6 Digital Marketing Strategies to Boost your Sales during Christmas

It's never too early to start preparing your Christmas and Cyber Week marketing campaigns. COVID-19 has changed the way shoppers discover, educate themselves and buy products. Retailers need to be up to date with new digital marketing trends that will help gain leads and engage customers.

That's why we bring you 6 digital marketing strategies you can't miss to help promote your products and your brand during this time of the year:

1- Know your audience

Tailored marketing should be on top of your list! By knowing your audience, you can create specific and personalised messages to grab your customer's attention. Investigate which social media platforms they use and what type of content they consume. You can either look for customer research from your sector, check your social analytics or run social ad campaigns to find out what content they engaged with.

2- Creativity is key

We always talk about being consistent with the design of your posts to build a visual identity for your brand, but too many corporate style posts are boring. Try to use the same colour palettes, fonts, use your logo here and there, but be creative at the same time. Use images or videos that draw attention and use a casual tone of voice for your messages to engage more with your audience. Social media also offers you endless features to be creative, such as tags, filters and music. Use them to give your posts a sense of dynamism.

Businesses tend to show their human side more and more these days because at the end of the day, brands are people. Show the "behind the scenes" of your business, for example, what's involved when you take your product pictures or how you pack your orders. This type of content will help create your brand personality, get closer with your audience and engage with them.

When you are creating content put yourself in your audiences shoes and think about what you would like to see on social media that would be entertaining for you. Don't just sell, but tell a story. Life is about happiness, disappointments, turn arounds... Show emotions in your content which your customer will feel identified with. There is a lot happening in people's lives during Christmas and you can use these emotions to engage with your audience.

3- The importance of using stories

Stories and Reels are not only popular on Instagram, but now Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok... Have you ever ask yourself why? Well, they show us content that disappears in 24h which means we need to be on the lookout for new stories if we don't want to miss them. Stories are your best strategy to gain customer engagement.

Brands tell stories and share experiences through this feature to build a strong social media presence within their audience. Throw a poll to know what your clients think about your products, ask questions and collaborate with influencers. Shoppers will be active on social media for Christmas more than the rest of the year to look for gift ideas and products to buy so this is your chance to connect with them.

4- Create videos

Video content is king, but it's easier to say that than to create it, right? Even if you don't have the resources, Instagram gives you the option of creating a Reel in a few simple steps in their own platform which nowadays is a very powerful tool.

Don't over-complicate it and create simple videos. Think outside the box and make it entertaining. You can create a fun product announcement by showing the features and benefits of your products, how you make them or the moment when the customer receives their order. ASOS created a simple but viral video for Christmas in 2018 and it worked well because it was referenced to a famous scene from the movie 'Love Actually':

If you are a little bit more adventurous and you want to use a platform to edit videos, horizontal ones work better on Facebook than Instagram and don't forget to add subtitles, as there are moments when we can't listen to them and it helps people understand.

5- Email your subscribers

Email marketing platforms offer so many personalisation options to convince your subscribers to buy your products and Christmas is the perfect opportunity to create these kinds of email marketing campaigns. Use an attractive and customised subject to increase your open rate, use their name in the content of the email to make personal or offer products that they have recently viewed in your store to incentivise the purchase.

With email marketing campaigns you can send Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, gift guides or a showcase of your products categorised by pricing or most sold items. Last minute deals also work very well as you are creating a sense of urgency, but they will be already stressed with Christmas shopping so try not to make them feel overwhelmed.

6- Retargeting campaigns

Users see ads on Facebook all the time, step out of your comfort zone by personalising ads with retargeting campaigns. They are an effective strategy all year long for abandoned carts, cross sell or up-sell on products that they have viewed but didn't buy. They are already interested in what you are selling so offer a special discount to immediately gain a conversion.

If you sell a seasonal product, it's very important to create retargeting campaigns on Facebook and Instagram based on your audience's graphical location, because the weather is not the same in the north or south of Australia or countries from other hemispheres, if you sell internationally.

And the most important part, spread Christmas joy! Base your content around this time of the year, give them a touch of festivity and make your customer feel the Christmas vibes! Read more about how to get ready for the peak season sales here.