With the silly season quickly approaching more and more businesses are beginning to look at ways to capitalise on the buying frenzy that is Christmas. Undoubtedly businesses across the board see an increase in sales over this period (if your business doesn’t then please keep reading). Those involved in digital marketing truly love this period as we can flex our creative muscles and run some really unique campaigns.
With the silly season quickly approaching more and more businesses are beginning to look at ways to capitalise on the buying frenzy that is Christmas. Undoubtedly businesses across the board see an increase in sales over this period (if your business doesn’t then please keep reading). Those involved in digital marketing truly love this period as we can flex our creative muscles and run some really unique campaigns.
Now I am going to be a little bit forward here. Posting a Santa Meme on your businesses Facebook page is not a Christmas marketing strategy that will deliver any real results. To unlock your businesses true potential you will need to implement some strategies that are a bit more thought out. Let’s take a look at some strategies and campaigns you can run to help drive your Christmas sales up.
The honest truth is that organic social media reach will not be enough to see an increase in sales over this period. You will need to start implementing some ad campaigns to really see those sales begin rising. Let go over a couple of good ad campaigns that will help spread your company's Christmas joy (and sales).
Just like the name suggests, a brand awareness campaign is a campaign focused on spending your budget on showing your ads to as many people as possible. Facebook is a great platform for running brand awareness campaigns, more specifically when you have your goal as “Estimated Ad Recall Lift”. This means your campaign will focus its budget on showing to people who will remember your ads.
These are especially beneficial for smaller businesses as you can run these campaigns on smaller budgets. I would recommend allocating more of your budget into these campaigns earlier in the season (2-3 months out) and moving that budget to a more sales-focused campaign closer to the date Santa arrives.
For those running ecommerce businesses, shopping campaigns are the Reindeer that push your businesses online sales soaring into the sky. These campaigns use your ad budget to focus on putting your ads in front of the audience that will buy your products right there and then. Both Facebook and Google shopping campaigns will be beneficial across the Christmas period. One big asset is that you can set your Shopping campaigns to show your products dynamically, meaning that they will use machine learning to know the best products to show. We would recommend allocating a large portion of your budget into these campaigns a month or so out from Christmas.
For those of you not involved in the eCommerce game or who also have a storefront, then a Geo campaign is essential in helping your business get found during this sales frenzy. These campaigns mainly run through Google Search Ads. The focus of this campaign is to use all your budget on showing your ads to a super local location (usually around your storefront). This way all your budget is being used on clicks local to you. Make sure you have your Google Search campaign targeting Google Maps as well (this can be done via the “Location Extension” ) and use keywords with intent to visit the store i.e. “Hardware store near me”.
The digital space during this period becomes significantly more competitive as more businesses are marketing during this time. This naturally has an effect on the digital marketing landscape for everyone. As a rule, the more people advertising can equal a higher cost to have your ads show, so expect to be spending a bit more than usual while advertising through this period. Also, it’s important to have some really creative ad campaigns (especially on Facebook) as the market will be saturated with Christmas marketing.
Okay, this isn’t exactly related to Christmas but it’s SUPER important when it comes to your website's ability to convert. You could run the best Christmas ad & organic marketing strategies ever, but if your website is not properly optimised then you’ll see a massive amount of potential customers falling off right at the finish line. So I have broken down a few key factors that you should focus on.
Having a fast load time is essential to your website success. The modern-day consumer has grown accustomed to websites loading instantly with anything over a few seconds potentially losing you a client. People know that trusted brands and websites are able to have websites that load quickly. Google knows the importance of load speed and its ability to convert customers. This is why it’s one of Google’s main signals when deciding to rank a website highly on the SERPs. You can test your website's load speed here. (inset links to gt metrics)
This is a service that is often overlooked by businesses. CRO is basically the process of collecting data on customer behaviour on your website and then making strategic changes to help improve their experience. The benefits of CRO are massive in digital marketing and should be considered highly by every business. Use Hotjar to begin gathering data on your website’s performance. Ideally, this would be well before the Christmas period arrives.
Email marketing is sometimes overlooked as an effective marketing channel. In reality this is far from the truth, a successfully nurtured email list is a direct channel to your most engaged audience. This is one of the first places I will begin advertising my Christmas campaigns as it will likely generate the most success. Reward your loyal customers with some specials and encourage them to renenage with your business nice and early.
I have touched on a few areas of digital marketing that should help guide your Christmas campaigns to success! If you did find that some of these strategies might have gone over your head then in the end it’s best to let the professionals handle it. We here at Mensa Marketing have a team of expert digital marketing experts ready to help you push your Christmas sales through the roof! Just leave your details here and we will reach out for a free no obligation consultation!
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