You may like to do your shopping on Christmas Eve, but leaving your Christmas marketing campaigns to the last minute could leave you disappointed. Here, Mediaworks shows you how to make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year for your business.
Summer has only just ended yet we’re already turning our attention to Christmas 2016. While it’s too early for tinsel, preparing for your festive campaigns now is essential if you want to reap the benefits later.
Last year, UK retailers took £24 billion in the eight weeks between 1st November 2015 and 1st January 2016. With 27% of retail sales now taking place online – a figure that’s expected to grow by 11% this year – here’s how to perfect your digital strategy and claim your share of the sales:
Identify targets
Perfect planning produces perfect results, so you’ll need to thoroughly consider what your campaign will be targeting this year.
Focusing on your bestsellers is a tried and tested approach – if Christmas jumpers sold well for you last year, you’ll likely be able to build on the success this year. Select a few carefully chosen target products or categories and focus your attention on maximising their return. After all, with the right attention and dedication, less can be more.
Review your content
Everyone wants an iPad for Christmas. You sell iPads – but so do thousands of other retailers. How can you make your site stand out?
By reviewing your existing content on your chosen target pages, you can identify areas for improvement. Make sure page titles are fully optimised around target keywords to boost rankings and write meta descriptions to improve click-through rates from the search engine results pages.
Creating copy to help support the user journey is also important. Before they make a purchase, users may look for more information about a product to ensure they’re making the right choice. Creating informational content, such as how-tos and reviews, will increase the level of trust between you and your customers and help answer any queries they may have that are preventing them from making a purchase.
Perfect paid search
Paid search is especially important over Christmas as it helps to direct users with clear purchase intent to your site. As 1 in 4 UK consumers start their Christmas shopping before Halloween, you’ll need to prepare early to enjoy success.
75% of online shoppers start their search on one device before switching to another. Making sure your campaigns are optimised for desktop, mobile and tablet users will help you maximise conversions and win customers.
Google’s local inventory ads are set to make a big impact this year too. The ads show users the stock that is available in local stores. A huge 64% of in-store sales are influenced by digital, so this type of ad could be crucial in securing sales from on-the-go Christmas shoppers in your local area.
