5 Online marketing tips to attract holiday shoppers

As festive seasons approaches, consumers are in a good buying mode. They are willing to spend money for the the emotions that fill the holiday season. And because holiday spendings are much higher than the average, competition also gets more intense. Business owners and marketers need to be even more strategic and ramp up their efforts to get the attention of those holiday shoppers. Here are 5 online marketing tips to attract more holiday shoppers:

#1 Make it more convenient

You’re not only competing with other online stores but you are also competing with physical stores and shopping malls. You can win shoppers over with convenience. Make it so that it is more convenient to buy from your online store instead of going to the packed shopping mall. You can make it more convenient for shoppers by providing a holiday catalog. The products that you offer are neatly organized into categories and shoppers can view them any time by going to your webstore. It will be even more convenient for them if they can browse using their mobile devices. And also make sure that you offer multiple payment options. With payment gateway, you can accept credit cards as well as internet banking payments. This is convenience at another level. They browse your site on their mobile device and can make payment on the spot.

#2 Help them buy

Getting the perfect gift for the people you care most about is hard. Let’s make it easier for them. A buyer’s guide designed specifically for a certain type of gift shopper can help them make a buying decision without thinking too much.

Create a content page on your online store with a list of gift ideas. Include visuals so they can imagine exactly what the gift will look like. Recommend popular products based on what others have bought. You can also mention who the gift was for and on what occasion. It makes it easier for them knowing what others have bought.

#3 Everyone loves special offers and discounts

Holiday shoppers are hunting for the best deals on their holiday shopping. Grab their attention and give them what they want. But of course there is a strategy to it and not just simply throwing out discounts. You don’t want to be killing your margins. If you charge for shipping on regular days, you might want to offer free shipping. You'd think that you will be at loss but it is a great strategy to increase the average sale per order. Only offer free shipping for orders over a certain amount. They will purchase more to meet that free shipping requirement. Discounts are a great way to attract holiday shoppers. You can either slash out your regular price to holiday sales or you can provide discount codes. Discount codes are a great way to build up your email list for post-holiday use. Bonus: EasyStore has a ready built-in discount module that allows you to create special discount codes whereby customers can apply it during checkout.

#4 Give your advertising a boost

If you usually run paid advertising such as Facebook ads, it’s time to push a bit beyond your comfort zone. If you never ran ads before, it’s time to start. Read the Newbie’s guide to Facebook Ads. Run paid ads to get your brand and products in front of more people because those people are potential buyers. When festive seasons are near, they will have holiday shopping on their mind. You want to make sure to grab as many of their attention as you can (within your budget of course). Don’t wait for them to come to you. Promote content such as the gift ideas mentioned earlier or promote a special offer for your target audience.

#5 Remarketing & Retargeting

Don’t forget about your existing customers and those that have shown interest (visited your website but did not purchase). They are holiday shoppers too. Upload your customer list as a custom audience and retarget them. You can also set up retargeting campaigns to target those that visited your site but did not make a purchase. These are warmer leads so you can directly get them to purchase by offering discounts mentioned earlier. A more cost effective way is to send out newsletters to your customer base. You can use email marketing tools such as GetResponse to create beautiful newsletters and send it out to all of your existing customers. Related: Link your online store with GetResponse People start thinking about shopping for festive seasons way before it actually happen. To stand out from the competition, it’s best to start ramping up your marketing early. And remember that the holidays are about emotions and celebrations. Don’t forget to be human along your marketing efforts.