‘Tis the season to spend excessively. That means it’s a great time to market your products and services to consumers who are largely already primed for retail therapy. That requires stepping up your online marketing efforts, however, and social media can play a significant role in doing so. In fact, research shows that up to 74% of purchasing decisions will be influenced by social media, so you shouldn’t be resting on your social laurels just now. Here are some ideas for getting your message out there and turning your social media profiles into powerful branding opportunities for the season.
Publish Reviews and Testimonials
Customers are turning to online reviews more and more frequently, whether they shop online or off, so sharing links to reviews or testimonials and providing them with the social proof they need to make a purchasing decision is more important than ever! If you have reviews and customer testimonials gathering dust in a folder on your computer somewhere, now is the time to dust them off and put them out there where people can find them.
Provide Gift Ideas
One way customers use the internet and social media around the holidays is to find ideas for gifts. If you already have a Pinterest or Instagram account, start posting visually appealing ideas and engaging shoppers’ imaginations. Make sure that you include pictures or video with your Twitter updates for the same reason!
Make Shareable, Viral-Ready Content
The holidays provide you with the perfect opportunity to create visual, shareable content that is ready to go viral. Think holiday themed infographics or videos. If your company sponsors a charity event of some sort at this time of year, then that may be a good way to share the spirit of the season and market your business at the same time. Remember, videos are shared up to 12 times more, and images are liked twice as much as text updates on Facebook and other social media.
Schedule Posts and Tweets
When it comes to retail sales, there is growing evidence that Twitter plays a big role in consumer decision making. Surprisingly, Twitter is one of the most effective traffic generation tools. According to new research, up to 52% of consumers will buy a product they first heard of on Twitter. Instead of scrambling to keep up with your holiday posting schedule, sign up for a service like Hootsuite and schedule all of your posts and tweets ahead of time. By doing so, you will keep your presence on social media consistent, but also free up some more time to deal with holiday sales.
Develop a Sense of Urgency
A final way to use social media marketing to your advantage this holiday season is to generate urgency by running social media sales with a limited time offer. Consumers these days are even more driven by the fear of missing out, or FOMO, which means they are even more likely to react to sales that have a time limit.
The holidays are very good for social media marketing. More people are actively looking for products and ideas, there are even more opportunities to connect and engage, and not only to drive sales for the holiday period but to build a loyal following for the New Year too.
