Nowadays, holidays represent not only the peaceful moments of the year but also huge opportunities for business. When there’s no work, people become relaxed. They’re eager to spend more in order to experience more. Presents, gifts, and kind gestures are some of the elements that make holidays the perfect time for shopping.
Smart small businesses understand the potential that lies beneath these celebrations. When people experience strong emotions, of any kind, they become vulnerable. Their instincts drive them to consume, consume, and consume again.
Being aware of that, you should start organizing your holiday marketing campaign as soon as possible. By the time holidays arrive, everything should be arranged; from goals to promotions, have it all ready.
Here are some useful tips that, if implemented properly, will skyrocket your holiday sales performance.
Establish Your Holiday’s Objectives
Every time you run into holidays, you must create specific sales objectives for your firm. Just like with anything in life, a goal will keep you on track. You will always remember to push harder and harder up until you’ve succeeded.
Let me give you an example. If during the regular season you’re getting 100 sales a month, establish a goal of 300 sales during each holiday month. You also need to plan your strategies for obtaining this number. Therefore, start with the goal and continue with the planning of your marketing campaign and sales strategy.
Make It Easy for The Customer
As I’ve mentioned before, the holiday seasons encourages most of the today’s businesses (including your competition) to hunt more sales. Everyone’s offering discounts, coupons, gifts…but not everyone’s focusing on the user’s experience.
“When a visitor lands on your website, his attention should go nowhere but on your special deals. He should be able to find and order quickly what he needs. If your landing page gives the impression of “difficult to scout” or “messy”, you’re going to lose a lot of potential buyers. Why? Because during holidays, everyone is rushing and purchasing chaotically. Your website needs to be ready!” – explains Douglas Herring, Sales Director at CareersBooster.
Offer a “Wish List” Feature
Obviously, people wish for a lot of things; luckily, the concept of “wish list” serves a lot of online customers extremely well. When people are not ready to buy something because the offer or the price isn’t 100% on their taste, they’ll save it for later. If they can, they’ll add it to their wish list and come back later.
Well, during holidays, every website should feature this list. Once people add products to that list, all you’ll have to do is wait for them to come back (or ask them back through emails or retargeting) and encounter their dropped-off choices again. More often than not, people buy the second or the third time they get in touch with a product that’s been on their mind.
In case you have an offline small business, offering a wish list is still attainable; you just need to improvise!
Free Shipping During Holiday Days
Everyone loves the word “free”. If “free” is present during the holiday season, even better! You see…most of the today’s consumers are looking for great deals and for free things. This is happening not because people don’t have money or they don’t want to spend money.
This urge to select the best offer that is often the cheapest or comes with free bonuses is really the cause of the strong competition in the marketplace. Nowadays, if you want to buy an antivirus, you have dozens of options. Buy some yogurt? Well, you can find hundreds of yogurt brands.
Because we face so many options, we tend to analyze our purchase decisions a lot. However, if a great deal is on the table, such as free shipping, we’re eager to make an impulsive purchase because we’re afraid that we’re going to miss the great opportunity.
Perform Paid Advertising Campaigns
If your budget affords it, paid advertising is your #1 tool for skyrocketing your sales. When the holiday comes, spending your money wisely on search and social media advertising will pay off for the rest of the year.
Be very careful with your audience targeting or your keywords targeting. Gather your data from the rest of the year and observe what worked the best. Take what’s been working and tweak it for holidays. Perform effective holiday keyword research and observe the marketplace’s behavior. Read the statistics that give you important clues and get ready to give it a shot!
Provide More Payment Alternatives
Lastly yet most importantly, your website needs to provide the user with alternative choices for making the payment. It would be a shame to lose a convinced customer because he simply can’t proceed with the sale.
Of course, you shouldn’t jump and add them all. What you need to do is figure out which of these payment gateways are suited for your own business. Whatever you do, make certain that your customers have more than one choice!
Conclusion
Every small business can bank hard during the holiday season. It’s important to realize that once the holiday arrives, the marketplace completely shifts. All your competitors will use what they got and will try different methods of attracting more attention. If you’re smarter than them, you’re going to win. That’s how business works, so get your head back in the game and let the sales role in.