Digital Marketing Easy And Effective For Holiday Advertising

Using digital marketing to your advantage during the holidays is more valuable than ever. Nothing creates a sense of urgency in potential buyers quite like the Christmas season, and if you have been selling online for a while, you already know that holiday sales can make or break your bottom line, no matter what kind of products or services you sell. 

 

Digital marketing makes it easy to create a cohesive holiday advertising campaign that targets YOUR untapped customers across multiple platforms. Truthfully, failing to create a digital advertising strategy specifically for the holidays would be a huge missed opportunity for almost any business.

 

Let’s look at a few digital platform options and how to leverage them for holiday sales.

 

 

Website Design

The world of website design is ever-changing, and it can make or break a consumer’s decision to purchase. The design of your website affects SEO as well as user experience, so if it is outdated, you’re losing potential new customers at the search level as well as sales conversions once they get to your site. A website that is slow or performs poorly can definitely tank your holiday sales, so if you’ve been putting off updates there is no better time than now.

 

Keywords are always the key to bringing in new traffic. It is worth taking the time to update the existing content on your site to take advantage of popular keywords relevant to your products or services. Be sure to evaluate “longtail” keywords or highly specific phrases people use when searching in search engines, as these tend to bring in the users most motivated to purchase.

 

While holiday-specific updates aren’t critically necessary, they can help to drive sales. Adding a splash page or banner with special holiday items or offers creates an added sense of urgency for shoppers, especially with language stressing limited availability or a countdown. This strategy is particularly effective for companies that sell products or services via their website, Shopify, or similar.

 

Content Marketing

Nearly every type of business can benefit from holiday content marketing. Create blog posts, native ads, newsletters, podcasts, videos, and/or social media posts that relate your products or services to the holidays and explain how they solve a problem or provide value. Be sure to use holiday-related keywords wherever possible to fully leverage SEO.

 

Your blog can help you maximize your holiday sales and attract new customers to your business. If you are using WordPress for small business blogging, a holiday-themed plugin is an easy way to spruce up your site and put users in a holiday shopping mood. Another option is to create seasonal variations of the primary header or logo on your site. 

 

Adding seasonal tags or categories can help users stay on your site longer, which means improved SEO and ultimately increased sales. When you have a popular post that is drawing good traffic, be sure it has tags or categories that help them find related information easily.

 

Blogging also gives you an opportunity to explain in depth to potential customers why your products or services make great holiday gifts. “Deal roundups” or compilations of products and services make great holiday content that keeps on giving. You should highlight new and timely items, but don’t forget to put a spotlight on your best sellers as well. 

 

Additionally, holiday blog posts tend to be more evergreen than other types, so you can exploit that by mining and reusing your old content. Just be sure that all of the information contained is current and correct.

 

Social Media Marketing

Word of mouth has always been one of the strongest avenues of marketing success, and social media has increased its power exponentially by allowing consumers to broadcast their purchasing preferences to everyone in their circle at once. It allows consumers to share information and make informed buying decisions, and many rely on it to do so. Over 70% of consumers are likely to purchase an item based on social media referrals. This means that without consistent, engaging social media management, Kansas City businesses are missing out on sales.

 

A strong social media presence not only increases brand recognition but establishes credibility. When consumers can clearly see how you value and interact with them as well as what you have to offer, it builds trust. Seeing that their friends and family have purchased your products or interacted favorably with your company goes a long way toward turning potential customers into buyers.

 

Simply posting information about your company and the products or services you offer isn’t enough to gain followers and sway buying decisions. Your messaging must be informative but also conversational and accessible. You need easily shareable content that your customer base identifies with, posted consistently in ways that keep it fresh and engaging. And don’t forget that images and videos get far more views than text or link posts.

 

Social media marketing should be a priority for every business during the holidays. Users are primed to learn about new brands, products, and services, and engage with them. Ideally, you should have started with brand awareness ads back in September/October and ramped up to convert warm leads to sales starting with Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday, but it isn’t too late. Now is a great time to run a contest or giveaway, especially if you can incorporate user-generated content such as a photo contest featuring your product.

 

TV And Radio

TV and Radio advertising has changed a lot in the last few years, but streaming platforms, podcasts, and social videos present more viewing and listening options, which has expanded the ways businesses get their marketing message out to the public.

