Holiday Social Media Marketing: 5 Trends For Retail Brands

Black Friday is in 4 days, kicking off the massive holiday season that makes the year for many retail brands.  Odds are, social marketing is a bigger part of your Q4 strategy this year than ever before.  Here are 5 big themes that will dominate holiday social media marketing campaigns for retailers in the remaining holiday weeks of 2012:

Social Launches:  New product introductions and sales events are a staple of Q4. They’re a great way to create buzz and generate customer interest through social marketing.  Watch for (and plan) product debuts or events on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube.Brooks Running illustrates holiday social media marketing campaigns in 2012

Recognizing Great Customers: Even for brands with millions of customers- and definitely for boutiques and local businesses- there is a movement to recognize your best customers.  Loyalty programs,  membership clubs, even a Customer of the Day promotion. All are simple ways to earn repeat business. Social channels are a natural distribution channel for these programs.

Rewarding Social Engagement:  All evidence continues to show that consumers follow brands on social channels to earn an exclusive, an offer, a discount, a preview.  Retail brands are in prime position to capitalize.  Even for social followers who haven’t converted to customers yet, it is worth the effort to offer a unique opportunity through Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and where ever you have followers.

In-Store Activation:  In retail, it’s all about the cash register.  Even as holiday spending shifts online, there is still no substitute to brick-and-mortar retailers for motivating the in-store experience.  A social promotion that results in a coupon, invitation or other store-driven event doesn’t need to be complex. But it will help convert social fans to visitors who can see your store environment, touch your products, experience your service and convert to new customers.

Mobile Enables Lasting Brand Engagement:  Most consumers will be using their smartphones gratuitously in the next 6 weeks. They’ll share wish lists, compare prices, pass along gift ideas and more, using photo, video, text and social updates.  Savvy brands will find unique ways to encourage and even facilitate those interactions. Even though the holiday season ends in a mere 6 weeks, try to find clever ways to weave impressions of happy customers into your ongoing brand storytelling.

For specific ideas and strategies to tackle each of these trends, click here.

 

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Why Mobile Marketing Matters

With the increasing popularity of mobile marketing, making your contest or sweepstakes mobile optimized is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Most people have at least one type of mobile device that they carry with them on a regular basis. As more brands adopt mobile websites and applications, people have increasingly higher expectations of the mobile experience that brands provide them.  In order to make the most of your promotion, make sure you make it easy for your audience to engage with your contest or sweepstakes on their mobile device.  By doing so you will increase entries and satisfaction among your fans.

There is a large number of people and businesses that run promotions on Facebook, as it is one of the most popular social media channels. There are 78 million Americans eighteen and older who access their Facebook accounts via their mobile devices so making sure your Facebook contest or sweepstakes is mobile optimized is critical. This enables your promotion to be on the go with your customers.  Your fans will be able to access your promotion at their own convenience and participate whether they are at home, commuting on a train, or waiting in line at the grocery store.

In order to effectively run a promotion on a mobile device it is important to build a campaign that is user friendly and intuitive.  The promotion should be easy to navigate on a mobile device and make uploading entries and participating in the promotion seamless. You can do this with a mobile optimized version of a contest microsite or with a custom mobile design. Make sure that your promotion will work and be easily visible on all kinds of mobile devices including phones and tablets. Make the design and graphics simple to avoid any user-experience issues that could cause you to lose potential fans and customers.

By creating a mobile optimized promotion, you’ll allow your fans to engage with the promotion at their convenience wherever they please.  It is a great way to cater to mobile users and to create a fun way to interact with your fans.  If you are interested in creating a mobile promotion visit our website at www.votigo.com to get the details or contact us today.

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