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Your Go-To Guide for Holiday Marketing

Your Go-To Guide For Holiday Marketing

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It’s the most profitable time of the year!

With Halloween in the rearview, now’s the time to get serious about your company’s holiday marketing strategy. Of course, you already know the big boys, but your holiday marketing plan should go well beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. 

Lucky for you, we’ve put together the ultimate list of important holiday marketing dates. Read on and get ready to have your most productive holiday season yet!

DOWNLOAD THE 2019 HOLIDAY MARKETING CALENDAR

Starting Up 

November 21st-27th
The week before Thanksgiving is usually when companies begin promoting the deals they will be running the following week. This is the perfect time to start drumming up hype for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. 

Thanksgiving Day

November 28th
More and more companies now begin their Black Friday promotions on Thanksgiving Day. As the gap between the two days narrow, it’s important to consider Thanksgiving an essential date in your holiday marketing plan. 

Black Friday

November 29th
The granddaddy of holiday marketing, Black Friday is the single busiest shopping day of the year. Your Black Friday promotions should be promoted heavily for a week or two before the actual date. Some businesses choose to extend their Black Friday promotions into the weekend, then head right into Cyber Monday.

Small Business Saturday

November 30th
Small businesses can keep the Black Friday hype train right on rolling into Small Business Saturday. This holiday is a unique opportunity for small businesses to get their holiday sales off to a strong start. If you’re marketing for a small business, be sure to tap into the excitement both online and in person. 

Cyber Monday

December 2nd
Another behemoth, Cyber Monday is the biggest day of the year for online shopping. In 2018, consumers spent over 6 billion dollars on Cyber Monday in the U.S. alone. Much like Black Friday, you should start promoting your Cyber Monday deals at least a week or two beforehand. 

Green Monday

December 9th
This is when the holiday season really gets into full swing. Green Monday is the 2nd Monday of December and is typically the best online sales day for the month. Though it’s lesser-known than Cyber Monday, it’s still an excellent opportunity to drive online sales with relevant promotions. 

Free Shipping Day

December 14th
For the last several years, retailers big and small have teamed up to promote “Free Shipping Day.”  Consumers will hear all about this on social media and from the news on radio and TV. Make sure that your online store is ready to compete with your own special offers. 

Expedited Shipping Promos

December 12th – 19th
Though specific dates may vary among businesses, it’s important to consider the time period where you are able to guarantee delivery by Christmas. This is an excellent time to run promotions on shipping.

Super Saturday

December 21st
The procrastinator’s favorite holiday! Super Saturday (sometimes referred to as “Panic Saturday”) is the last Saturday before Christmas Day. It’s a good idea to think about running a one day sale specifically tailored to last-minute shoppers. 

Christmas Eve & Christmas

December 24th & 25th
For the master procrastinators, this is their last chance to purchase gifts for friends and family.

New Years

December 31st – January 1st
Ring in the new year with promotions for both New Year’s Eve and New Years Day. Then pat yourself on the back for executing another successful holiday marketing campaign!

 

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Misusing Social Media: A Love Story

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Social media has become the main tool by which most of society communicates. Wonder what Aunt Karen is up to in her modern sculpture class? Check Facebook. Want to see the latest pictures of your second cousin’s best friend’s kids in their Halloween costumes? Instagram has you covered. Looking to send a not-so-flattering selfie to an old classmate you haven’t seen since college? Open Snapchat and let your freak flag fly. 

However you’re using social media in your personal life, the game changes when you’re running social for a business. It’s not just about updating your followers on your cats anymore – you’re trying to sell your business and your product. Typically when I think about corporate content on social media, I envision the same inspirational quotes, fun staff photos, and nonsensical stock imagery across the board. Can you use all of these things and still succeed? Yes. Can you do it in a way that won’t make your consumers roll their eyes and scroll faster? Also, yes.

Enter the art of misusing social media. Consider your key demographic – what do they like to do? Where do they live? What music do they listen to? What would they like to see different in the marketplace? As a general rule of thumb, if you wouldn’t want to see your content on social media, most likely your demographic won’t want to see it either. This is going to sound like a cliché but stick with me: you need to think outside the box. Tear the box up if you have to. If you want to post an inspirational quote as content on your business page, think about how you can do it differently. Maybe you have a younger demographic focused on street fashion – your demographic would probably be open to seeing an inspirational quote as street art. Same content idea, different approach. 

