How To Make The Most Of The Festive Season For Your Brand
Charlie Bradley Ross
Wednesday, 9 December 2015
Most brands experience the highest sales of the year during the holiday seasons. October to December, in particular, is when most customers do large-scale shopping, giving manufacturers and retailers the chance to boost revenues. The competition is also quite high at this time, and smart planning and marketing is the way to maximise profits.
How to make the most of the #festive #season for your #brand
As a brand owner, a well-planned approach can help you promote sales during this festive season. This is also the right time to showcase your brand, and build your reputation. Here are my tips and some marketing strategy examples to help you with this.
Plan Your Brand's Holiday Shopping Experience In Advance
Like this article on the Real Business suggests, you should find a unique way to stand out against the competition. It should be closely linked to your key performance metrics. For this, focus only on the most important objectives you have for your brand. Clearly communicate these goals to the members of your planning, marketing and sales teams, so you can together come up with a plan that targets every relevant aspect. Remember that it should also appeal to the customer, so concentrate on creative and innovative ideas.
Market Using All Channels
You cannot just assume that your potential customers will see your messages. Instead, you should try to get it to them using all possible channels. Choose to build brand awareness and promote your products through different platforms, particularly using mobile, online and offline methods. Use your website, mobile apps, print advertisements and social media networks to maximise the reach of your brand. The Entrepreneur suggests that you partner with an efficient marketing agency that aligns with your brand, if multiple channel promotions are beyond your scope.
Use Promotions And Prizes To Rise Above The Competition
Every customer, whether shopping online or offline, wants to get the best offer for the money they spend. They are easily attracted to discounts and prizes. Use this to your advantage to encourage them to choose your brand. Plan a structured approach to promoting your product, and create a rush using limited time offers. This will push them to make the purchase quickly, and not put it off for later. Promotions with shared products, where one of the chosen items isn't associated with the festive season, is an effective way to boost sales across your inventory.
Power Up Your Website
As the holiday season draws near, you should optimise your website to draw in holiday traffic. Experts suggest that your web pages should take no longer than five seconds to load and the messaging should be clear, or your customer may leave. Anticipate the possible rush you may have to deal with, and work with your developers to ensure that the website loads quickly. Highlight products and holiday deals that potential customers will be attracted to, and make it easy to navigate to them. If your website allows online shopping, simplify the checkout by removing ads and banners that aren't related to making the purchase. Add a few festive touches and a holiday value message to the homepage. As more visitors are likely to visit your website at this time, focus on getting more customers to sign up for your newsletter and alerts. This way, you can encourage them to stay with you even after the holidays.
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Be Creative On Social Media
Exploit the power of social media to further your brand's personality and build a loyal fan base, by what you feed into your page this season. When your social media updates are creative, unusual and perfect for the holidays, more users are likely to share it. This will earn popularity for your brand. Someone like Liberty London has great festive social media presence. Look to others for inspiration! For craft and sewing related businesses, you can also get involved with things like the PhotoSewHop from @HouseOfPinhero or the Bimble and Pimple #bpSewvember. A great way to reach out and connect with other like-minded brands!
Presents
Have you seen our Big Winter Giveaway? Treat your loyal customers! It's a great way to make them know you appreciate them and will keep them coming back long into the new year. Team up with other brands! For our Big Winter Giveaway, we've done exactly that - working with companies with a similar ethos to curate a selection of giveaways across a twelve day period. Make connections that will last. Tis' the season of giving after all.
Consider Customisation Options
If there is one thing that customers are prepared to spend extra on, it is personalised gifts. Just like thoughtful non-traditional gifts are a sure winner, customised gifts are also special. If your products have scope to be customised for the holiday season, it will have more takers. Seasonal editions of most products are usually in higher demand during the last quarter. If this cann't be done with the product itself, you can turn to packaging as your next best option. This article on BizAhead recommends using custom gift wrap as a great way to reinforce your brand message. Premium packaging and extra details that make a gift more festive, will prompt buyers to spend a little extra on it.
While you use the festive season to garner sales, don't forget to take steps to also build your brand for the coming year. Add this factor into your planning phase, so you will not only have a profitable year-end, but carry forward the benefits to the next year too!
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The most lucrative time in the calendar for sales! Make sure you've got your marketing strategy right!
Don't let your brand get left behind this festive season!