Year on year consumers do more and more of their holiday shopping online, as 59% of holiday shoppers intend to shop differently this year it is critical that your Social Media is on point. The timing of your Social activities is crucial, and your seasonal marketing plan should be in full swing.
If you hadn’t planned to use Social Media in your seasonal marketing, then you should be seriously re-considering! Did you know that most consumers don’t visit your brand’s website at all when researching a product before purchase? But instead, they turn to Social Media platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and blogs.
Why do people turn to Social Media?
It is a proven fact that Social Media has a useful role in raising awareness to brands and their campaigns, it is reported that 40% plan to shop online more than last year, so it is important that your Social ready!
When consumers are looking to purchase a product they want to know more about other people’s thoughts and experiences, and this is more active across Social Media sites, people will often tweet, post and pin their experiences and these are valuable to potential customers. Managing these interactions are also critical to your business as ensuring that you have an engaged Social presence will be key to locking in those additional seasonal sales!
Why is the Holiday Season so important for Social Media?
When looking at Social Media over the holiday season it can easily be distilled into 3 sectors, and these are brand awareness, customer service, and sales.
Brand Awareness
Knowing that people will be purchasing gifts in advance for the festive season is inevitable but making sure that you are part of the conversation early is key for your brand recognition, for example if you have a candle gift set you will be selling, then using your Social Media platforms it is important to start the conversation early. As you have already given people, the idea of a candle gift set and associate your brand with it.
Customer Service
More and more customers including potential customers are starting to turn to Social Media to interact with the brand as opposed to e-mail or telephone. So this is why you need to take full advantage of Social Media, especially in the holiday season. Making sure that those customer interactions take place is the difference between fans and sales.
Boost Sales
Social Media is known as more of an advertising platform but has an influence on your sales, as ensuring that you are displaying the correct products at the right time with the right branding and level of engagement is all part of the recipe for success.
What have we learned?
The Social season is a critical time of any brands marketing strategy, and with the growing culture of Social Media, it is vital to festive success. The biggest tip for the Social Media season is making sure that you are consistent and engaged with your following as this will encourage new and current customers to purchase.
