The holiday season is a crucial time for retailers in Singapore, and for ecommerce websites, this is no different. Although the holiday season does not account for the bulk of the year’s profits for ecommerce websites, plenty will still experience a spike in traffic — whether from buyers looking to avoid crowds or those who prefer to shop online out of convenience.
And now with the COVID-19 pandemic turning online activities into the new normal, we can expect online retail sales this holiday season to be even higher than usual. So how do you plan a marketing strategy for your ecommerce store to capture some of this holiday traffic? In this article, we share with you 7 ways for you to grab those consumer dollars!
1. Mark Down the Dates
Unless you’re planning a special month-long promotion, you’ll probably want to mark down these dates in your marketing calendar. Running limited-time promotions or flash sales on these dates are a great way to create urgency and encourage shoppers to make an immediate purchase. You’ll also know when to expect higher competition for your keywords as you get closer to these dates.
Here are some dates you need to take note of for November and December.
- Singles Day (11th November)
- Grandparents Day (22nd November)
- Black Friday (27th November)
- Cyber Monday (30th November)
- 12 Sale (12th December)
- Christmas Eve and Christmas (24th and 25th December)
- Boxing Day (26th December)
- New Year’s Eve (31st December)
2. Start Marketing Early to Acquire New Customers
Ecommerce marketing for the holiday season is more than just running ads on the day itself! Not only will your cost-per-click (CPC) be more expensive on the actual day, your customers will be overwhelmed with ads and less likely to respond to what you’re putting out.
The solution is to run engagement ads in the weeks leading up to the holiday in order to prime target audiences for your holiday campaigns. This way, you can generate interest and awareness of your products so potential customers will shortlist your brand and come back to purchase during the holiday. If you’re not sure how to do so, you can always engage a social media marketing agency to help you run a campaign for this period.
3. Be Mindful About Your Keywords
If you’re planning to run Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ads, don’t just stick with the usual generic terms and keywords. Instead, take the opportunity to target buyers with the intention to purchase by including phrases like “buying” or “discount on”.
You can also look into bidding on specific product searches that match what you’re selling. A wallet retailer for example might run ads for the search term “brown leather bifold wallet”. If your brand is already well-established in the industry, you can also bid on your brand’s name as a keyword to ensure your result appears on the top of the page.
If you’re not sure, you can always engage in digital marketing services from an agency to run a campaign for you.
4. Retarget to Stay on Top of Mind
Mindshare, or consumer awareness is important in the days leading up to the holiday. Make sure to use retargeting, be it via Facebook remarketing, or email campaigns to support any engagement ads you might have been running — this will help keep your brand visible to anyone who has visited your website or viewed a product, giving you the best chance at converting them into paying customers.
5. Don’t Forget Your Existing Customers
The holidays are a great time to market and attract new customers, but don’t neglect the customers who are already buying from you in the first place! Shoppers are more likely to buy from brands they are familiar with, so don’t forget to nurture these relationships you’ve already built up.
Encourage repeat purchases for the holidays by sending your customers an exclusive discount or offer in their email to sweeten the deal. Don’t just send a generic offer to your entire email list though! You’ll want to segment your customers into groups and set up personalised offers to greatly increase your chances of appealing to them and converting. Speaking of segmentation…
6. Segment Your Customer Base
It goes without saying that not all of your customers are the same. So why should your marketing plan be a catch-all?
Take a look at your email list or customer database. You’ll likely have customers with a variety of spending habits and different levels of engagement with your brand. The holidays are a great time to reach out to your VVIP customers with fantastic offers and maximize sales — but they won’t feel valued as a loyal customer if they find out you’re giving out the same deal to everyone else.
So make each segment of your customer base has a marketing plan tailored specifically for them. For example — hefty discounts to drive repeat purchase from VIP customers and reward loyalty or a first-time purchase deal for customers who have signed up but have not bought anything from the store. There are many ways of going about this and it is up to you to explore striking the right balance for your business and customers.
7. Have an Abandoned Cart Recovery Sequence
Holiday shopping is frantic and it is not uncommon for customers to browse around for the best deals before pulling the trigger. During this time, a potential customer might add your products to cart as a way of saving them, before jumping onto another website to browse.
That’s the real-world equivalent of taking an item to the cashier, only to put it down and leave the store! You’d want to close the sale in this scenario, which is why abandoned cart emails are so handy at reminding forgetful shoppers and pushing on-the-fence shoppers over the line.
Over here, a good ecommerce website design will make the difference in whether you save that lost lead or not, and in turn that order cart which could be worth a hundred dollars on average.
If your site doesn’t help to remind your customer, you can install automated emailing, where a reminder email of an unfinished cart order will be sent to the customer, to ask if they still want to purchase their goods. This can help you close sales you would otherwise miss.
Final Thoughts
Internet traffic from consumers might be rising across the board this 2020 holiday season, but so will the online competition. Don’t make the mistake of assuming customers will just happen to chance upon your website.
With the right digital marketing strategy in place, you can set your business up for a successful holiday season and build upon it to create stronger connections with your customers.
If you’re a business owner interested in fast-tracking your marketing strategy for the holiday season and beyond, you might be interested in our Social Media Marketing and SEM packages.
Contact us for a free 30-minute, no obligations consultation to find out what we can do for you today!
