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With Black Friday and Cyber Monday on the horizon, there is significant potential for retailers just waiting to be tapped. After all, on Black Friday in 2017, online shoppers spent $5.03 billion and a total of $19.62 billion from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
These digital marketing ideas can help harness the opportunities available as the holiday season kicks off by improving your reach among your target audience.
Start Marketing Early
Most companies don’t start marketing in October, so getting a jump on the competition can help pack a punch. Waiting until the week or two prior to Thanksgiving risks your message getting lost in a deluge of marketing content from other retailers. Start a marketing campaign early to keep your sales on the forefront of your customers' minds. Research indicates that shoppers start planning holiday purchases several months in advance, so the more you do now, the better.
If you're not entirely sure what promotions you'll ultimately run on the big day, that's okay, craft marketing materials that build anticipation for the day of the sale.
Drive Traffic with Hourly Specials
Most retailers mark down products over the holiday weekend, so why not extend the fun by putting a different must-have item on sale each hour of the day? By using rotating deals, you can build extra anticipation and drive more visitors to your site or store.
You can do this in a few different ways. For example, send out emails or post on social media a preview of sale items to pique interest. While it's to your advantage to keep most of your promotions running all day, reserve a few deals and steals to add some extra excitement.
Prepare Your Pages
Most small businesses work hard to maintain a dynamic web presence, but not all websites are designed to handle a lot of traffic. In anticipation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it's important to make sure your technology is up to the task.
Before taking your sales live, make sure your server is prepared to handle extra traffic without downtime and that your pages will load quickly, even with additional demands. Almost half of all online shoppers will move on if an e-commerce site loads slowly. Consider having redundancies in place that can be used if something goes awry.
Employ Retargeting Techniques
On Black Friday and Cyber Monday some shoppers will get trigger-shy over prices or find themselves worrying about their budget, rather than splurging as anticipated. Instead of counting these as missed opportunities, employ re-targeting strategies to keep customers interested in the items you have available. This can take the form of promoted ads on social media, emails or banners on websites, even after the holiday weekend comes to a close.
With so much to gain from a successful Thanksgiving weekend campaign, it's important to put your focus in the right place. With these tips, you’ll be ready to enjoy a profitable kickoff to the holiday season.
These digital marketing ideas can help harness the opportunities available as the holiday season kicks off by improving your reach among your target audience.
Start Marketing Early
Most companies don’t start marketing in October, so getting a jump on the competition can help pack a punch. Waiting until the week or two prior to Thanksgiving risks your message getting lost in a deluge of marketing content from other retailers. Start a marketing campaign early to keep your sales on the forefront of your customers' minds. Research indicates that shoppers start planning holiday purchases several months in advance, so the more you do now, the better.
If you're not entirely sure what promotions you'll ultimately run on the big day, that's okay, craft marketing materials that build anticipation for the day of the sale.
Drive Traffic with Hourly Specials
Most retailers mark down products over the holiday weekend, so why not extend the fun by putting a different must-have item on sale each hour of the day? By using rotating deals, you can build extra anticipation and drive more visitors to your site or store.
You can do this in a few different ways. For example, send out emails or post on social media a preview of sale items to pique interest. While it's to your advantage to keep most of your promotions running all day, reserve a few deals and steals to add some extra excitement.
Prepare Your Pages
Most small businesses work hard to maintain a dynamic web presence, but not all websites are designed to handle a lot of traffic. In anticipation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it's important to make sure your technology is up to the task.
Before taking your sales live, make sure your server is prepared to handle extra traffic without downtime and that your pages will load quickly, even with additional demands. Almost half of all online shoppers will move on if an e-commerce site loads slowly. Consider having redundancies in place that can be used if something goes awry.
Employ Retargeting Techniques
On Black Friday and Cyber Monday some shoppers will get trigger-shy over prices or find themselves worrying about their budget, rather than splurging as anticipated. Instead of counting these as missed opportunities, employ re-targeting strategies to keep customers interested in the items you have available. This can take the form of promoted ads on social media, emails or banners on websites, even after the holiday weekend comes to a close.
With so much to gain from a successful Thanksgiving weekend campaign, it's important to put your focus in the right place. With these tips, you’ll be ready to enjoy a profitable kickoff to the holiday season.
