If you haven’t started planning your holiday marketing strategy yet, and are worried that you’re behind, you’re right. Take a look around and you’ll notice most businesses large and small have already initiated some kind of seasonal marketing plan. Most hiring managers who plan to hire seasonal help are doing so this month and, if Deloitte is right, this holiday season will see retail spending rise between 4 and 4.5 percent compared to last year. So where should you concentrate your holiday marketing efforts? Here are some smart tips to keep in mind:
- According to Experian’s holiday marketing data, last year search engines were the key driver of traffic across retail Websites, so pay special attention to your SEO. If you don’t have an employee, enlist an outside SEO expert to help improve your SEO. Usually, it’s the small details that count the most.
- The hot ticket in digital marketing this year will be mobile marketing, according to eMarketer. Your website need to be mobile friendly with large, clickable buttons and simple icons instead of slow-loading images. Make sure checking out and purchasing items on your site is easy to do on a smartphone or tablet. M-commerce is expected to account for 16 percent of total ecommerce sales for the 2013 holidays.
- Big shopping days that deserve special marketing campaigns include Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving); Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving, when shoppers are encouraged to patronize small businesses); Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving, when shoppers expect to find great online deals); and the day before Thanksgiving, which last year Experian found was the fifth-biggest online shopping day of the season. Another interesting holiday event that won’t happen again for another 70,000 years? This year the first day of Hanukkah falls on the same day as Thanksgiving. That means Hanukkah shopping will happen earlier than ever this year and your Hanukkah promotions should, too.