The holidays are near and shoppers are organizing their strategies, but as a business, you need to strategize as well. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon us, but that still leaves another month of shopping. And don’t forget the post-holiday shopping! Let’s discuss 5 holiday marketing hacks that will keep customers coming back for more.

Fine Tune Your Sales Tactics

Identify your best-selling items and create promo campaigns around those. Analyzing last year’s sales and the sales results from the past month provides some clues about changes that could be made this time around to improve the conversion rates and overall experience for customers. For example: after identifying last years’ bestsellers, you might want to choose items in order of similar appeal. Also, review inventory by looking at what has not sold well as opposed to those high-converting products which should take priority because we know they’ll sell out quickly! This could also be an ideal time to get rid of that inventory that just isn’t performing well. Create attractive promos such as discounts or free shipping offers to entice a motivated shopper.

If you’re not on social media already, get there now. Post holiday-themed images with engaging promotions—such as “10% off your order today only! Use code HOLIDAY21 at checkout.” You can also create some buzz by giving out free gifts to the first 5 customers of the day. These are small things you can do that aren’t costly and will draw customers in.

Streamline Your Order Fulfillment

A fulfillment partner can be incredibly valuable during the holidays so include the 3PL team in your discussions. Ordering, shipping, tracking, and delivering thousands of orders in a short time is no easy task—often requiring extra hands on deck! Just make sure your fulfillment partner has the capacity to handle all that work. You don’t want to disappoint or upset customers by making promises you can’t keep.

If you are doing your own order fulfillment this holiday season, make sure your processes and procedures are in place and fully functional. More than likely you will be receiving many, many more orders than during an average time frame. That means your e-commerce store needs to keep pace with increased order volume! Set up a plan for out-of-stock situations, which includes making sure the right people know what to do when this happens. Even if this person is you!

Share Holiday Deadlines Repeatedly

Share shipping deadlines for delivery with everyone on your team during this time, to ensure those gifts will arrive on time without any hiccups! Share those deadlines with customers as many times as possible. Post them to every page of your website, your landing pages, your social media, and on any promotional materials. Make sure all of your customers receive timely updates regarding their orders – emailing updates or posting online where everyone can see what’s available is a great way to generate excitement. Just be mindful to not overload them with information as some people might get overwhelmed by receiving numerous messages from companies every day already.

Create urgency to motivate customers. Many retailers offer free shipping with no minimum order just for the holidays. If your product is in high demand, create a countdown clock that ticks down the minutes until an item is “back in stock” or will be “sold out” soon. This will encourage shoppers to order early and not wait until the last minute.

Review Your Email and Direct Mail Marketing Lists

Review your current email address list for accuracy and eliminate outdated addresses as well as addresses from which you have not received responses in a year or more. It’s a good idea to get shoppers’ email addresses in order to stay connected with them. Retailers can collect customer contact information at checkout, on social media, and through the mail by inviting customers who have already been there before to subscribe for special deals. This is essential for email marketing success! Create fresh, personalized emails with images of the items they are most likely to buy based on previous orders. Using email marketing to drive sales is easy and reliable.

Email might be popular, but don’t forget about direct mail. Direct mail typically has a higher response rate than email marketing because people pay more attention to what they physically receive in the mail. Plus, those who receive direct mail are 2.5 times more likely to make a purchase than those without it.

You never know when a customer will move, get married, or get divorced. Keeping your mailing list up-to-date is important so that you can reach your target audience. Take some time to review your mailing list or outsource this to a company like Bluegrass. We can run a series of programs that will ensure you have the most accurate mailing list.

Optimize Your Website for Increased Traffic

Today more than ever, shoppers prefer to shop online. Holiday e-commerce sales are projected to reach a record $207 billion in the U.S. between November and December 2021. Your website and shopping cart, need to be optimized.

First, use search engine optimization (SEO) to make sure you are easily found online. SEO might be free, but it takes research and diligence. The holiday season is the perfect time to create content on your website that has keywords, browser adaptability, and fast loading speeds. You want your website to be responsive to shopping searches so that you show up on page one of the search engine results page!

Shopping cart abandonment is real, but there are some ways to decrease the chances of this happening. Enable HTTPS, or your browser will tell website visitors that your website is not secure. Savvy shoppers will not be putting their credit card information into a risky website.

Make sure your website is easy to navigate. We have short attention spans and if a customer has to spend time searching for the checkout or they can’t find where to put that coupon code you sent them, they will simply leave. Adding calls to action throughout your website can easily move shoppers directly to the checkout!

Finally, add the option to checkout as a guest. I know, it pains you to not get that customer to sign up for your emails, but sometimes they simply want to make a purchase and be gone. And that’s ok! Maybe they will remember how simple it was to check out on your website and come back later.

If you would like to discuss any of these tips, give us a call. We’d love to chat!