The holidays are a busy time, for retailers as well as consumers. With Christmas and Hanukkah just around the corner, retailers are putting up those sales and enticing consumers with special offers, seasonal discounts etc. While the excitement hasn’t diminished over the years, what has changed is how products are promoted. The influence of the internet, especially social media, on consumers’ purchasing behavior makes it imperative for brands to focus more on this medium, and make it an integral part of their marketing arsenal; and brands have been doing that.
Thismoment investigated just how influential the web, including social media, is this holiday season. Here’s what we found:
- Internet sales are expected to rise 15% this holiday season, with retailers embracing social channels and mobile to lure customers (Forrester).
- According to a recent study by Offerpop and Liel Leibovitz, Assistant Professor at NYU Steinhardt, 90% of respondents said that following a brand on social sites made them somewhat or very likely to consider the brand when planning their holiday shopping list.
- The internet will heavily influence consumers’ choice of gifts, brands and retailers (Google and Ipsos OTX 2012 Study)
- 90% marketers plan to maintain or increase holiday campaign investments in social channels like Facebook (Experian).
The Holiday Marketing Checklist
As far as shopping during the holiday season is concerned, social media is fast growing as the preferred medium. However, brands need to keep in mind that marketing during this season requires the creation of a social checklist that’s specially designed to target
holiday shoppers.
- ‘Tis the Season to Give: Besides the expected giveaways and special offers, consumers have also come to expect free shipping during the holidays from online retailers. According to the 2011 MarketLive Consumer Shopping Survey, high shipping costs are among the top reasons why consumers refrain from clicking on that “buy now” option. Free shipping is an important driver of e-commerce and the holidays are the perfect time to offer this special benefit. Here are some more “holiday special benefits” brands can give their consumers:
- Flash Deals: 55% of all retail sales in 2011 were the result of flash deals (POPAI). There’s always that impulsive shopper looking for great deals.
- Holiday Special Recipes/Gifting Ideas: Giveaways don’t always have to be offers and discounts. Helping consumers with gifting ideas and giving away holiday special recipes, dieting and cooking tips etc. is recommended. E.g. Kenmore showcases healthy homemade recipes for the holidays on their YouTube channel (powered by Thismoment DEC).
- Mobile Promotions: With mobile fast becoming a popular choice for consumers to buy and research products, post reviews etc. we suggest marketers add this to their holiday marketing checklist. Research by Experian indicated 2012 to be a mobile holiday season, with marketers increasing investment in mobile marketing. They couldn’t have been more accurate. 2012 Thanksgiving data released by IBM showed that mobile commerce jumped to 26.5% compared with 15.8% the previous year. Need more convincing?
- Design that Seasonal Social Page: Instead of trying to fit holiday special content in your regular social media page, it’s always a better idea to design a seasonal brand page and feature those holiday special ads, offers etc. here. This not only sets the festive mood, but also does wonders to brands’ visibility. Here are some suggestions to design those season-special social brand pages:
- Include season special cover image/ background/ logos.
- Feature special offers, recipe downloads etc.
- Inclusion of polls and countdowns: Thismoment Distributed Engagement Channel (DEC) features the Countdown, Poll and Quiz modules (among others) that can be featured on brands’ holiday special social/web page. Using these customizable engagement modules, brands can feature a countdown to Christmas, run polls on subjects like “what are the biggest holiday shopping challenges?” etc.
- Feature Recommendations: The Google and Ipsos Holiday Consumer Intentions 2012 study indicates that 80% shoppers research online before deciding to buy something. On exploring further, we found that it’s not just product or pricing details that consumers research; they also look for reviews and recommendations. Reviews/ recommendations impact purchase decisions to such an extent that 61% people said that they were somewhat likely and 36% were very likely to read reviews on social sites or seek opinions before buying something (Offerpop and Liel Leibovitz). Including recommendations/reviews in your checklist is a smart idea. Recommendations make consumers trust brands, and consumers don’t mind loosening their purse strings for brands they trust.
The Next Few Years…
While 2012 sees holiday shoppers depend heavily on mobile, special offers and recommendations/ reviews posted on social channels to make purchase decisions, we expect these trends to continue in the future. Consumers will not just use mobile devices to learn about deals, but to actually buy products while on the go. Going by IBM’s predictions, both social and mobile platforms have increasing trends in conversion rates and don’t show signs of slow down anytime soon. With a fair idea of what to expect in the future, we say it’s never too early to create a marketing checklist and start planning for the next
holiday season.
- Shama Ahmed
Thismoment
