In this Tech News Tuesday #TNT episode, we talk about a holiday marketing guide that Facebook has put together. It goes over six holiday marketing trends and gives you a planning calendar and resources to put together your own campaign.
Links in this episode:
Transcript
Welcome to the Get Digital Marketing Results podcast where we give you information and actionable tips to grow your organization.
Bob: Hi, I’m Bob Clark.
Donna: And I’m Donna Botti, we’re from Delos Inc, and we make the web work for you.
Bob, have you started your holiday shopping yet?
Bob: No, but more and more people are starting their shopping in October and what that means is that businesses and nonprofits should have their plans in place now.
Donna: Right and today for our Tech News Tuesday tip we’re going to talk about a guide to marketing in the holidays that Facebook has published. So, if you don’t have your plan down or want to learn more about this year’s holiday trends, this episode is for you.
Bob: The guide which we will provide a link to on our show notes at delosinc.com/101 discusses six major holiday trends and the steps you should be using to plan a holiday campaign.
Donna: One of the biggest trends is that shoppers are starting and finishing earlier than ever. The entire 4th quarter is now a shopping season, and being somewhat of a procrastinator, I was surprised to learn that 50% of holiday shopping last year was finished by December 3rd.
Bob: The takeaway here is to have an editorial calendar and plan ahead. Another trend mentioned is how shoppers expect a good mobile shopping experience and any friction in the process causes lost sales.
Donna: It is so important that you experience doing business with yourself as a customer would, on a mobile device, and identify any problems with the experience and fix them. We’ve been harping on mobile for years and still many businesses do not have it right.
A third trend is recognizing that although e-commerce grew by 18% last year, online sales are still only 15% of the market. The main reason is that shoppers want to see products in person, but there are also emotional reasons – almost half of shoppers said they shopped in-store for holiday ambiance, and a quarter said it was a way to spend time with family.
Bob: Businesses will want to think about how they can create an enjoyable holiday experience in store and promote that on their website, social media, and with email marketing. You can read about the other trends relating to messaging, Instagram and Facebook stories, and the popularity of major shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the guide.
The guide also has a how-to on running a campaign and a holiday planning calendar.
Donna: Hopefully you’ll use this to see if you are on track, but if you are behind you can still get good information for future planning of any type of campaign. The guide lays out 4 phases – Preparing and Planning, Building Momentum, that crucial period of November-December which is all about maximizing sales, and the last phase is Post-Holiday.
Sometimes we don’t give this last phase the attention it deserves after the business of the holiday season, but the Post holiday phase is all about customer retention and cross-selling and up-selling. So don’t forget to add this to your plan.
Bob: Find the link to the Facebook guide on our website at delosinc.com/101 and don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast and our Tech News Tuesday newsletter.