The key to misusing social media to gain a foothold with your following is creative problem solving. If your main problem is common content, how many different ways can you take it a step further? Create content that will set you apart from your competitors while creating impact for your audience. Know the limits of your platforms so you can push the boundaries. 

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Ad Impressions on the Rise Thanks to Facebook News Feed and Instagram Stories

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This week Facebook reported a considerable increase in ad impressions from this time last year. To recap, an ad impression is the number of times an ad is viewed on the platform. Through optimization efforts on behalf of the team behind the curtain at Facebook, businesses seem to be getting more bang for their advertising buck. 

Within the same report, Facebook declared that ad spend was down, albeit by a small margin, but down all the same. This decrease was caused primarily by the focus shift to ads in Stories on the platform as well as feed ads. Despite the decrease in ad spend, overall revenue for Facebook is up 28% which works out to approximately $17.4 billion over the last year, with mobile ad revenue claiming 94% of that total figure1. 

Though these numbers show that advertisers are more than willing to continue spending money on the platform, the daily active user growth remains flat. Showing very little or no growth in the daily user amount doesn’t necessarily spell danger for the social titan. By expanding into Stories, Facebook shows that their success stems from the innate ability to show advertisers where their key consumers are already existing. 

1Marketing Land. Facebook ad impressions rise, driven by News Feed, Instagram Stories and Feed ads. Source.

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Connecting with Customers on Messenger: Easy as 1, 2, 3 with These Three New Features

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Messenger – Facebook’s version of the DM – released three new features that will allow brands to better connect with their customer base. These features are intended to ease friction in the initial stages of establishing contact with a customer as well as help improve the customer’s experience with prompt answers and ease of use.

The break out feature to pay attention to is the so-called ‘icebreakers’ that business profiles are able to preload into their Messenger account through the API. Basically, this is intended to function like an interactive FAQ by providing the option to select a commonly asked question from a short list compiled by the company and receive an immediate answer through automated responses. 

Among other features being rolled out, a ‘first phase’ ad update is promised that should allow businesses to better target their ads and handle the responses received from them. Alleging that the feature adds more initial clarity for the business when responding to a customer, it is in its early stages of development so expect a hiccup or two.

Finally, on the user side, more reply options are being added for interactions with businesses in Messenger. Reactions (aka the feature that lets you flag a comment with an emoji) are gaining a foothold within this area of the platform as well as implementing a thread based system of message replies to better help target comments direct from the consumer. 

These latest updates are in response to the outcry from consumers saying that they wish businesses were more accessible on the platform. As demand continues to grow for transparency of companies and one-on-one communication, expect innovations to keep rolling out in response. 

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Instagram Releases Key Tips for Marketing Success

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Instagram’s rise in popularity among businesses is undeniable as marketing efforts span across the platform’s many useful features. Earlier this month, Instagram released several articles providing tips to help further those marketing efforts and boost overall sales made from the platform. We have summarized these articles below to help save you time and take your marketing efforts to the next level.

Create Photos and Videos to Captivate your Audience on Instagram

Get Creative! Show your audience your personality and make it easy to learn about your business:

  •  Don’t be afraid to show your followers behind-the-scenes whether with a tour of your building or spotlighting a team member. 
  • Create a buzz around a new product or product feature. If you are changing the way you ship your product, show a video opening a package.
  • Make videos of how to use your products. Everyone likes to be DIY, show them how!
  • Post about holidays! Even cranky coworker day, which is Oct 27 incase you were wondering. There are tons of mainstream holidays as well as obscure holidays that give you an opportunity to reach out to your audience and share something new.
  • Share the good stuff. Your customers love you, ask them to help you by sharing their testimonials and even ask them to share photos with you to use or even videos of them using your products or services, they’ll be famous for a day!

Planning for Holidays on Instagram 

Kicking off the holiday season with strong marketing is the key to having a successful end to your fiscal year. 

First and foremost, understand when your customers start shopping. Every business is different so make sure you know the right time to get in front of your customers to inspire them into the holiday buying spirit!

Second, you don’t have to be the smartest person in the room, get inspiration from what others are doing. It is hard enough to run your own business, if you see a post or a concept that you like, make it yours and go for it.

