November and December will be here before you know it, meaning it's time to start planning your business's holiday promotions.
Timing matters. Releasing promotions too early could result in fewer sales, and holding off your promotions for too long could also be detrimental. Knowing your customers and their shopping habits is essential to figuring out the ideal time to being offering deals.
To start, use sales data from last year and the years before to see if you can spot any trends. You should also monitor social media networks to see what people are talking about.
A recent National Retail Federation study on consumer holiday buying habits found that approximately 40 percent of holiday gift-givers will begin shopping before Halloween, while 40 percent will wait until November. The rest are last-minute shoppers who will wait until December to make purchases.
Ideally, holiday promotion planning should start during the summer. That said, most business owners are busy, and as a result, developing marketing strategies in advance gets pushed down the priority list.
Not to worry. Now is a perfectly fine time to get started.
When it comes to shopping, decision-making is not purely rational, especially around the holidays. Consumers are likely to make decisions emotionally before justifying them rationally. Therefore, your holiday marketing should focus on the emotional. Focus on the feelings of the season: good will, giving back and gratitude.
Start with the following:
_Review your already-created promotional materials (fliers, emails, coupons) to decide if you can repurpose them for the season with some refreshment.
_Create a promotions calendar. Using sales and other data, determine when your customers are buying during the holidays. Put a list together of the upcoming holidays. And remember that impulse buys, which often involve cheaper goods, tend to happen early in the holiday buying cycle, while more expensive buys happen later.
_Ensure your website is ready. It is time to test your website's bandwidth to see if it can handle a spike in visits.
_Use social media. If you have a presence on social networking platforms, this is a good time to share with your followers your special deals and to interact with them.
_Check your inventory. Ensure you have in stock what you are selling. That seems like a no brainer, but it's important to ensure you have the products available.
_Staff up. This is the time you should think about adding staff. Being able to provide outstanding customer service during a busy time will benefit your business. It may be the difference between having a one-time customer one who returns again and again.
The holidays can be an opportunity to develop an emotional bond with your customers. Build that bond by not only fulfilling a need for your customer but by also filling them with good feelings. Do that by listening to your customers' needs, understanding their buying habits and providing them with personalized service.
This approach will position your business for maximum holiday success.
