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15th November 2017.
If your business isn’t preparing for the festive season, which is literally around the corner, you could be missing out on some huge online opportunities. It goes without saying that the run up to Christmas and New Year is undoubtedly a busy period for high-street retailers, online businesses and shoppers.
Not only do ecommerce businesses have Christmas to prepare for, but there’s also Black Friday AND Cyber Monday to take into consideration.
October and November, naturally, are the months where people beginning planning and actively purchasing for Christmas, even in the mad rush of December there is still plenty of time to get your business in front of potential customers, this way, they can add your products to their wish list, get in touch about a service before the big Christmas rush or even purchase way ahead of time.
So, where does Social Media come into all this?
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. is the place where all your customers are and if you’re not getting your message in front of them, how are they going to know what you have to offer them?
Although you may already be advertising products or services through PPC / Google Shopping, creating interesting and inviting content on social media can still do so much for your business.
For those who may not have seen or searched for your product on Google, Bing etc. they may have seen it on Facebook, through a friend who liked it – potential customers.
If you’re offering deals and discounts alongside the product / service your advertising, people clicking through from social media to your website to view this could end up spending more time on your site, improving your overall website traffic and hopefully leading onto a sale.
Social media platforms are full of different ways in which you can engage with customers and get them to engage with your product or service. Depending on what you are offering to customers, the type of content you publish is an important factor to consider.
For example, if you’re a jewellery firm and you are receiving little engagement from the images you’re posting – try video. I mention jewellery in particular as it’s the type of product that really doesn’t show it any justice through photos alone.
Having someone model a ring, that’s glistening on a spotlight, even for just a couple of seconds, will grab someone’s attention. It also gives people confidence that it’s real, it exists and they can clearly see someone showing off the product you’re advertising.
Of course, you can use video to show any product or service, but remember videos don’t have to be 10 minute long pieces of content – the shorter the better. People online have short attention spans, they want information as quickly as possible, which means the important sections of your video must happen relatively early in the video, or you risk someone scrolling away.
Naturally, photographs are a go-to option when publishing content, images are easy to produce and take little effort to upload. As we’re focusing on the holiday season in particular, it’s always a good idea to connect with the season and by this I mean, adding flare to your images.
Pick out the reds, greens and golds and other popular colours that people tend to relate to Christmas, festive accents to images such as snowflakes, Christmas trees and stars can instantly tell someone that this is a seasonal post.
Images are also ideal for sharing important messages, such as a sale. Christmas sales are everywhere, so make sure audiences can see yours. Get advice if you need it when it comes to balancing texts and fonts, as message images want to look as professional as possible.
Using gifs is a great alternative to video; you can present multiple images at once or have decorative animated accents that will grab a user’s attention when scrolling through their feeds. They also fall into the short-content category, they’re easy to consume and fun to share!
As only 20% of text in posts is remembered without visuals, adding even the smallest amount of video engagement can make a huge difference in the message you’re trying to communicate.
Whether you’re budget it small or large, using social media as part of your Christmas marketing strategy is a no-brainer.
One way of getting the ball rolling is the use of Hashtags.
If you haven’t noticed the big brands doing it, using your own personal hashtag is one of the best ways to identify who’s talking about your business. Creating a phrase that is easy to remember and one that sits nicely alongside your advertisement campaign, you instantly create this community of people who have seen your message and want to talk about it.
Although many may only relate hashtags with Twitter, you may be surprised to know that hashtags are also widely used on Facebook and even more so on Instagram, where users will happily put a large number of hashtags on one post. So don’t abandon these other platforms that can actually increase the amount of engagement your Christmas promotions receive.
I’ve mentioned in a previous post about how effective online competitions can be for your brand and even more so around Christmas time. People love winning things and especially around the festive season, users are on the hunt for the best service or product they can get hold of.
Why not choose to have exclusive competitions where only those that follow you and tag a friend can enter? This is a great way to increase your followers but also expose potential new customers to your brand through the use of tagging.
If you feel your business could benefit from a strong social media strategy, get in touch with us for a chat or you can find more information over on our social media service page, where you can check out our entire social media management process.
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