Why wait till October to shop for marketing ideas? Isn’t that what most businesses do? They wait till October and then look around to see what is working for competition and then replicate or recycle ideas to market their products during the holiday shopping season. Smart businesses no longer rely on catch-up mode and prefer to launch their own campaigns in good time.
So what works well and what doesn’t?
When planning holiday shopping marketing, focus on the target segment and see what will really attract that segment. Shopping ideas cannot be borrowed from the Internet, as what works for one may not really work for another. However, statistics give broad indication of consumer behavior. For example, the National Retail Federation with KPMG has released the 10th annual Retail Horizons study: Retail Horizons: Benchmarks 2023 – Forecasts 2024. One of its major findings is that shopping is increasingly mobile and online.
Therefore, using mobile and online technology in a clever mix can bring about results. Here are some more holiday shopping marketing ideas:
Have an online presence. An online presence could be a Facebook page, targeted advertisements or a video on YouTube. With more people online, get your brand out there where it can reach a larger audience. Where businesses are local, you may not see the necessity of having a website or a Facebook page. But, that is what is called smart marketing, and smart marketing requires that you look ahead.
Most people who look for shopping ideas, go to online shopping websites like Amazon.com. One can choose to advertise on Amazon or even offer products through Amazon.
Viral e-mails work well as long as it is handled well. Sending e-mails to customer databases announcing discounts and maybe giving customers a chance to visit the sale a day before it is opened to public can also work well.
Most people don’t like telemarketing, as it is very invasive, but geo-targeted SMSes to inform potential customers about offers or discounts can make smart marketing sense. For example, you could SMS a person walking past your store about an attractive discount program the shop is carrying; she is very likely to decide to visit your store and check out your merchandise.
Deloitte Annual Holiday Survey confirms that nearly 3 out of 5 consumers are not worried about the economic crisis, and they cite growing food and gas prices as the reasons for lower spending budgets. These same consumers still choose:
- Gift cards
- Online shopping
- Smartphones and social networks
And finally the good news for marketers planning their holiday shopping marketing ideas is that consumers look for deals starting early but that does not mean that they will skip the holiday rush. More than 53 percent consumers plan to start shopping ahead of Thanksgiving, but nearly 75 percent intend to hold out until after the holiday to make the majority of their purchases.
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