 

Streaming ads have been around for years, but the past two years have brought ad-supported streaming to the forefront like never before, and it is expected to continue its explosive growth. On-demand media is providing more and better advertising solutions than ever.

 

It is estimated that over half of all internet users will be using an advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) service by 2024, and growth of over-the-top (OTT), which refers to media streamed through a website or app without a subscription to a cable or satellite provider, is set to surpass digital video this year. In fact, there are now more subscriptions to video streaming services than people in the United States. 

 

As for radio, ads that run during drive times have the highest chance of generating sales. The key is in having a script that effectively gets your message across. Broadcast radio ads cast a wide net. They are a bit less expensive, which allows for repetition, but highly effective when you hit your audience while driving. 

 

Streaming radio apps are digital/internet-based, which give you the same detailed data and targeting as their TV ad counterparts. According to Pew Research, listenership is down for terrestrial radio and up for online audio. Simply put, digital marketing using streaming media is currently the most cost-effective and versatile way to get your brand out there!

 

Email Marketing

Email marketing campaigns are used to inform your target audience about your business, products, and services. No matter what your goal (drive sales, increase customer loyalty, direct traffic to your website, or communicate important information) the email delivers directly into a contact’s email inbox. You have a unique opportunity to generate a response, obtain data, and be more impactful than in any other digital platform.

 

Because the transaction is digital, you have access to data about how your campaign performed. You can see who opened the email, who clicked the links, what links were most effective, who deleted or opted out, and which emails were bad/inactive, and all of the data helps you improve your future email campaigns. Unlike any other marketing call-to-action, email marketing is the most affordable way to reach a very specific group and see exactly how they respond.

 

Email is one of the most effective digital marketing techniques year-round, but it is particularly useful during the holidays. Holiday sales campaigns are the most obvious use of email, but it is also especially effective for retargeting users who have visited your site but left without making a purchase earlier in the year.

 

Digital Out Of Home (DOOH)

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) marketing is the newest platform but it is extremely powerful. DOOH essentially adds digital elements to traditional public space marketing, delivering content to targeted demographics through digital screens, digital billboards, and television screens.

 

DOOH allows you to target your campaigns by demographics, behaviors, households, interests, and more. DOOH advertising can access more than 17 billion impressions on 250,000 screens in over a hundred types of venues in the Kansas City market alone. 

 

Digital advertising that is contextually targeted, meaning reaching specific consumers in places and during activities that are relevant to the campaign, is the future of advertising. If you sell sporting goods, your ads can be shown in sports entertainment facilities like batting cages and golf courses. If you make healthcare supplies, your ads can be displayed in doctor and veterinary offices, pharmacies, and gyms.

 

It is also possible to automatically sync your existing geofences to deliver ads on new DOOH screens in the same target market, such as running your ad near your storefronts or other relevant locations. There are a wealth of locations where a digital ad can be displayed throughout any city. Bus stations, train stations, shopping malls, and city centers are hotspots where many consumers can watch and interact with DOOH campaigns.

 

Taxi and rideshare TV, movie theaters, gas stations, liquor stores, casual restaurants, bus shelters, bars, apartment and office buildings, and even parking garages all commonly have screens that could be reaching your ideal customer. These are all reasons that DOOH should be a key element in the holiday marketing plans of any small business looking to expand its market and brand recognition. 

 

REAL Moxie Is Your Digital Marketing Hub For The Holidays And Beyond

A strong digital strategy utilizes a combination of platforms to deliver your message to your target market. Instead of waiting for them to search for you or hoping they happen to catch your radio ad or pick up the right newspaper, digital ads suggest your products and services to your consumer demographic as they go about their daily activities. When new customers are not walking through your door, you have to meet them where they are.

 

The types of digital marketing that will work best for your business depend on the products or services you offer as well as other factors like customer demographics and current brand recognition. REAL Moxie is here to help you determine how best to highlight your products or services to leverage holiday fever in your favor. 

 

When you’re a small business owner digital advertising can seem intimidating. REAL Moxie is a full-service marketing agency dedicated to creating solutions. We are not limited to specific industries or professions, and we do not use cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solutions. Since the goal of digital advertising is to spread the word about your products and service, we produce customized strategies that align with your unique business goals. REAL Moxie can use our bulk buying ability to leverage the best bang for your marketing buck. 

To schedule your free consultation, click here or call (816) 348-3769 today!