Retailers and ecommerce businesses can take advantage of the upcoming holidays with the widespread and ever growing popularity of Black Friday, Cyber Week and Small Business Saturday. Using these shopping bonanzas to benefit your business is easy with our tips on promoting your business and products during the holiday season.
By: Priscilla Salmasi and Shay Harbaugh
Discount Something Different
If you sell products or services in store or online and are able to offer a discount – holidays are the perfect time to do so, as people are bargain shopping and looking for deals. Offer a discount that differs from your typical discount or offer. Doing so encourages people to act on these discounts if they are outside of the normal deal they receive from your business. If you’re able to do so, bump up your normal offer or give some sort of incentive to buy now through the holiday season. After all, it is the season of giving!
Offer A Promo Code
Shoppers are savvier than ever, as many people are on tight budgets around the holidays. Fans of your brand will often check your Facebook page for promos before they buy, so offering promotions through social media is a good way to gain followers and keep them. If you’re trying to promote online sales, offer an online-only promo code on days when your sales may be at their lowest to encourage more activity on those days. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, offering the promotion that is available online as well as in store will also increase traffic inside the store.
Build Your Email List
Holidays are a great time to increase subscribers to your email list. If you have an ecommerce store, offer a discount off the first purchase if customers sign up for your email list. Remember to keep it a simple process by not making it difficult for the customer to use the discount. Signing up for your email list is one thing, but having to verify the email, then click through the email to receive the discount is more than the average person will do. If you don’t sell products online and have a retail store only, always ask your customers for their email address so they will be notified of sales and deals.
Put Together A Marketing Plan
During this time of year there is an overload of sales, promotions, and information, so it’s best to get organized and put together a marketing plan. You don’t want to just throw something together. Think about what type of promotions you will be advertising and ask yourself, “Who is my target audience? What customers will benefit and be excited about this promotion?” Your goal is to get people excited and thinking about shopping at your store. Once you have an idea of what you will be promoting and who you will be promoting it to, get together a list of the marketing materials that you will need to advertise your sales. Think about the overall look and concept and invest in signage, postcards, posters, website, social media ads, etc.
Have An Exciting Design And Look
Having an exciting and attractive look will help build up the hype of your store and draw more people in. The trick is to have a holiday look that is integrated well into your current branding and logo. For example, if you sell electronics and your brand color scheme is black and white, you can use red and green sparingly. If you are promoting a huge sale on T.V.s you can utilize a product image and have a nice picture a family gathered around a Christmas tree on the T.V. Keep it clean and stay away from clutter. Don’t get too crazy with the graphics and don’t place every single product that’s in the store on the ad. Focus on the main big promotions you are offering and use professional high quality product images. Keep the layout classy and use hierarchy for the type. The message of what you are selling needs to be clear and highlight those important words.
Have Professional Marketing Materials
Having an exciting and attractive look for your marketing materials can help build up the hype of your promotion and draw more people in. The trick is to have a holiday look that is integrated well into your current branding and logo. For example, if you sell electronics and your brand color scheme is black and white, you can use red and green sparingly. If you are promoting a huge sale on TVs, you can utilize a product image and have a nice picture of a family gathered around a Christmas tree on the TV in your ad. Keep it clean and stay away from clutter. Don’t get too crazy with the graphics and don’t place every single product that’s in the store on the ad. Focus on the main big promotions you are offering and use professional, high-quality product images. Keep the layout clean and use hierarchy for the type. The message of what you are selling needs to be clear and highlight those important deals.
Call Veugeler Design Group to discuss your holiday marketing efforts: 678-482-2270 or at VDGatl.com.
