Now that it’s officially November, it’s now ok(ish) to talk about Christmas. For retailers with an online presence, it is essential to start thinking about the festive period – in fact, it may have been wise to start planning months ago!
It goes without saying that Christmas is the biggest time of year for retailers and businesses in associated industries, so it’s time to ramp up your digital marketing effort and really make the most of this golden opportunity.
Here are 10 digital marketing tips that all retail brands should be paying attention to in the run-up to Christmas 2020:
- Schedule content ahead of time. The last thing you want to do on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day is writing blog posts or composing marketing emails, or even tweeting. Make sure you keep up engagement by scheduling everything in advance.
- Be ready for mobile. Not only does mobile traffic soar at Christmas, but there will also be lots of new users with shiny new devices to play with. Make sure you’re embracing responsive web design on both your website and your marketing emails.
- Look at the data from last Christmas. What did you do well, and not so well, during Christmas 2019? Use last year’s data and insights to improve this year’s digital marketing efforts.
- Plan a dedicated Christmas campaign. You could just step up your ongoing marketing campaigns, but it’s easier to really focus on your efforts and achieve your goals if you set out a clear plan and strategy just for Christmas.
- Invest in video & gamification. According to thinkwithgoogle.com, online views of Christmas ads last year were up an enormous 3000% compared to previous years. If you consider the success of video campaigns from the likes of John Lewis, for example, you’ll see how crucial it is to make emotional or engaging video content a key part of your campaign.
- Make sure your website is fast. If you’re expecting lots of extra traffic during the festive season (and you should be), make sure both your website and your hosting are up to the job.
- Offer ideas and inspiration. A great way to boost sales and increase engagement and loyalty with customers is to help them find what they’re looking for. Offer them discounts on items they’ve been browsing, or create blogs with unique and useful gift ideas.
- Christmas up your content. As Christmas approaches, it’s worth revising product descriptions and other content to include SEO-friendly terms that your customers are likely to use.
- Look at your customer’s past behaviour. As well as looking at your own insights from years gone by, Digital Marketing Magazine also recommends looking at your customer’s seasonal behaviour to identify and anticipate trends.
- Target your campaign. Just because we’re building up to a Christmas shopping frenzy, it doesn’t mean that targeting and goals should go out of the window. Stick to the most effective channels (rather than trying to cover them all) and keep your target customers in mind at all times.