Unwrapping 3 Holiday Tips to make your Seasonal Sales more JOYFUL…through email and social marketing.

For many businesses in Southwest Florida, the holidays are the start of the season’s biggest sales period. It’s during this fast-paced season that we assist with clients in holiday advertising, direct mail, email and social media to engage the shoppers at every touch point of their brand.

“Tuesday Tips,” as the name implies, is our weekly marketing tips released every Tuesday to give our clients a holiday “how-to” gift!

These simple, easy-to-use tips hopefully will fill your holidays with the JOY of Engaging Social Conversations and more SALES!

1. Emails: Holiday Mega-Must
Regardless of modern social media, email still leads the online conversations and remains a critical tool for businesses, especially during the holidays. While customers have shopping lists, businesses have customer lists — it is important to reach your customer even before they start brainstorming their holiday purchases. Why, you ask?  Because these established connections are not only for the businesses, but also for the consumers when deciding on the following:
– What products to buy.
– Where to buy these products.
– When to get the best deals or largest assortment.
– And why they are choosing your brand or experience over your competition.
So don’t be shy, grab their attention—make it creatively memorable among the deluge of emails for the season! Respect and remember that customers are on-the-fly more than ever during the holidays. Reaching them effectively means making it easy, making your brand instantly recognizable, making your point, and providing a clear call to action!

2. Mobile: On-the-Move Holiday Target
The mobile revolution has gone mainstream and shows no signs of slowing, especially during the holiday season. I’m sure we can all relate to the fact that almost half of email messages are now opened on mobile devices, so a mobile-friendly design is a top priority.  We all know how it feels to open a poorly formatted email on our cell phones while we’re out and about — and nine times out of ten, we probably send it straight to the trash folder. Mobile-friendly designs offer a way to keep thoughts short and succinct. With that said, messages need to be an easy read — whether your customer is using a desktop device, mobile phone or tablet. During the holidays, customers remain a moving target so you need to be sure to reach them on-the-go in the most convenient way possible.

And, last but not least, time to unwrap the smartest of our gift tips:

3. Social: Unwrapping the Holiday 3R’s—Reach, Read & Research
If your business is ready to go social, then make sure to really own your social presence during the holidays. Keep the conversation going, keep it relevant. and keep it engaging.
– Post a special deal
– Reward loyal customers
– Answer questions
– Address complaints or Accolades
I know, it sounds overwhelming and time consuming — but these days, this is the stuff that really matters especially to consumers on-the-go. In the consumers eyes, it’s so much more convenient to look up products or services online and read other customer reviews than it is to compare the pricing and features on websites alone.
Consumers ultimately turn to resources they TRUST to inform their gift-buying and holiday shopping experiences, so it’s an opportune time to reach them with the information they want and need. Remember: these same consumers are doing their homework too, just like you are. It’s crucial that businesses not only keep up with online reviews and listing sites, but also with popular social networking like Facebook and Twitter to acknowledge and respond to questions and comments in a timely matter for the best branding interaction and conversation.

Not sure how to start the holiday conversation? ASK US HOW.