It is officially the festive season, and brands everywhere will be vying for the attention of shoppers around the world. The pros and cons of eCommerce are that you can reach customers around the world, but so can every other brand. So how do you stand out? When everyone is looking for something, and when it comes to gifts, they often don’t know what yet, and you will have to convince them that your product is exactly what they are looking for.
To get the full effect of the Christmas season, follow our guide and you will see your sales rise exponentially.
Keep up engagement
As busy a time as Christmas is for everyone, on the run-up you will need to keep your fingers at your keyboard. There is also a deadline that comes with Christmas, namely December 25th, and shoppers will be eager, sometimes desperate, to make sure that their gifts appear on time.
If you are selling items online, chances are all your social media channels will be flooded with enquiries as the festive season goes on. You will need to nurture these relationships, to offer your customers the best service they deserve and ensure that your reputation stays intact. It will also help you in the long run, as you will foster customer loyalty and see a lot of them come back for more.
Keep communication going on your social media accounts beyond customer enquiries though. Your reach will go a lot further, and you will attract far more customers. Reply to comments, post content that your customers are looking for, and find other ways of keeping the conversation going. You can do this by asking questions, asking for reviews or suggestions, or promoting offers. However, those offers will require thought.
Push those promotions
Offers are expected at Christmas. In America, it is generally accepted that the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the festive period, and as soon as Thanksgiving is over, what comes next? Black Friday, Cyber Monday, even Small Business Saturday this year, and with them: offers. Lots and lots of offers.
Knowing that these offers won’t be here come the 26th will prompt your customers into acting. As mentioned, the deadline nature of Christmas can prompt a lot of hasty decisions, which you can use to get sales.
Plan your promotions in early autumn in order to be well prepared come the colder days and inform your partners in advance so they can prepare. If you are offering affiliate links to influencers, they will need to create content around your promotion, as will you if you are posting on your own platforms.
Make sure every promotion is prominently displayed on every platform you have, be it your website or social media profiles. Have the start and end dates of every promotion prominently displayed so that affiliates and customers know when your sales are. Customers will use the ticking clock to get the best deals and affiliates will know when they don’t need to promote your sales anymore.
Your promotions should be everywhere, too. Create banners, social media posts, and email and newsletters to engage with your customers.
Optimize
The main rule of anything in life, but especially marketing, is to not rest on your laurels. No two Christmas campaigns are the same, and it’s important to take what you learned from the previous year and build on it.
Take a look at the data collected from last year. What affiliate links offered the most traffic? What products sold the best? What content got the most engagement?
From there you can make decisions on your campaign going forward. You can drop or change affiliates that aren’t bringing you the numbers you need, promote the best-selling products with offers, and create similar content that is doing well.
Foster your affiliate relationships
When it comes to your festive season campaign, you will be judging just as much as you are being judged. The festive period is the time for every element of the marketing campaign to prove themselves, so if they are not pulling their weight, something needs to change.
Take a look over the data from over the last year and choose from it a number of affiliates that are performing the best. From there you can nurture the most optimistic relationships and offer advice and support where needed.
In particular, look at the affiliates that are offering the best results in mobile sales. More and more customers are buying from their smartphones, aided by recent advancements in social media, so it would be smart to foster those affiliates.
For more information, take a look at our blog, or book a free call for more personalized advice.
