Ebun Oluwole: 6 Festive Marketing Strategies For Small Businesses In 2017

The festive season is here again. You’re not alone, I’m also wondering how 2017 went by so fast! By now, your holiday marketing campaigns should have been ready for execution. But we all know how overwhelming it can be for small businesses who are usually caught up with last minute planning. So, if you are yet to come up with a marketing campaign for the holidays, I’m here to help.

The holiday season is the busiest (and sometimes most rewarding) time of the year for retailers. In fact, some statistics say that Black Friday through Christmas brings in 50 – 100 percent more revenue compared to other shopping days throughout the rest of the year. But then how do you ensure you make the most out of the season? How do you decide what marketing strategies to execute to ensure you make the most sales this season?

Here are some ideas in order of non-technical to technical;

Sales Campaign
The easiest and possibly the simplest campaign you can run during this festive season is a sales campaign. You can decide to slash the prices of your best-selling products by giving a discount. If you have a lot of old products in stock, you can take advantage of Black Friday and sell them off at a giveaway price. You can also decide to offer free shipping for all products purchased on Christmas Day or on New Year’s Day. If you’re not thinking of any grandiose campaign, a sales campaign is your best bet!

Holiday Giveaways
Another non-technical campaign you can run for the holidays is a giveaway. Social media giveaways are relatively easy to execute on your own or in collaboration with other brands. If you think it’s something you can handle and you want to give back to your followers after a good year, you can run a giveaway. Apart from increasing brand loyalty, it also increases brand awareness and encourages engagement.

Influencer Marketing Campaigns
If you are a social-media savvy business owner, you must have heard about how influencer marketing ruled 2017 and will definitely spike in 2018. You must also have heard about the high conversion rate of influencer marketing. If you haven’t heard, well now you know. So this season, take some time to find influencers in your niche and get them to talk about your products and/or services in exchange for a token. Depending on who you approach, you may be required to give some monetary compensation. Find out if it works for your budget, if it doesn’t reach out to micro-influencers who do not necessarily require monetary compensation.

The first three ideas above require little or no expertise. You can run them yourself without the services of a social media specialist. The next three however, requires some level of expertise to achieve the best results.

Social Ad Campaigns
So, for some reasons you have given out a lot things throughout the year in form of discounts, coupon codes  and giveaways and you want to do something different for the holidays, why not run a Facebook and/or Instagram ad campaign? Apart from exposing your brand to a whole new audience, a well targeted and high-optimized ad campaign can get you actual results. From increase in sales to website traffic and sign-ups. Depending on your objectives, ad campaigns are perfect for the holidays.

PRO TIP: Did you know that Facebook prioritizes ad campaigns during the holidays? Hence, your ads have better chances of being shown to even more people during this season.

Retargeting Campaigns
In simple terms, retargeting means connecting with people that have previously shown interest in your products and/or services. You know how you sometimes visit an online store and for some reasons you don’t buy anything even if you are actually interested in a couple of items. Running a retargeting campaign simply means going after your leads, reminding them with an ad and turning them to customers. A retargeting campaign has a higher conversion rate because leads have already been interested in your product once and by responding to your ad, it means they’re still interested and actually want to make a purchase. The holidays are a great time to remind them.

Seasonal Emails
Another channel that you definitely shouldn’t sleep on during the holidays is email. This is a shopping season and shoppers will always appreciate a little help to aid their shopping decisions. As email marketing is responsible for the most holiday sales, you need to be sending well segmented emails to your existing customers during this period particularly if you offer seasonal products. Send a series of emails preparing them for your holiday campaigns, remind them of the campaigns and appreciate their participation and support after the campaign. Don’t forget to include list-building strategies that would expose your brand to new audiences and subsequently customers because frankly, not everyone will buy from you this season. It never hurts to acquire new leads.

Whatever your budget or how little the time frame is, there’s a holiday campaign you can execute.

Photo Credit: Dreamstime