The year 2020 has nothing less than a suspenseful rollercoaster ride for businesses; the economic shutdown and lockdown measures imposed to counter the spread of COVID-19 has left everyone high and dry, especially businesses.
Reduced customer spending and logistical struggles have affected businesses of all sizes and across all sectors. In times like this, it’s natural to cut down on marketing spending as a way to reduce the financial strain. However, a solid digital marketing strategy can help reverse your fortunes and thrive in these difficult times.
Most businesses experience a rise in sales in the run-up to Christmas. Sure, the coronavirus pandemic has gutted many of our best-laid marketing plans. But people are eager to put the past eight months behind and celebrate a normal Christmas.
So be sure to have your holiday marketing plan ready in advance.
If your post-COVID Christmas campaign is not ready yet, now is the time to get started. In this post, we share our top digital marketing tips to inspire you.
Analyse the Data
Start by analysing your past performance to understand what worked in your previous holiday campaigns.
Use Google Analytics to find answers to some pertinent questions like:
- When’s the website seeing the most traffic?
- Which pages receive the most traffic?
- When does the site see the most conversions?
- Which pages see the most conversions?
- Are there any pages that underperformed in previous campaigns?
This analysis will help you to identify the key shopping dates. You can even identify which landing pages performed well in previous years. You can use this information to choose the products/services to highlight on your homepage.
Leverage Seasonal SEO
When it comes to attracting Christmas shoppers, it’s important to ensure your website has a Christmas focus. This increases your chances of ranking in the first page of search results for all Christmas-related search queries.
It could be a landing page promoting Black Friday deals or a giving the entire page a Christmas touch in terms of visual and text content.
Search queries uses in the winter are starkly different from the search queries people use in the summer. So it’s important to carry out an in-depth keyword research.
For instance, if you wanted a dress in June, you are likely to use the phrase “beach dress” or “summer holiday dress. On the other hand, in October, customers would use phrases like “New Year’s dresses” or “Christmas party dress”.
Depending on your sector, seasonal SEO plays a crucial role in improving your search engine rankings. It’s important to target the right keywords that drive relevant traffic. Once you’ve identified your seasonal keywords, you must incorporate them in the relevant pages across your website.
Use Email Marketing
Email marketing is a powerful way to keep your customers informed about your Christmas promotions. You can promote your festive offers and to even send traffic to your website. Here are some things you can do to kick-start your festive email campaign:
- Clean your email list. Make sure the data is correct and error-free. This will ensure your campaign is highly targeted.
- Set-up auto-responders to send follow-up emails to customers who abandoned their shopping carts.
- Personalise your emails. Personalisation isn’t limited to locations and names; you can even personalise your emails by purchase history. If someone purchased a jumper last Christmas, they’d be interested in seeing this year’s collection.
- Use email marketing to promote daily deals in real-time. For instance, if you’re offering free shipping for 24 hours only, email is a fantastic way to communicate this offer to your customer base.
Need Help Setting Up Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
Contact Studio Coact to discuss your Christmas marketing campaign. Our digital marketing specialists will assess your previous campaign performance and your website’s capabilities to chart out a holistic holiday marketing strategy.
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with one of our digital marketing consultants! Contact us online or call 0151 708 5813 now.