Come Christmas and people will be flocking to retail and online stores in huge numbers – after all, the festive time is all about shopping and gifting. As Christmas comes closer, it’s about time online sellers start planning their holiday marketing and promotion to increase sales and profits during Christmas.
To make the most of the Christmas festivities, here are ten marketing tips that online sellers can use to boost sales and have a merry Christmas.
1. Use Popular Keywords
Keywords are the search terms that people use to find products online. To plan a successful Christmas marketing campaign, you will need to cover maximum ground in terms of including the popular keywords in your eCommerce store’s content. Make sure you only ‘use’ popular keywords, but don’t ‘abuse’ by stuffing them too much in your content or it will backfire.
When your eStore content has the right or relevant keywords, it has more chances of being found in the search results, therefore, giving you more opportunities to sell.
For example – people like to buy Christmas holiday decorations online, so make sure to include such keywords in your online store’s product pages, titles, description and so on.
2. Start A Referral Program
Referral programs work like a magnet during the holiday season to attract potential buyers. Online sellers can put up a referral program that rewards shoppers once they invite a friend, family or anyone through a unique code.
This can be a great way to increase sales and profits during Christmas and can also help you build a broader customer base for the rest of the year.
A referral program will help sellers spread the holiday shopping buzz through word-of-mouth marketing, which arguably, is one of the best ways to tell people about your brand. Sweeten the deal by offering free and express shipping to customers who refer another shopper to your store during the Christmas season.
3. Strategize Your Social Media
When it comes to Christmas promotion ideas, using social media can be a great advantage for eSellers. However, the key is to strategize your social media marketing to extract maximum value out of your efforts.
To do so, start by identifying what social media channels get you the maximum no. of visitors, and then plan your marketing efforts around them. Your Christmas season social strategy should obviously revolve around the festival and its spirit of joy and celebration.
Kick-start your Christmas celebrations by updating the profile and cover photos, banners and every other visual aspect of your social media profiles. Your social media imagery should clearly highlight the great deals, discounts and offers your fans can expect.
4. Engage Customers with Email
Email marketing is still one of the most popular ways to create awareness among your prospects about exciting deals and discounts. Sending holiday season deals can help you increase sales and profits during Christmas.
Plan your email marketing calendar for the upcoming holiday season early, a report suggests that people start their Christmas shopping from the first week of November itself.
Structure your email campaigns smartly using the following themes – Christmas special deals, early season offers, abandoned cart reminders, special rewards for loyal customers, last minute offers, countdown deals, referral programs, etc.
Related: Top Email Marketing Tips for Holiday Sales
5. Seasonal Content
The best way to put out a word among your existing customers and reach more buyers is by creating seasonal content. Popular holidays like Christmas are often an excuse for people to shop for stuff online – and if your content can help them save time and make the right purchase decision, you get more sales.
Start off early by creating classic holiday shopping guides. For example – ‘Must Buy Christmas Deals’, ‘Best Christmas Gifts for Dads’, ‘Holiday Shopping Guide for Christmas’ and so on. This way you will also get to cover popular Christmas season keywords.
The key here is to excite, inform and educate your audiences with seasonal content. People like to make informed purchase decisions and if you can help them get there, you can easily increase sales and profits during Christmas.
6. Reward Your Customers
Rewarding shoppers during the Christmas season is a good way to keep the sales momentum going strong for your online business.
Rewarding your shoppers with cashback, coupons and special deals is one of the most effective Christmas promotion ideas. Using this strategy, you can not only encourage them to shop more but also tell their friends and family about your online store.
You can also use holiday season rewards or ‘gift cards’ as a way to ‘re-pitch’ old customers who haven’t shopped from your store in a while. This is a popular customer retention strategy to help you boost sales for Christmas.
7. Offer A Great Shopping Experience
One of the most important tips to increase sales on Christmas is to offer a smooth, responsive and easy-to-use shopping experience.
Holiday shoppers usually are in a rush to get their hands on great deals and discounts, and giving a poor online shopping experience will only frustrate and take them away from your online store. Don’t make the mistake of compromising on a smooth shopping experience during the holiday season.
Make sure your online store loads up product pages quickly, is well-optimized for desktop and mobile devices, offers clear and concise information like product photos and descriptions, and has no broken links or pages, etc. If shoppers can easily browse and learn about the products, they’ll be more likely to buy.
8. Stock Up Before Christmas
eSellers need to prepare well before Christmas to make sure their online store is stocked up well for deals, discounts and offers. Shoppers don’t want to wait a lot for shipping and they definitely don’t like seeing the ‘out of stock’ errors.
Among other advanced marketing tips to increase Christmas sales, this basic tip often gets ignored, so don’t make the mistake of running out of stock on popular Christmas products like – decoration items, Christmas treats, apparel, cookbooks, popular electronics, etc.
To know more about what sells the best during Christmas, read this case study.
9. Utilize Customer Reviews
Using your existing customer reviews and testimonials is a powerful way to instill confidence in online shoppers during Christmas. As people are mostly in the holiday rush, they don’t want to deal with the hassles of ordering the wrong products or returning them later.
According to research, 86% of online shoppers trust other customers’ reviews and Christmas is the perfect time to showcase reviews and testimonials upfront on your online store.
Successful online sellers know this secret – sell the solution, not the product. Showing customer reviews and feedback upfront can advocate the fact your product solves the problems and meets the needs of users. Thus, testimonials from real people can be a good way to attract shoppers and increase sales and profits during Christmas.
10. Bundle Popular Items
Shoppers love to splurge during the Christmas season and online sellers can use this to their advantage. When you suggest related items or products related to a purchase, it gives users the power of choice, which they’re more likely to use for buying more products.
In marketing, product bundles are a way to offer a set of products as one single package, which costs less than the price to be paid if customers were to buy all of them separately.
Product bundles also give a perceived impression of savings to people, which they’re highly seeking during the holiday season. For online sellers, it’s not just one of the easiest marketing tips to increase Christmas sales but a great way to sell product inventory fast.
In Conclusion
So, there you have it – ten marketing tips to boost your online store sales before, during and even a few days after Christmas.
As is the case with ideas, they’re only powerful when they’re executed well. For online sellers, finding the time and the right people for executing these ideas can be tough – and that’s where we at SunTec India can help you.
From eCommerce store optimization to catalog management, product description writing and order processing, our dedicated team of eCommerce specialists can give you the competitive edge you need to increase sales and profits during Christmas.
To get in touch with us, simply share your requirements at info@suntecindia.com and we’d be happy to help you.