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    Tag: holiday season

    7 useful tips for creating more festive holiday emails

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    A solid email marketing strategy is needed for any business to reach potential customers, especially amid the buzz of the holiday season. That said, since inboxes are jam-packed with a wide variety of emails this time of year, you need to stand out, especially for those on the hunt for last-minute gifts for their loved ones. Hopefully, this blog serves as inspiration, with useful tips on how you can create festive holiday emails. 

    Are you ready to get started?

    Here are a few strategic email marketing tips that will help you to gain traction this holiday season:

    • Brainstorm: Before investing time and money into holiday email campaigns, we recommend that you analyze anything that you completed this time last year. This allows you to see what performed well and if anything can be recycled and reused. 
    • Review your competition: When in doubt, it’s easy and takes little effort to see what competing businesses are doing. Simply sign up for their newsletters and await emails to your inbox. 
    • Spend time on the subject line: Opening rates are extremely dependent on how well a subject line grabs the attention of the audience. Since the context of each email varies greatly, as will the result in given situations. However, as a rule of thumb, you should stick to 50 characters, be mindful of spelling and grammar, utilize capitalization, and consider powerful language. 
    • Take advantage of the holidays: Even if you’re hosting a sale or announcing a new product, a simple holiday greeting is a great way for your email marketing strategy to show the receiver that you care. 
    • Don’t forget the call to action: As much as you don’t want to believe it, customers rely on you to tell them what to do. If you’re promoting an item of a sale, be sure to include a “buy now” button in a large, colourful way to catch their attention and let them know what you’re hoping for. 
    • Account for everything: If you’re showing a picture of an item or service in your email, ensure that it’s something that they can buy. There’s nothing worse than getting hyped up about something that isn’t even available. Also, on that note, it needs to be easy to access as well. Remember to link the items and if needed, create a holiday landing page to make finding things easier. 
    • Emphasize a deadline: Most promotions have an end date, so if you’re running a campaign this holiday season, be sure to mention that this amazing deal won’t last and that it’s only available until a certain date. Likewise, with shipping times varying, make a note in your emails that there is a deadline to receive an item by Christmas. 

    We hope that you’re now feeling inspired by your email marketing strategy and that you’re keen on creating holiday-friendly emails to better connect with your audience. If you need help getting organized or want a professional company to handle the details for you, we’re happy to chat and answer any further questions you may have about holiday email marketing.

    What promotion are you offering or planning to offer for the holiday season? Drop a comment below to share with our readers.

    Digital marketing tips for the holiday season

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    The holidays are quickly approaching, and the holiday season means big business for e-commerce companies. While big box stores are bound to get an influx in sales, the holiday season is also a great opportunity for small businesses to shine. Shoppers are always on the hunt for the best deals, the quickest and cheapest shipping, and unique products to give away as gifts. Since November is when people begin to explore and evaluate their options, it’s a great time to focus on your marketing plan. Here are some tips for the holiday season.

    Set SMART goals

    After you take the time to brainstorm some ideas, it’s time for you to set some business goals. Since goal setting is an important part of launching a successful marketing campaign, we recommend that you try using the SMART goals formula—an acronym that offers a framework to develop a path to success.

    What does SMART mean?

    • Specific: Focus on one area or task
    • Measurable: Assign a number or percentage to your task to measure progress
    • Attainable: Can you reasonably achieve your goal?
    • Relevant: Can you benefit from achieving this goal?
    • Time-sensitive: Can you create a deadline and ensure that you hold yourself accountable? 

    When creating goals, it’s important that you focus on one area at a time. For example, if you want to increase traffic this holiday season, you will want to invest in digital marketing services that directly correlate to an influx in traffic. Next, once you pick your goal, make sure it’s something that you can measure. You could say, “I want to increase my traffic by 10% over the holidays” which is something that you can track through Google Analytics. Not only do you want to ensure the said goal is measurable, but it also needs to be attainable. The holiday season has already started and for most people, ends by January 1. Is it attainable for you to increase traffic by 10%? Possibly 5% would be a better benchmark. With a specific, measurable, and attainable goal, you need to test its relevance. Will a 5% increase in traffic have a positive impact on your business? It absolutely will! Finally, you need to make sure that your goal is time-sensitive. Set your deadline. You have at least six weeks onwards to get the job done and keep yourself motivated.

