The holiday season is almost around the corner. The happiest and the busiest time of the year, right?
You can smell the sense of joy and excitement, be it spending time with family or finding the most unbelievable offers.
Everyone loves them. Reports say that US shoppers spent $201.32 billion online during the holiday season. And that opens a lot of opportunities for you as a marketer.
Currently, you must be busy rolling out offers and deals to make the most out of this time. Let us add a cherry on the cake by sharing the 10 best tips to boost your sales.
You can apply these tips at any stage of your holiday sale. It works either way if you are starting out or in the middle. So, continue reading to skyrocket your sales during this holiday season!
Here are the 10 best holiday sales tips
The following tips will help you in the planning stage as chances are you might miss out on details that can affect your holiday sales.
1. Plan your price, budget, and offer
Pricing is the deal-maker during this time. That doesn’t mean you ultimately lower your prices but strategize it. Consider the following factors in this stage:
- Set your budget (how much will you spend on advertisement, how much % of discount will you offer). Your budget will keep you on track.
- Understand the buyer’s behavior during your previous sale and analyze their response. If there was a best seller during that sale, can you afford to offer some extra discount on that?
- Scan through your competitor’s offers. The goal is not to copy-paste but to gain a competitive advantage. Is there anything they missed out on that you’re providing? (this can set the tone of your communication)
- Create some unique combos that can create a win-win situation. The combo benefits the user and doesn’t cost you much.
2. Pick a specific niche
Holiday seasons might seem great to target everyone, but you truly know that not everyone is your target audience. Connect with those who will thoroughly enjoy your product.
It might feel skeptical, but you will enjoy some long-term benefits by doing so. The target audience is most likely to come back if they love your product in the first attempt.
So, to have a clear mindset while connecting with the audience, you can write down the buyer’s persona, including interest level, geographic location, demographics, and more. This will help you have a personalized approach, 90% of customers say that they find personalized appealing.
Let’s move to the next stage, where we pick the platform to communicate your holiday campaign.
3. Choose the right platform to spread the word
Using the right platform is like finding the right fit for your favorite shirt/dress. When you choose the right platform, you can reach your audience at the perfect time, have a balanced approach, and see the desired output. Here are some platforms to consider:
- Social media platforms- Social media is buzzing right now. Everyone has a personal favorite, right? Popular social media platforms have made their place in our phones and completely caught our attention. Now, the users are turning into customers as they find it easy to shop and discover new products on these apps. As per Influencer Marketing Hub, 60% of the audience discovers new products on Instagram. Pick a social media platform carefully based on your niche.
- Email marketing- Emails have a unique role during the holiday season. They bring in 20% of site visits. The users check their emails on mobile devices, and they tend to recheck the site later. We will discuss email marketing in detail in our next tip.
- Other online assets – Here, you can include your holiday sale on the website banner, newsletters, a pop-up in your blogs, or as a pop-up on your website.
Pro Tip- It’s good to maintain a theme in all the platforms design-wise, communication style, and more to make it look uniform.
4. Customize your email marketing
As we discussed above, emails are a must during this time. Chances are the users might come to know about your deal through emails.
You can strategize your communication and shoot a series of emails. But, don’t stop after one email. Follow-up is needed. You can’t have a successful email campaign without a follow-up.
Send personalized email follow-ups to stay connected with your audience and update them about your holiday offer.
Pro tip- Use an email outreach platform to do this task to, save your productive hours. Using Saleshandy, you can send 10,000 emails at once without spamming. It improves your email productivity and without affecting your email deliverability.
5. Use social media platforms
Social media platforms don’t need any introduction. Every smartphone holder widely uses them. One of the reasons it has also become the marketer’s favorite is that it helps them reach their audience wherever they are.
The biggest advantage you have here is ads. 50% of the marketers plan to increase their investment in Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok in 2022. You can run highly-effective advertisements to reach your target audience and a lookalike audience as well. A double win!
Source- Oberlo
6. Maximize your SEO efforts
Over the past two years, mobile searches for the best deals have grown by 90%, says Google. These numbers indicate that the audience is continually searching for the best deals, and your SEO efforts can help them reach you.
Depending upon your target audience and demographic, you can plan your SEO strategy. Picking the right keyword is what will boost your efforts in the right decision.
For example, if you offer 20% off on all dog food, you should focus on dog food and other related queries.
A healthy mix of the main keyword and related keywords will help to get better results. You can use tools like Google keyword planner or Semrush to find the best suitable one. Or ask your SEO team for a holiday sale specific plan.
7. Go a little extra for your existing customers
Holiday sales open opportunities to tap the untapped potential customers but don’t forget the ones you have been with you throughout your journey.
They would also like to enjoy some offers from your side in the holiday season. Here are some suggestions:
- Extend your free trial duration for those currently on a trial basis. (Instead of 7, you can offer 14 days)
- Refer-a-friend is a popular offer. You can extend their plan duration or offer discounts as they refer your product.
- A gift card or early access to the new version of a feature.
Use this opportunity to make them feel valued and make it a happy holiday for them.
8. Prioritize your customer service
Your customer support needs to provide some extra help during this time. The chances are that a customer might have queries in redeeming any offer, or a new customer might find it difficult to get started. Your timely support will improve their experience.
Pro tip- Keep a set of FAQs ready for the customer to access and instantly solve their query.
9. Start early and run a limited-time offer to maximize sales
Start early because the shoppers like to start buying early. 27% of the shoppers plan to start buying their gifts end of September.
During this time, they like to explore various opportunities. This can be a good time to run a limited period offer to create urgency. Most of them would not want to miss good offers or deals.
10. Make Use of User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC means the content created by the user of your product. It is not a paid advertisement but honest reviews by them. If you notice such content around your brand, use it to the best of your ability. Reviews, unboxing videos, comments, and even short videos are good UGC examples.
Social media brands like Starbucks, National Geographic make good use of this type of content.
Source- National Geographic Instagram
Conclusion
The tips and tricks mentioned above are practical and help you gain visibility and boost your sales. Apply these tips to make the most out of the holiday season.
Have you come across any sales tips that helped you? We would like to hear it.
Feel free to share it with us in the comment. Happy Ho Ho Ho holiday!