Q&A from our "Jingle All the Way to Online Marketing Success" Webinar

[Caitlin_M]

The holidays are the biggest spending season of the year — are you prepared to claim your piece of the pie? With all of the holiday promotions out there, it can be difficult to get your audience's attention. 

We recently hosted a webinar where we discussed how to set up an online marketing strategy for your business to prepare for the busy holiday season. A few highlights from the webinar included:

• How to prepare your marketing for the holidays
• How to execute your holiday plan
• How to prepare for ongoing success after the holidays

In this post, you can watch the webinar in its entirety and read some of the questions asked by our attendees. Interested in our free, future webinars? Sign up here to stay informed!

Resources mentioned during webinar:

• Holiday Marketing 101
• Holiday Planning Worksheet

Holiday Marketing

Do you have any holiday marketing tips for those of us who are in the service business other than discounts or special offers?

As a service business, you can still offer something to your audience over the holidays. You can share your expertise or hints & tips and even position it as a holiday gift. You can even share simple "Happy Holiday" messages that keep your business top-of-mind.

This was a great webinar. Will there be another one for Black Friday or Giving Tuesday?

We don’t have a specific webinar planned for these events but you'll find some great posts over on our Blog which might provide some inspiration for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But we will have another free webinar in November called Last-Minute Holiday Marketing Ideas which you can sign up for!

I see some businesses updating their cover photos frequently on social media. What are some best practices for utilizing Facebook and Twitter cover photos for holiday promos?

It is a best practice to switch cover photos up with regularity. On Facebook, unless you turn it off, it sends a notification to your followers that you've updated the image, which is a way to gain exposure, especially if you are highlighting something special for the holidays.

How far in advance should a business send out holiday event emails? 

We usually suggest starting two weeks out and then send the reminder emails as well. But this might also be something to test with your own audience to see what works best, especially if you are in an industry where holiday planning for your customers is critical such as restaurants or retail.

Where might I find free content or downloads relevant to current trends for the holidays?

It can really depend on your industry, but you can find information that helps you to create downloadable content in a variety of places. You can find some great information on holiday trends through the National Retail Federation*. 

Giving Tuesday is really important for our nonprofit. How often should I contact a potential donor in the days leading up to it?

Unfortunately, there's no black or white answer to this. Ultimately, you'll want to use a variety of email, social media, and maybe even offline messaging. The thing to note is not everyone will see every message. In terms of email, many organizations send two or three messages a month. You can get away with more if your subscribers are expecting it. On social media, you can get away with posting more frequently. Just make sure you're not posting the exact same message on all of your channels. Check out our Giving Tuesday Playbook for more information on creating a fundraising strategy.

Do you have a Small Business Saturday email template? What about Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Giving Tuesday?

Yes, we have all of these templates available. When you are in your account, search for the holiday in the template picker.

Online Marketing

I am new to Constant Contact. Is there a guide book on how to use Constant Contact along with my online marketing?

Yes, we have a great free resource called The Download that is perfect for those who are starting out or are looking for an additional resource to keep on hand.

If you are posting to a website, promoting on social media, and sending an email, is it okay to do all three on the same day? Should I stagger this information to avoid donor fatigue?

Ideally, your message should look slightly different on all of these channels to match the intended audience. Not everyone will see every message, but you can always stagger them out just in case. 

Is there more to Constant Contact than just email marketing? One of my favorite things to do is Facebook Live to show behind the scenes videos but I would love to have my 40,000 followers join my email list too.

Yes. In addition to email, we offer websites, social media, and other online marketing tools to help you reach your intended audience. You can easily share a link to a sign-up form in your Facebook Livestream. 

I use social media a lot for my business. Do you have any tips on how I can get followers to join my list?

We have a couple of different tools to help with this. You can create and share the link to a landing page or even use Facebook Lead ads to target your audience to get them to sign up. Don't make it about the email list, make it about the benefit they'll receive when they join. One great tip is to create a landing page where a new contact can be directed to a webpage or download a file after they sign up.

Does Constant Contact integrate with Shopify? I use them for my online store.

Yes, we have a great integration with Shopify! You can segment contacts based on their activity, add products from your store right in your email, and send abandoned cart emails to bring customers back. 

Email

Does Constant Contact have the ability to automatically send an email to a new email customer?

We have lots of options for Automated emails which we discussed a bit in the webinar. Depending on your package, you can make use of Welcome Emails and Automated Series. The Welcome email allows you to choose from a handful of templates, and will only send to new contacts. An Automated Series is more robust; it allows you to use any default template, or copy an existing email into the series. 

Do you have any tips about how many times a week you should send to your email list and at what time during the day?

This can vary quite a bit based on your industry and audience but a very broad, general answer is usually between Tuesday and Thursday, preferably in the morning. We have an article on our Knowledge Base about when to send your email that compiles the latest industry data, and it's updated every few months. 

*Note: Any links we provide from non-Constant Contact sites or information about non-Constant Contact products or services are provided as a courtesy and should not be construed as an endorsement by Constant Contact.