    Be sure to define your target audience

    When speaking with a specific person, we naturally adjust what we say and how we say it. Your marketing should be the same. 

    Here are some questions to ask yourself when marketing to your target audience:

    • How well do you know your customers?
    • What makes them buy specifically from your business?
    • What are your customers thinking when they begin the holiday shopping journey?

    Knowing your audience is an essential part of creating marketing materials that will appeal to them. 

    Don’t forget to tell your story

    Customers join a retailer’s business journey at varied stages, so the holiday season is a great time to reintroduce yourself. 

    Your story could include:

    • How you got started
    • Your brand’s history
    • Customer success stories
    • Advice on products or services

    Hi, we’re Trek Marketing! We hope that all of the above holiday season digital marketing tips allow you to better connect with your audience in a successful and impactful way. 

    Which tip(s) have you added to your radar for the holiday season? Drop a comment below. 

    3 ways holiday shopping has changed since the beginning of the pandemic

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Now that we have been living amid a pandemic for almost two years, there is less uncertainty around what might happen. Most people are understanding that measures taken are to keep them safe and are on board with following these recommendations and presumptive measures to avoid the need for business closures. We’ve also adapted to the world of working-from-home, virtual appointments, and opting to get back to activities through a pre-booking system. Needless to say, one thing that hasn’t slowed down is holiday online shopping! 

    Shoppers are spending more

    At the beginning of the pandemic, many businesses were forced to close which means employers laid off working staff to front the costs until they could reopen. Now that we know more about how this virus is transmitted, we know that masks and social distancing do wonders for keeping people well, which has allowed brick-and-mortar businesses to reopen alongside in-person meetings, conferences, and events. That said, customers who enjoy online shopping have continued to do so, and those who learned how to make purchases online to avoid contact in stores, have also continued to rely on e-commerce businesses as a method of convenience. 

    In 2021, both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores are booming once again, and with a regular paycheck, and appreciation for hugs and gathering, shoppers are spending more, especially on their holiday online shopping. Whether they’re making up for lost times or simply eager about seasonal festivities, consumer spending is on the rise and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. 

    Shoppers are carrying out purchases with time to spare

    While e-commerce businesses and their digital marketing teams begin prepping for the holiday season before the end of summer, shoppers too, are prepping their lists early. If COVID has taught us anything, it’s to expect shipping delays and stocking issues. These supply-chain shortages have prompted earlier holiday online shopping, giving gift-givers a greater opportunity to find the items they want to wrap up this season. While last-minute shopping habits die hard for some (partially due to the flexibility of shopping in-store for more generic items), many people relish finishing their shopping early, and we expect this trend to continue. 

    Shoppers are willing to hunt around

    Before the pandemic, if their favorite chain store or small business was out of the desired item, many consumers would opt for an emailed reminder when the item became in stock. However, with some businesses unable to restock inventory must-haves for weeks, shoppers question their loyalty and are willing to look elsewhere to fulfill their checklists. 

    We’re sincerely hoping that this issue becomes gets buried for 2022! Although, we recommend that you use your email and social media platforms to keep customers updated if you’re experiencing a shipping or supply issue. Honest transparency is a great way to maintain customer loyalty. Also, be sure you pass on the savings by setting up a promotion code schedule to offer a meaningful way for shoppers to return to your online store. 

    Have you noticed any ongoing changes in your industry since the start of the pandemic? Please drop them in the comments section below to spark a conversation.   

    3 creative ideas for your holiday marketing campaigns

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    Halloween is long over, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday are upon us, and the holiday season is coming up quickly! Now is the perfect time to revamp your holiday marketing campaigns to get customers excited about your brand and give them a reason to shop. It goes without saying that incorporating some holiday spirit into your digital marketing campaigns acts as the best method to grab their attention, but since every other business will be doing the same, listed below are three creative ideas that can help to separate you from the rest. 

