• Post category:Digital Marketing
  • Reading time:8 mins read

The holiday season generally provides most retail businesses with a substantial portion of their yearly earnings. Other B2B companies may also find this season to be particularly lucrative, depending on their service and/or product offerings. For B2C companies, almost all can use the holiday gift-giving rush to add a substantial amount of revenue to their coffers. The following tips for holiday marketing can help. 

Most holiday marketing tips center around starting early and focusing on Black Friday weekend, including Cyber Monday, for heavy advertising and innumerable special offers. These tactics can be effective; however, consumers are becoming more discerning in their purchasing decisions, and more thought must be invested to attract them to your business over other competitors. 

The marketing experts at 1-FIND SERVICES in the Tri-Cities of Northeast Tennessee suggest the following tips for holiday marketing that can raise your validity and credibility in the eyes of consumers for a more profitable holiday season year after year. 

Keep It Simple 

The K.I.S.S. principle should always be applied in business, and not just to marketing. But since marketing through the holidays is our topic, let’s apply it here. Elaborate advertising campaigns, decorating, and more can bear some fruit – but at what expense? Obviously, if you invest most of your holiday profits in advertising, you really haven’t come out ahead. 

The holidays and the end of the year are busy enough without adding more complications. Get back to the basics and plan for what your team can adequately handle. Your current reputation is what will bring customers back during the holidays, so focus on what makes you stand out already. Streamline the checkout process, be kind and courteous, and be sure to provide superior customer experiences, just like you do all year. That’s what sticks in the mind of consumers. 

Keep It Flexible 

During the holidays, anything can happen. They key is to remain flexible and able to handle whatever develops, good or bad. Equipment breakdowns, power outages, Internet problems, supply problems, employee shortages, and more are to be expected; some of these things you are likely already dealing with. Use the team you have and solve problems to ensure customers have the best experience possible. 

Don’t be afraid to amend services, offerings, protocols, and anything else in mid-stream, if necessary, in order to make things happen or improve customer experiences. Sudden changes can sometimes be beneficial, like taking advantage of something new that happens locally to shift focus onto a product or service offering you have featured. 

Create a Reason to Buy 

False urgency and deep discounts that only happen during the holidays are old ploys that may still work for some buyers, but more discerning customers want something more. Give them a real reason to buy your product and to choose your business over many others. This starts with relationships that connect you to your customers and allow them to know the real you behind the business. Trust in who they are buying from is a huge incentive to pass other businesses by and come to your store or website. 

Other incentives can create an impetus to shop your store, including community involvement, how you use your business to impact the world around you, and featuring top-quality products/services for the best price available, all the time. Become known for something truly positive and special, and add even more reasons for consumers to spend their money with you. 

Meet Consumer Needs 

The old advice to “scratch an itch” never fails – if you meet a consumer’s needs, they will keep coming back, and word will travel to other consumers. That is the best advice given to any B2B or B2C company: find a need and fill it better than anyone else. This especially holds true for the holiday shopping season. In this post-pandemic (maybe) era, consumers are more careful how they spend their available resources. They are more inclined to invest in something worthwhile than something trivial. 

Meet consumer needs with every product or service you offer, as well as with the price and way you deliver it. Discerning consumers are now demanding a better overall purchasing experience, so give them one to remember. Convenience, value, service, and respect go a long way in creating a memorable consumer buying experience. That, plus offering a product/service that meets a need better than anyone/anything else will keep lines of customers at your door. 

Reward Existing Customers 

A key to business success is returning customers. Reward your existing customers for their patronage and faithfulness by offering incentives. Give them extra opportunities for value, savings, first offerings, and more to show how much you appreciate their continued business. Planning for this should be a vital part of your overall holiday strategy, and remember, it looks totally different than what you do to attract new consumers. 

Need More Tips for Holiday Marketing?

Need more tips for holiday marketing or help with marketing strategies for your B2B or B2C business? 1-FIND, a Tri-Cities digital marketing agency based in Johnson City, TN, can help you grow your share of the local market using impactful SEO and online marketing best practices. Contact us today to learn more!