People look forward to holidays for a myriad of reasons like shortened work weeks, more time with friends and family, and extra personal time. It is also quite common for many people to spend their extra day shopping. That is good news for businesses who elect to open their doors on a holiday, but even if a business decides to remain closed, there is a lot of time prior to the day to build anticipation. Small businesses have an opportunity to take advantage of this seasonal mood to attract potential customers. Whether your strategy promotes online shopping or in person retail, seasonal holidays like Easter, Lunar New Year, Thanksgiving, or Christmas can help boost your sales and generate some noticeable revenue.
That does not mean that your business has to recognize or prepare for every single holiday that exists in a calendar year. It is more important that the holidays you celebrate with advertising campaigns or decorative displays align with your brand identity as well as the industry you operate within. Promoting a holiday that reflects your brand ideals helps attract the customers you want to do business with, and it helps foster a more specific client base instead of just any regular person searching for a good deal. Sustainable business requires a trusting and loyal set of customers. For instance, celebrating International Women’s Day would be great for female owned businesses that create products targeted at other women. Cafes could celebrate National Coffee Day with attractive upsell promotions. Shops that focus on selling romantic apparel could turn Valentine’s Day into their version of Christmas. To help you think of ways you can integrate your favourite season into a brand, here are some trendy promotional ideas that you can put into practice this year to surprisingly positive results.
Hype Up The Holiday
This idea may be obvious, but festive decor is one of the cheapest and most convenient ways to put your customers in the mood. Putting banners or graphics on your website can captivate online shoppers while similarly themed physical displays can put your retail shoppers in the same mood. MGG Digital Consulting can help with any website design for your seasonal promotion.
It would be advisable to start your decorations as early as possible. 2-3 weeks for smaller holidays or at least 1 month for more popularly recognized holidays would give you enough time to communicate as much information as possible to your customers as well as build a theme that you can continuously follow up on throughout the season.
Another helpful companion element to digital or physical decorations would be a themed email campaign or digital greeting card. Here, you can boost awareness for your business by highlighting promotions or unique offers for products that complement the season, or provide easy solutions for customers like last minute gifts or services. An email blast can also help you incorporate any pertinent social media post or ads that you make, giving your customers a full showcase of all your promotional material in one communication. MGG Digital Consulting has built similar email campaigns for our clients and have seen a consistent boost in engagement as well as purchases made in response to seasonal promotional email campaigns. See our available services here!
Offer Exclusive Seasonal Products or Promotional Materials
During the Christmas season, most department stores offer complimentary gift-wrapping. This added bonus puts customer minds at ease as they don’t have to take the product home and do extra work to get it ready. The labour also builds additional value into the price that the customer sees right away. In addition to making the purchase more memorable, it is a great opportunity for a business to add brand recognition or even a customized wrapping paper design.
By a similar token, offering a specific limited product designed to commemorate the holiday can be a great way to entice customers to make a purchase. You could also offer discounts on your current inventory on products that also reflect the seasonal holiday, like a BOGO offer, or free complimentary gift. If you’re looking for an idea separate from special deals on products, you could offer a free resource like a handbook guide that highlights your experience and expertise in the industry you operate in. In exchange, you could also get the customer’s email address to add to your marketing list. However you choose, launching holiday-themed or limited-time products can both attract attention and drive sales. Promoting these offerings through your various channels before their release can also generate excitement for your customers to get them by the time the holiday rolls around.
Engage Customers Digitally By Leveraging Social Media and SEO
Don’t overlook the power of social media in reaching your customers during the holidays. It serves as a dynamic platform to showcase your holiday deals, directly engage with customers, and generate excitement around your offerings. Utilize social media channels to share captivating visuals of your products, provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of your holiday preparations, and interact with your audience through interactive posts. While the old techniques of utilizing hashtags to amplify your reach can certainly help, it is also important to add keywords that the many different algorithms can pick up and send directly to the customers who frequently interact with those keywords.
Optimizing holiday SEO keywords can significantly enhance your online visibility and attract relevant traffic to your website. Conduct thorough research to identify popular holiday-related keywords, focusing on long-tail and location-based phrases to target specific audiences effectively. Incorporate these keywords strategically into your meta tags, product descriptions, and URLs to improve search engine ranking and ensure your content aligns with users’ holiday search intent. By optimizing your SEO strategy for the holiday season, you can effectively capture the attention of potential customers amidst the competitive holiday market, ultimately driving sales and maximizing your holiday marketing efforts.
MGG Digital Consulting offers eCommerce solutions that can help your seasonal campaigns online. Our holistic SEO approach ensures your website ranks high in global and local searches, driving organic traffic and building brand trust. From on-page optimization to technical audits, we enhance user experience and expand reach. Local SEO tactics like Google My Business listings boost domain authority, while conversion rate optimization optimizes CTAs and eCommerce descriptions for increased brand awareness and reduced advertising costs. With our strategic SEO services, your holiday promotions can thrive.
Simplify Your Checkout Process
Most stores will see a surge of holiday shoppers, which can lead to long lines at checkout. These long waiting times may not only cause customers discomfort standing impatiently to rethink their purchase, but it could also detract customers from even coming into your store to browse knowing that they will have to wait for a while in order to purchase something they find. For retail outlets, this can be solved with short term solutions like having an “all checkout lanes open” period where employees can all assist in ringing in customer orders. Longer term solutions like self-checkout areas can also add more lanes without adding more labour. Keeping a smooth in-store shopping experience must include a convenient checkout.
Likewise, complicated online checkouts can also entice a customer to close out of the window, leaving items in their digital shopping card indefinitely. A one-page checkout system can greatly improve this process. Avoid systems that require customers to enter the same information multiple times, like billing or email addresses. Avoid add-ons or pre-offers that interrupt the purchasing path as this could make customers feel like you’re trying to gouge them out of more money. The easier the checkout process, the greater likelihood of sales.
Host or Sponsor Events Celebrating The Season
In addition to providing customers with valuable digital content or resources that highlight your expertise, creating a social event to put your customers in the mood is a worthwhile expense to generate sales and get word of mouth of your brand spreading. There are ways that you can keep the costs of organizing the event low, but it is important that people have an enjoyable and memorable time at these events. Some elements to consider could be live music, free snacks, photo booths, book signings, or games. Partnering with local charities or donation initiatives can also give the event a more community-based approach. It is important to remember that customers help build the business through their purchases and loyalty. Interacting with them in ways that aren’t solely profit based is a great way to help build that loyalty.
Often, these gatherings serve as a platform to collect testimonials and engaging content. You could assign some of your employees to capture great video or photos for promotional use. For online businesses, collaborating with brick-and-mortar establishments or hosting virtual events via platforms like Google Meet provides an alternative avenue for engagement and enhanced participation.
Whatever holiday you would like to celebrate with your business, make sure to capitalize on the opportunity for both festive spirit and heightened consumer activity. By strategically aligning promotional efforts with relevant holidays and leveraging digital platforms, such as social media and SEO optimization, businesses can effectively reach and engage their target audience. Additionally, simplifying the checkout process both in-store and online can streamline the purchasing experience, ultimately increasing sales. Moreover, hosting or sponsoring events celebrating the season not only fosters community engagement but also provides valuable opportunities for brand building and customer interaction. With thoughtful planning and execution, businesses can leverage the holiday season to drive sales, foster customer loyalty, and position themselves for long-term success.