This year, all businesses have had to navigate through a very rough terrain, therefore effectively capitalising on the holiday season is essential for many. Our Director, Amanda Walls, recently spoke to Fleximize to share her top tips with SME’s looking to make the most of the holiday season.
Amanda is a digital marketing expert and has worked in Digital Marketing for over a decade. Over the last four years, she has nurtured Cedarwood Digital into the award-winning agency that it is today.
If you need help optimising your digital marketing strategy this holiday season, we have summarised Amanda’s top tips below or check out the full article on Fleximize’s site here.
How to capitalize on holiday marketing trends
1. Experiment with dynamic adverts
Throughout the holiday season markets are flooded with retailers, so it can be difficult for consumers to hear your brand above the noise. Amanda suggested that one simple way to stand out from the crowd is to make the most of Google’s ad extensions. Below are a few examples that have worked well for us in the past…
- Reviews: “…we tested seller ratings for a gardening centre client and found that ads with seller ratings have a 41% higher CTR than normal text ads.“
- Structured snippets: “…showcase more information from your website“
- Countdown timers: “People have a natural fear of missing out and so the countdown timer extension is great for creating a sense of urgency around your product or service“
2. Create shopping feeds
“If you’re an ecommerce company, using product feeds in the run up to a holiday season is a no brainer“, Amanda explained. They help to quickly generate engaging ads, showcasing products that are directly pulled from your catalogue.
Where can shopping feeds be utilised?
- Google Shopping Campaign Ads
- Facebook Dynamic Product Ads (these show on both Facebook and Instagram)
3. Invest in retargeting advertising
Retargeting allows you to show personalized ads to returning customers, customers who have browsed your site without buying and people similar to existing customers.
“Retargeting not only allows brands to reach out to interested customers, but it also helps to increase brand visibility during noisy holiday periods – something that could encourage a potential customer to buy from you instead of a competitor.“
Below are a selection of tools that you can utilise to retarget your customers:
- Google’s Display network
- Google’s Dynamic Remarketing
- Facebook’s Retargeting
- Facebook Lookalike Audiences
4. Don’t neglect customer reviews
Although the holiday season may be your busiest time of year, customer service must remain paramount. Don’t neglect the long-term goal for a quick win in the holidays.
A few of Amanda’s top tips for maintaining great customer service and positive customer reviews include:
- Invest in customer service for the pre-buying process, not just the shipping
- Utilise live chat windows on your site
- Respond to any queries promptly
- Enhance the buying experience and increase buying intent with tailored landing pages and gift guides
- Create landing pages for specific terms you want to rank for during your specific holiday season such as ‘Christmas Trees’ or ‘Valentine’s Day Gifts’
5. Celebrate delivery
Customers are starting to expect free AND fast shipping. Be sure to communicate your shipping offering clearly to your customer. Amanda advises to “…factor delivery charges into your sales model and ensure that this service is featured clearly across your website and marketing channels.“
6. Prepare for traffic spikes
Amanda notes that “[c]ustomers will not hang around on websites that are slow or crash”. Ideally, load times should be under 2 or 3 seconds on a desktop. Here are a few ways that you can speed up your load times:
- Enable GZIP compression on your web serves
- Compress images
- Minify Java experience
7. Optimize for mobile
Customer trends are changing. What once was a research tool before buying a product is now being used to make purchases, therefore optimising for mobile is essential.
“The bottom line is that if people have a negative experience on mobile, they’re less likely to purchase from you in the future – no matter how great your website is.”
8. Plan early
Planning holiday campaigns well in advance is crucial. It takes time to build up SEO rankings and prepare a campaign that is going to stand up against a competitive market.
Christmas shopping can begin as early as September, so to maximise on the holiday period your campaigns must be ready before then.
“Plan early for each holiday season and you’ll be putting your business head and shoulders above the competition.“
To view the article in full please head over to Fleximize’s site here.
If you found this blog useful, head to our blog page where you will find more advice from our digital marketing experts.