Thirdly, make a content calendar. Plan out what photos and/or videos you are going to use with the content or captions in advance. Don’t wing it.

Lastly, make sure you have a consistent look and feel to your messaging. Make sure everything still ties in with your brand and your business’ personality.

But what about actual ideas for posts? We have those for you too. 

  • Incorporate your team celebrating, this will give you the behind-the-scenes type post we mentioned earlier ;-)
  • Show your products or services decorated for the holiday with lots of color and sparkle
  • Incentivise your followers. Offer a discount, make sure it is time sensitive. Get them excited to buy now.
  • Give back! Show community appreciation around the holidays. You can create a giveaway of one of your products back to your customers, or offer to donate your products to a charity by encouraging engagement with your post by people sharing or commenting.
  • Feature products to get people’s minds thinking. Everyone has a long list of people they need gifts for around the holidays, make it easy for them to see you have a great gift.
  • Make different carousel posts featuring gifts for a budget, gifts for the specific hobby or interest, gifts for the hard to shop for.

The main thing to remember is to PLAN. Plan early and plan specifics. By having a plan you stay organized, you launch your campaign at the perfect time and get the most out of the holiday shopping season with the least amount of stress.

Get More Website Traffic

Get More Website Traffic

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Get More Website Traffic
Get More Website Traffic

What is website traffic?

Website traffic is the term used to describe the flow of visitors to and from your website. It includes some simple information, but answers important questions. For example, how many visitors has your site had? What pages had the highest amount of visitors? Where did they find your site?

Ready to find out more about website traffic, and how to get more of it? We’ve put together an easy to follow guide on the subject below.

Why care about web traffic?

Health Indicator

Web traffic can be a good indicator of your website’s health & popularity.

Sales & Services

Traffic flow directly affects your sales. More traffic = more potential sales.

Idea Validation

When you start getting traffic, it means people are interested in your products or services.

Getting More Traffic

SEO

Put in the work to optimize your site & be rewarded

Niche Down

Target only the people who are most passionate

Create Content

Make interesting content, better than your rivals

Update Often

Keep your site up to date and relevant

Gain Influence

Work with influencers to promote the site

Guest Blogs

Write for industry blogs and build your audience

Podcast

Speak your mind and become the authority

How do I measure traffic?

All that is great, but how do you keep track of incoming and outgoing traffic? The best way to keep track is to let tools do the work…

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is by far the most popular tool for measuring traffic, and it’s no wonder why. Google is the largest search engine & has access to the more data than any other tool. Just install analytics on your site and you’re well on your way to getting more traffic to your site.

HotJar
Moz
BuzzSumo

Hotjar, Moz and Buzzsumo are some other tools you could use to improve your customer experience, find keywords & content for your site, and all 3 of these are great at what they do.

When should I get started?

If you want your site to be successful, you should get started getting more traffic and tracking your gains as soon as possible. If you’re not sure where to begin, or have any questions, please give us a call. We’re happy to help, so don’t hesitate to give us a call or submit a support ticket.

Your YouTube Channel Art Matters!

Your YouTube Channel Art Matters

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So many business owners are turning to YouTube to expand their reach & grow an audience these days. It’s so easy to share content and reach new people on the platform. Now, when someone arrives on your channel, what do they see? Does it match the quality of your brand and your product or service? Does it even matter, shouldn’t the video content speak for itself? Well, in short, of course it matters!
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Stepping Up Your Social Media Game

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Not to beat a dead horse with a stick but by now you should be well aware that social media is a vitally important selling tool that could be costing you money if you’re not using it properly. There are easy ways for you to get the absolutely most out of your social media accounts and we’re here to point out what those might be. We’re focusing on the top 3 platforms today as to not overwhelm you. Let’s get to it! Read more

The Facebook algorithm and how it affects you.

The Facebook Algorithm and How it Affects You

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Can you imagine logging into Facebook and having to sift through thousands of posts to find something you’re actually interested in? Luckily, Facebook uses a complex algorithm to automatically decide which posts are shown first so that you don’t have to do that. At the beginning of this year, 2018, Facebook announced that it was performing a major upgrade to the standard Facebook Algorithm. The goal? To bring friends and family together more often and create a more active community.
Read more