Does your e-commerce marketing strategy have what it takes to make the most of this festive season? Well, Christmas is coming and NOW is the perfect time to get it straight.
The Christmas season has a lot to offer for online retailers around the world. Most e-commerce companies plan their marketing strategies well in advance to leverage the most of this opportunity and boost their revenue.
Capitalising on this opportunity is the key to your business success in Q4. Therefore, we made sure you have everything in place to take your revenue to a whole new level, this Christmas season.
When to Start Planning for Marketing in Q4?
Most of the Christmas shopping is done in the month of December. But, that doesn’t mean you should start preparing for the festive season in that month. Your e-commerce marketing strategy should be up for running a lot sooner.
There are e-commerce companies that plan to launch their Christmas marketing in the month of September! Few e-commerce companies even start preparing for the festive season as early as January. This is made possible by the data collected in the previous year’s festive season.
Facebook campaigns take a few hours (usually) to get approved. But, this isn’t an excuse to push things back for later!
So, let’s cut to the chase and learn how to create a perfect e-commerce marketing strategy for Christmas in 2019.
Creating a Perfect Ecommerce Marketing Strategy for Christmas in 2019
- Use Data to Make The Right Decisions
To maximize your revenue this Christmas season, you will have to use data to your advantage. It’s important to have a clear understanding of your customer’s behavior which can only happen if you analyze the numbers and figure out how you can build a perfect marketing strategy upon them.
The key performance metrics you will have to consider while making this assessment are Bounce Rate, Conversion Rate, Traffic Sources, Ratio of Total Users to Recurring Customers to Unique Customers, Popular Products, and other traffic insights. Make them numbers talk!
This makes it so important to keep a record of all the previous campaign reports. The Christmas season comes with a high workload which increases the chances of errors. To make sure all data and reports are monitored properly, automation is the way to go.
2. Go Smart With Ad Placements
Facebook Ads has a simple yet interesting auction system when it comes to displaying ads on its platform. The ads run by advertisers are algorithmically auctioned, allowing Facebook to run the ads that will provide the most value to the target audience.
The real problem with this approach is the increased number of advertisers trying to grab the online attention share – all the same time during Q4. The competition, therefore, is bound to skyrocket.
One of the best ways to deal with the situation is changing the ad placement on Facebook i.e. manually selecting the places where you’d want to show ads. Facebook has 16 different ad placements.
If you are new at Facebook Ads and want to experiment with this, make sure you monitor the ad placements so that you don’t burn a hole in your pockets.
3. Make Shopping Easier for Customers
The e-commerce revolution has made selling on the Internet very competitive.
Customers can choose which vendor they want to buy from which makes it important for you to ensure they stick around when they land on your website. How to get that done?
Well, drop all shipping charges.
Shipping charges are a thing of the past. Provide assured fast delivery, multiple delivery options, lucid return and exchange policy, 24/7 customer service, multiple payment options, and even in-site search options.
It is important to make the buying experience as effortless as possible. Look at your competition and try doing things better.
4. Run Ads Using Custom Audiences
There’s no time for testing during the festive season. You set the campaign and off you go.
That’s why the best way to go about setting the target audience is using Facebook Custom Audiences. Since it allows you to target people who have interacted with your business earlier, the results for your ad campaigns are much better – precision targeting bringing better ROI.
The custom audiences can be built by uploading the list of your customers. The list, having the email addresses of the customers, is used to target the audience.
Custom Audiences can be built from –
- Website Traffic
- Customer List
- App Activity
- Offline Activity
- Video
- Lead Form
- Instant Experience
- Instagram Business Profile
- Events
- Facebook Page
We highly recommend you to take the help of a Facebook advertising expert to set up custom audience for your ad campaigns. Better set up will bring is better results.
5. Follow The Facebook 20% Text Rule
Remove text from the images and video thumbnails you have used while creating the ad creative.
Facebook prefers running ads that rank high on creativity, online appeal, and ones that really make the user stop scrolling. This, first of all, helps Facebook make an attractive newsfeed for the users, and second, it helps you get tonnes of clicks on your ads.
But, to get this done effectively, you will have to follow the 20% Text Rule of Facebook which only allows text to cover 20% of the image. During the holiday season, most of the advertisers will be following the strict Facebook guidelines to get the most online reach.
Failing to design creatives that follow the 20% Text Rule will only give your competitors an edge over you.
6. Attract with Offers and Discounts
Designing a compelling offer is of utmost importance. People do wait for the festive season to arrive when they are looking to spend their hard-earned money on things they want to purchase. Why? The answer is simple – Lucrative Seasonal Offers.
Ecommerce sites do not fail to attract existing and unique customers to make a hefty purchase on their sites as they run exciting offers and discounts on products that customers just can’t resist.
But providing those hefty discounts might eat into your profit margins as well. To curb that, you can offer added extras like free gift wrapping, exclusive sales for existing customers, and more. For example, when selling a tennis racquet offer a free carrying case or cover, or if you are selling sunglasses give a cleaning solution absolutely free. You get the drift.
7. Launch the Campaigns
Once you are all set and things are at the right place, it’s time to press the launch button and track the progress and performance of your e-commerce marketing strategy.
Make sure you implement changes to the strategy as new insights come in.
If there’s something that can be done to improve the sales even at the last moment, you should do it. However, such a scenario won’t arise as we already recommended you to start early.
8. Post-Holiday Marketing
Run email marketing or SMS marketing campaigns to stay connected with the customers that have helped you improve the sales revenue this Christmas. Use it as an opportunity to thank them and encourage them to make more purchases in the future.
Over to You
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Your e-commerce store will reap huge rewards if you stick to the fundamentals of festive marketing in your upcoming marketing strategy.
However, brainstorming for ideas and coming up with exquisite ways to execute on them is a risk every e-commerce business owner should take to some extent.
After all, it also depends on how your brand sets itself apart from the crowd and provides great value to the customers!
