Optimize Your Omnichannel Marketing Campaign for Holiday Season
Whenever the holiday season approaches, consumers become excited and more willing to make seasonal purchases. Many companies try to capitalize on that increased demand, and they also want to be the very first to serve their customers. A lot of retailers and e-commerce shops utilize omnichannel marketing to engage customers on every possible touchpoint, whether online or offline and provide a seamless experience to their audience on every step of their buyer’s journey. However, just because it’s the holiday season, it doesn’t mean consumer expectations will go down.
That’s why it’s important for businesses to step up their game and optimize their omnichannel marketing campaigns to provide not just an exceptional customer experience, but also emphasize the holiday spirit. It’s no secret that many retail and e-commerce shops increase their sales tenfold during holiday seasons. That’s why it’s important not just to focus on marketing, but also ensure that you stockpile products to meet the demand. That being said, here’s how to optimize your omnichannel marketing campaign for the holiday season.
Optimize your digital approach
Retail stores have difficulties competing against their e-commerce counterparts, mainly because most of the consumers do both their browsing and shopping online. However, online shopping may be more convenient, but during the holiday season, even those who mainly shop online are bound to visit a brick-and-mortar store sooner or later. Moreover, that doesn’t mean you can neglect the digital approach and wait for customers to stop by your retail store.
As a matter of fact, 67% of consumers will research the products online before they make a purchasing decision. Therefore, online channels are the first touchpoint you must engage your customers on. Make sure you develop good holiday season content, promotions and offers, and publish those across various channels, such as social media, email, your website and so on. That way, customers can familiarize themselves with your products before they decide to go shopping.
Create an in-store experience
The holiday season means people will make a lot of purchases, but not before they’ve done some research. That includes checking out various stores, both online and offline, to compare prices and offers. That also means that some customers will come into your store without doing any previous research. That’s why creating an exceptional in-store experience is an excellent way to optimize your physical touchpoint in your omnichannel marketing.
In most cases, consumers who shop online come to retail stores to try out and familiarize themselves with products before they go home and make a purchase online. That way, it’s cheaper for them and products get delivered straight to their homes. This is actually ideal for omnichannel marketing, as retail stores should embrace “showrooming” as part of their seasonal promotion. Allow customers to try out and “feel” the products, while also allowing them to make online purchases directly at the store. It’s a great way to combine both online and offline touchpoints while providing customers with a seamless holiday season experience.
Offer incentives
It’s no secret that the holiday season means more competition. Retailers and e-commerce store owners are practically battling for customer attention. That being said, it’s crucial to ensure customer engagement and loyalty during the holiday season, in order to maximize profits and sales. One of the best ways to achieve that is to offer incentives to shoppers. Promoting incentive rewards through your omnichannel marketing campaign is also a great way to generate attention.
For example, you can reward customers with Christmas gift cards as a reward for their purchase at your store. Not only will it guarantee repeat business, but it will also encourage loyalty from customers, as well as referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations. Moreover, during the holiday season hype, many consumers will look for reviews from other consumers to help with their research, as well as their purchasing decisions. Ensuring customer satisfaction through incentives and rewards will undoubtedly lead to plenty of positive reviews.
Don’t neglect other omnichannel touchpoints
When talking about omnichannel marketing, it doesn’t only mean you must focus on online and in-store approach. Omnichannel means that you must provide customer service, support, and experience on every possible channel your customers may use. Logically, retailers should focus their attention on mobile apps, social media, websites, emails and, of course, the retail stores themselves. However, those are not all the channels you must focus on. Have you forgotten about phone calls? Additionally, have you thought of offline consumers as well?
Even though most consumers prefer the online approach and occasional visits to retail stores, there are consumers who are primarily offline shoppers. That means that those consumers will use more traditional means to get informed, such as phone calls. It also means you must reach out to those consumers via more traditional means, such as direct mail, billboard ads, TV commercials and so on. Focusing on a single consumer base during the holiday season means lost sales, especially since competition is strong during those times.
Optimizing your omnichannel marketing during the holiday season means you must be properly prepared to engage customers on every channel and every touchpoint in their customer journey. Consumers are more willing to buy when the holiday spirit kicks in, but you must still convince them to buy from you. Otherwise, the holiday season may not be as profitable as you thought it would be.