    Send out festive emails

    Whether you’re planning to offer a holiday discount code that can be used during a sale’s event or you’ve simply restocked some top-selling products and want your customers to know, to achieve optimal engagement with your email-based holiday marketing campaigns, be sure to put some added time into making them festive. This could include simple elements like a red, green, and white colour scheme and cheery, jovial imagery like presents, garlands, holidays lights, and snowman. This will ensure that you’re mindful of your audience and the fact that they may celebrate different holidays. However, if your demographics align, feel free to throw in a Christmas or Santa to appeal to the masses! 

    Since the holiday season is the perfect time of year to let your customers know that they’re valued, we recommend offering some sort of incentive to be considered as an online vendor for their shopping lists. 

    Launch a holiday-themed ad

    Google Ads is a great place to launch holiday-themed advertisements and promotions. That said, e-commerce businesses need to remember to research and utilize relevant keywords, such as “holiday”, “Christmas”, or “seasonal sale”. While the Google Ads platform is a great start, don’t shy away from promoting your products and services on social media sites like Facebook or Instagram if these platforms are places where your target audience can be reached and your holiday marketing campaigns thrive. 

    While there aren’t many weeks left before the holiday season, you can spend time now optimizing your website for technical SEO to achieve higher search engine rankings in the future. SEO is a great way to increase organic presence and creating high-quality content is still one of the best ways to get noticed online. 

    Advertise a contest or giveaway

    During the holiday season, it’s certainly a struggle to gain attention from your audience, especially with so many competitors looking to do the same. However, by promoting contests or giveaways that encourage people to participate, many brands can expand their reach, which grows their following! The trick to hosting a contest is to do so on social media. Ask users to follow your account, tag friends for more entries, share on their stories for added entries, and remain following to take part in future contests. While you will need to giveaway a prize with a certain value, access to new, interested consumers is far more rewarding. 

    What other ways do you prepare for the holiday season? Drop a comment below to share with our readers.

    What type of social media marketing works best during the holidays?

    Posted on by Alex Wilks

    social media marketing

    If you want to prepare your business for social media marketing during the holidays you need to be prepared to mix things up and get creative with your advertisements. It’s one of the biggest times of year for shoppers which means that all of your competitors are doing the same thing and bombarding potential customers with products perks and gift ideas. In order to stand out from the crowd, continue to grow in sales and not get mixed up in the intense flurry of posting on your social channels you need to tastefully separate your brand from the rest. That being said, here are a few suggestive ways that you can capture your festive spirit through the use of social media marketing over the holiday season.

    Run a poll

    Don’t worry, we’re not talking about personally running to the North Pole. We’re simply highlighting that you should be taking advantage of an easy-to-use tool that many social channels have. Polls are a great way to be fun and festive with your audience, whilst they also yield practical value with the results they manage to gather. You can post an image on your social channels and compare two popular products, asking your followers to leave a comment stating which one they prefer. You can also create a poll on your Instagram story as a quick method to gain social attention.

    Get creative with your visuals

    Through the use of vibrant greens and lavish reds you’re able to make your content visually festive. Optimize the images across all your social media feeds and make sure that they all follow the same winter wonderland, twinkly light theme and cross-post it for the rest of the month.

    Become a storyteller

    ‘Tis the season for being merry, so, why not embellish this through the use of social media marketing. The story feature on Instagram and Snapchat allows you to create artful stories that invite your followers to engage in your heartwarming holiday spirit. Perhaps a series of images with festive captions would do the trick or simply an interview feature talking about how cozy and cute your products would look inside someone’s stocking?

    Be engaging

    It’s one thing to make sure that you’re following a regular social media marketing posting schedule and it’s another thing to ensure that you’re engaging with your fans and followers. Bring an added holiday cheer into the mix and personalize as many comments and messages as you can. Although this method can prove to be rather time consuming, customers will relish in your well thought out responses and call outs.

    Use a festive hashtag

    Whether your creative personality has allowed you to come up with a top-notch hashtag idea or you will simply be adding an already trending hashtag onto all your social posts, never neglect the power of social media tools. Using a hashtag will allow new, potential followers to find and engage with you over the holiday season. Plus, you can keep on top of your competition and see what they are posting.

    What other ways do you use social media marketing to your advantage over the holidays? Tell us in the comments section below.