We’ve only just started the month of November, but before you know it, it’ll be time for people to start focusing on their holiday shopping.
There is a tremendous amount of competition in retail marketing, and this is true whether you have a brick-and-mortar business or you do online sales.
So, how do you remain competitive this holiday season to ensure you’re able to meet your sales goals?
That’s a great question, and we have some marketing options that can help.
Update Your Website
Updating your website is priority number one.
Don’t have a business website? It only takes a week or so and about $500 to get your business set up with a basic landing page.
Once you have your website, you can easily connect it to your Google Business Profile and social media pages for quick sales results.
If you do have a website, consider decking it out with holiday colors or a Christmasy theme.
Some other ideas that can get you fantastic results with your retail website are:
Adding a banner across the top that tells your customers what your sales or promotions are.
Adding a blog page and writing several blog posts that include your main keywords.
Making sure your search engine optimization (SEO) is updated to ensure your store shows up in Google search results.
Consider Ad Marketing
If you’ve never done ad marketing for your retail business, the holidays are a great time to start.
Check out these stats:
In 2022, TV, print, digital ads, and other mediums hit close to $50 billion.
That same year, retail online ad spending went up 23.5%.
Retail online ad spending is expected to reach more than $100 billion by 2027.
Of course, retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Target are expected to spend the most money on ads this holiday season, like always.
So if you have a large, similarly competitive store, and the budget for it, you’re wise to start ad marketing yesterday.
But even if your store is smaller and your budget is more modest, you can still compete with the right strategy.
Really good audience targeting, carefully choosing the locations for your ads to be displayed, and even utilizing geotargeting if you’re a brick-and-mortar business can go a long way and get you terrific results.
We always recommend working with an agency that either employs a media buyer or who has a partnership with one.
Why?
Because they do all the heavy lifting for you.
Not only will you get artistic, creative ad graphics and sales copywriting, but your budget will go much farther than it would if you were to run ads on your own.
The media buyer we work with makes $1 in ad spend work for you like $10.
And our clients have seen some stellar results.
Facebook, Google, digital display, streaming video, and connected TV are just a few of the options available to you.
Get Started with Email Marketing
Have you been building a customer list and collecting emails, but you’re not sure what to do with them?
If so, it’s past time to start email marketing.
I get an email from one supplement company I do business with every single day.
Yes. You read that right. Every. Single. Day. And sometimes more than one a day.
I’ll be honest; if I have everything I need from that company, I don’t even open the email and it gets deleted.
But I’ve never unsubscribed because I want to be notified when they’re running a big sale, or when I happen to run out of my supplements.
And because their newsletter comes to me daily, their business is always near the front of my mind.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you should email your customers every single day. For most businesses, that’s a bit of overkill.
But I am telling you that email marketing works. And there’s a lot you can do with it, like:
Letting your customers know of upcoming sales and promotions.
Creating new email campaigns for customers who click on certain links in your emails so they get more targeted information from your store that interests them.
Introducing new products and services only to subscribers (you can even call them VIPs), to make them feel like they have access to information no one else does.
In the “old days,” direct mail was considered the standard marketing tactic.
But as you know, things change. And today, email marketing has largely taken the place of direct mail because it’s much more effective.
Start Your Holiday Marketing Plan Today!
At Colwell Creative Content, Inc., we’re ready to partner with you to begin marketing for the holidays.
Your retail store will receive a solid, actionable holiday marketing plan that we’re ready to execute to boost your sales and make this the best holiday season your store has ever had.
Ready to get started? Contact us!