Win the Holiday Shopping Season with Effective Digital Marketing

Posted on October 11, 2023 in Blog

Holiday season shopping is a crucial and competitive time of year for D2C brands. Whether you’re a brick-and-mortar retailer, exclusively online or rely on a multichannel approach, holiday campaigns can make – or break – your annual sales success.

Give your holiday marketing efforts a fresh look with new strategies and ideas this year and make this your best Q4 yet!

Holiday Shopping: The Stakes Are High

Successful holiday marketing campaigns have an outsized impact on quarterly and annual revenue for almost all consumer-facing brands. Gift-giving is big business and research shows that consumer spending during the holidays continues to grow, despite economic uncertainty.

$211.7 billion – That’s how much US consumers spent online shopping for the 2022 holiday season. That’s a massive share of the estimated $270 billion spent online and in-person combined in the US last year.
4.8% – Holiday retail sales grew 4.8% in 2022, surprising many industry analysts. Consumers showed surprising resilience to pricing pressures, likely due to widespread discounts as retailers looked to reduce inventory levels.

Holiday Shopping: Hot Trends

46% – Nearly half of holiday shoppers used a Buy Now, Pay Later service to complete at least one transaction during the last holiday season. Don’t underestimate the value of offering BNPL at checkout!
56% of Gen Z shoppers rely on TikTok for gift ideas – both for themselves and for others.
62% of shoppers plan to do most of their shopping online this year.

It’s easy to see the importance of a comprehensive and digital-first approach to seasonal advertising campaigns.

Here’s how to make it happen!

5 Tips for Holiday Marketing Success

Whether you’re a one-person marketing team or have a whole team, designing, deploying and optimizing a holiday campaign is a challenge.

It’s an exceptionally competitive time of year in the attention economy, which means you’ll need to offer customers multiple touchpoints across multiple channels.

1. Leverage Incentives

Everyone loves a deal. Offering a great deal on your top products is an immediate differentiator for brands during a hectic time of year. Make the most of that conversion, though. Use email marketing to create and segment lists to serve customers updates and offers on similar products and turn one discounted holiday sale into a long-term customer relationship.

2. Offer Free Shipping?

This is the easiest win for ecommerce brands. 91% of holiday shoppers say free shipping is the most influential perk. Not sure if it makes sense for your company? Test it! Offer free shipping on select items and evaluate the impact it has on sales by comparing the add-to-cart and purchase rates for products with and without free shipping.

3. Be Flexible

Offer customers a flexible shopping experience and the confidence they need to make a purchase. Customers want:

To buy online and pick up in-store – This has been around for years, but the pandemic made BOPIS an accepted and preferred way to shop. It combines the ease and convenience of shopping online with the confidence of picking up a physical item in-store – fast. Retailers offering BOPIS grew seven times faster than those that didn’t since 2020!
A clear return policy – Especially for brands that only sell online, a clear and generous return policy empowers consumers to give your product a shot. A forgiving return policy is a must during the holidays when gift givers aren’t 100% sure their gift is going to be a hit.

4. Prioritize Social Media

Three out of every four holiday shoppers use social media to learn about brands and specific products. Social media drives brand awareness and contributes to online conversions – and it’s a game-changer offline, too. Salesforce found that more than half of consumers made an in-store purchase because of a product they discovered on social media.

5. Do Good

The holidays are all about the spirit of giving, so why not give, too? Seventy-one percent of consumers say they’re willing to spend more money to support a cause. This holiday season, find a nonprofit organization that aligns with your brand’s identity, audience and goals and donate a portion of the proceeds from a specific product or time period. Giving Tuesday, an international effort to support charitable giving, is a great way to amplify the nonprofit’s work and earn a little goodwill in the process.

Don’t just write a check; invest in establishing a lasting relationship that goes beyond the holiday season.

Need more holiday marketing tips? We’re here to help!

So, When Does the Holiday Shopping Season Start?

Perhaps the biggest shift in holiday advertising is timing. For years, most consumers started spending around Black Friday; the holiday shopping season now starts well before Halloween. According to Bankrate, 24% percent of consumers start holiday shopping in August and September, with another 26% making the season bright in October. That means more than 50% of holiday shoppers are in full swing before you can say, “Boo!”

The takeaway?

Start early!

Get More Out of Your Holiday Campaign with Oneupweb

Holiday marketing is more competitive and more important for brands than ever before. It takes a concerted organic, social and paid media approach to reach the right audience at the right time. See what more than 25 years of digital marketing experience can do for you. This holiday season, treat yourself to a fully integrated agency; it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Get in touch or call (231) 922-9977 today to get started.