Even if the holiday season has snuck up on you, there are still things you can do to get in front of more people to stay top of mind and drive sales.
In this free, one-hour webinar, you’ll get ideas for:
- Promotions that drive business
- How to stay top-of-mind all season long
- How to boost awareness and engagement
You can view the webinar directly through Wistia or right here on the Blog!
About the session
This webinar was about how businesses can effectively market their products or services during the holiday season. The session covered 28 ideas for holiday marketing, from running promotions and offers to creating engaging content and events. The ideas were designed to help businesses stay top of mind, drive sales, boost awareness, and engage with their audience during the holiday season.
Key speakers
- Stephanie French, Senior Producer for Webinars at Constant Contact
- Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact
Agenda
The discussion covered several areas including:
- Stats on consumer behavior during the holiday season
- 28 ideas for holiday marketing
- How to choose the most impactful ideas based on available resources
- The importance of using multiple marketing channels in concert
- Q&A session
Takeaways
Takeaway: Identifying impactful holiday marketing ideas is crucial to driving sales and staying top of mind during the festive season.
The webinar discussed several strategies for small businesses to adopt during the holiday season. The speakers emphasized the importance of supporting local businesses and highlighted that many consumers are eager to shop small and help their communities. "35% of consumers say that it's important to shop locally and support their communities this season. So even with all the things going on with the economy, people are still ready and willing to shop small."
The speakers also suggested businesses focus on providing value to their audience, rather than just selling products or services. "A lot of these ideas really are about providing value to your audience. It's not necessarily about selling something. And in a lot of cases, just a simple happy holidays type of message, videos or all sorts of things like that can go a long way towards building loyalty," they said.
Businesses need to consider how they can best leverage the strengths of various marketing channels, such as social media, email, and SMS. They advised businesses to think about how they can use all three channels in concert to deepen customer relationships and stimulate sales, rather than using one channel over the other.
Takeaway: Small businesses and nonprofits should focus on creating engaging content and providing value to their customers during the holiday season.
They emphasized the importance of creating engaging content that provides value to the audience, rather than just pushing for sales. This can include providing useful information, running contests, or even just spreading holiday cheer. "All of these ideas really are about providing value, like these ideas. It could be in combination with a promotional offer like we talked about in the last section, or some sort of resource that you're offering," they explained.
Businesses should also consider partnering with other local businesses or charities to create a sense of community and provide more value to their customers. They suggested: "If you're in the marketing world, which I saw Terry is a marketing consultant. This is definitely something you can offer as well as probably anything any other person that's in the audience today. For example, in the marketing world, you could offer a marketing checklist."
In terms of specific holiday marketing ideas, the speakers suggested businesses could run promotions, host events, create gift guides or checklists, celebrate their successes, and even share stories with their audience. "Number 28, which is to share a story. And this is a great way to create connections... Tell a story in your marketing channels. Tell a story about where you started and how you ended up here, again, celebrating your success."
Insights surfaced
- 35% of consumers say it's important to shop locally and support their communities during the holiday season.
- 34% of people want to support small businesses that they feel loyal to and have bought from before.
- Many shoppers are concerned about getting their gifts on time, so they are shopping earlier this year.
- Email is the preferred channel for 55% of consumers to be contacted by businesses.
- 29% of people who sign up for text messages from small businesses do so to claim a deal or discount.
- 97% of people access social media at least once a month, and 67% of consumers expect brands and companies to have a social presence to provide customer service.
Key quotes
1. "35% of consumers say that it's important to shop locally and support their communities this season. So even with all of the things going on with the economy, people are still ready and willing to shop small."
2. "One of the biggest things to keep in mind this year is that so many shoppers are really worried about getting their gifts on time."
3. "It's not necessarily about selling something. And in a lot of cases, just a simple happy holidays type of message, videos or all sorts of things like that can go a long way towards building loyalty."
4. "We all have these devices with us on us all the time that really, through those channels, social, email and text allows you to get on this device and influence and connect and engage with people."
5. "You know, we're going to talk about a lot of different ideas and really it's thinking about before you say, oh, you know what, I'm not that type of business, or I can't do that thing. It's really about trying to find, capturing the spirit of what the particular idea is and finding out, are there ways that you can maybe modify that so it does fit your business?"
