Digital marketing tips for SMBs as holidays are approaching

All over the world, holidays are a time for businesses of all sizes to increase their sales. If you don’t have much time left to come up with a digital marketing strategy for the upcoming holidays, don’t rush it. Rushing might mean using your time and resources unproductively. In order for a marketing strategy to lead to results, tests and analysis are required. If you want to take advantage of early preparation, you can start preparing for the next holiday season now.

Digital marketing strategies for the holidays

The topics small businesses need to cover in planning digital marketing strategies for the holidays are the increase in website traffic, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), social media, promotional materials, and email marketing to communicate with current and potential customers.

Now let’s take a closer look at all of these…

1.Get your website ready for the possible increase in traffic

According to the Ramadan Marketing Report published by Criteo in 2018, as Ramadan holidays approached, visits to retail websites increased by 46 percent. We suggest you run loading tests for your website in order to help provide the fastest and flawless experience for your visitors.

However, first you need to make sure the information on your website is up-to-date. Check to see your phone number, address and work hours information. If you’re selling online, it is very important that you have an SSL Certificate.

Criteo’s report also shows that as Ramadan approaches, the share of mobile in retail website visits increases to 60 percent. If we take into account how Google rewards mobile-friendly websites in search, we can say that it is very important for your digital marketing strategy that your website is mobile-friendly.

2.SEO

In talking about SEO, you need to keep in mind that it takes some time to see the results of the work you do on it. In addition, don’t forget that SEO needs to be updated and worked on regularly.

Identify keywords that have a high search volume during and before the holidays and integrate the ones that are related to your business into your website. Also, in order to target people who are visiting the region your business is located at, you can work on local SEO.

3.Review your social media accounts

A lot of people who are trying to decide what to get for their loved ones during the holidays take inspiration from social media. In addition to product visuals, provide content that might be of interest to your customers. And don’t neglect to reply to the questions and comments you might receive.

If you have holiday specific promotions or campaigns, announce this to your target audience through social media ads. Keep in mind that it might beneficial to start testing those ads early; that can help you find out which kind of content gets the best results.

4.Create an email marketing strategy

From a time consumption and cost perspective, it’s more productive to make your current customers return to you so shop instead of acquiring new customers. With email marketing, you can make sure your messages reach your current customers without having to allocate a big budget.

We have some tips for you to help you create your own email marketing strategy:

• Create an email marketing list and segment it in order to create an efficient strategy
• Be careful with the design of the emails you send. Make sure they match your brand and that your message easily attracts attention
• In order for your target audience to open your email, it needs to be interesting. This is where the subject line comes into play. Choose titles that can shine in a limited space in a short amount of time
• In order to encourage your customers to share your message with their friends, add social media buttons and forwarding options to your message
• To find out how your email marketing strategy is working, run performance tests. This way you can tweak what’s necessary before the next holidays.

By implementing the tips we’ve shared here, you can avoid last-minute preparations and make sure your business is ready for the next holidays.

Image by: William Iven via Unsplash.