us feel the yuletide season more than putting up Christmas decorations in our own physical spaces—and this approach also applies to websites. Remember that your homepage banner is the first thing that the website visitors will see.
You can also take this opportunity to entice visitors to check your product pages (or to at least contact you about any promos for your services)
Make your Offer tab visible
Among the many buttons on your website menu, create a tab that stands out for offers. Design your Offer tab so that it’s in line with your chosen Christmas theme and lead web visitors to check out on ongoing promos or sale items.
Consider using a special product page that highlights discounted items—and don’t forget to make sure that this special URL is properly linked.
Create a sense of urgency, scarcity, or anticipation with a countdown timer
Speaking of offers, another thing to consider is embedding a countdown timer on your website banner or right beside the Offers tab.
This timer creates a sense of urgency and encourages potential customers to take action and seize limited time offers
Don’t forget to personalise Christmas greetings
Creating a connection between your brand and your customers is critical. Remember to be authentic when you greet your customers. Play around with your marketing copy (while staying compliant with your branding guidelines) and think of ways to make your holiday greeting unique to your industry or area or expertise.
If your customer base is diverse, you can do some research on the different ways people celebrate the season all over the world.
Promotional Ideas
Allocate a “Free Shipping Day”
This may be the moment your abandoned cart shoppers are waiting for. After all, who doesn’t love free shipping?
Highlight how your customers can save when they purchase in bulk. You can also make these free shipping days special by setting a limit for when they start and end. Remember to plan campaigns around these special days to prepare your customers for when it happens.
Give out discount coupons or set a Discount Day for a limited time
Christmas is about giving and the season shouldn’t exclude your most loyal subscribers. Consider “Thank You” discount coupons or exclusive gifts.
You can also make use of a countdown timer to excite customers and lead them to purchase. Alternatively, set a special day for discounts, just like your “Free Shipping Day”. Consider making this open to the public to rope in a broader audience.
Launch a limited time offer on Holiday Bundles or a Buy 1, Take 1/Buy 2, Get 1 promo
Excite your customers through deals. Craft a bundle offer or consider ways to reward customers who purchase big. You can also offer greater value by combining two or more products compared to the value of individual items purchased separately.
This is a great way to encourage your customers to be your promoters.
Consider Holiday Specials
Capitalise on the festive season and put together gift baskets! Package your products as ready-to-buy/ready-to-give. You can even add limited edition products that are exclusive to the season (and your specific package).
Email Campaigns
Create a Christmas-themed newsletter
If you’re currently sending out a monthly newsletter to your subscribers, design your emails in time for the season ties these back nicely with your Christmas-themed website.
But apart from your newsletter’s look, take this opportunity to create a call-to action that links specifically to holiday collections or items currently on sale.
Brainstorm on open-worthy email content like a Shopper’s Guide
Email content that provides value to your subscribers can help to trigger better email open rates and can also encourage them to take action.
A last-minute shopper guide or gift guide is a good example. You can pair these with your newsletter to promote your discounts, holiday bundles, and exclusive promo codes for subscribers.
Send out Christmas Promo Announcements to the right person at the right time
Spread the good news about upcoming or ongoing promotions and automate your email workflows to trigger subscribers’ into action. You can do this for when they abandon a cart or when they sign up for your newsletter.
Add compelling calls-to-action at the end of your emails to remind them of any upcoming special discount days or to lead them to your product page.
Retarget abandoned cart customers
Retarget passive, abandoned cart customers and encourage them to be more active shoppers. Send out reminder emails focused on the items they placed in their carts. You can add special Christmas deals to incentivise their purchases.
Social Media
Let your logo reflect the Christmas season
Decorate your social media profile: it can be as simple as adding a Santa hat or other Christmas elements to your logo. Remember though, that you should limit these elements so that they don’t alter your logo or disrupt your branding.
Incorporate Christmas elements in cover photos
Your social media cover photo acts the same way as your website banner. In fact, we recommend creating a version of your website banner specifically for the different social media platforms. This helps maintain consistency.
Alternatively, you can use a nice shot of your office decorated for the season or even go with a team photo as a personalized greeting card wishing your followers a happy holiday.
Decorate your IG Highlight covers
If you run your retail business on Instagram, it’s good practice to compile your IG stories and create an IG Stories Highlight which will appear below your bio.
If you need some help customising IG Highlight covers, there are helpful platforms like Canva with pre-set dimensions and designs that you can use as inspiration.
Run a social media contest
If you have exclusive Christmas prizes and giveaways, hosting a contest via social media is a great way to generate hype. Remember that the higher the value of the reward, the higher the chance that your followers will participate.
Be clear about your own goals for running the contest—is this to increase your followers? Or are you looking to generate leads, potential subscribers, or website traffic? These are just some examples of how social media contests can align with your holiday marketing goals.
Of course, as with offline contests, it should go without saying that you need to be clear when writing and releasing your mechanics.
Your shoppers want to score the best deals this coming season. Use these ideas to pique their curiosity and move them a little further towards that “Check Out” button. While the Christmas season is often seen as hectic, know that it doesn’t have to be.
This article was originally published on the QuicklyLaunch website on 5 December 2019. Visit their website here.
| Do you need help getting your website marketing-ready in time for the holiday rush? QuicklyLaunch can lend you a hand. If you already have a website and need some creative muscle to support your marketing efforts, check out StraightArrow’s other services here. |