CRA Business Marketing Explored – USA
Visit CRA’s industry news blog page for more relevant articles.
As business owners and marketers, we need to approach holiday marketing this year with creativity. Businesses and individuals alike are feeling the impact of the pandemic and the holiday season is going to be different and interesting. In this post, I’d like to focus on ways to communicate better during the holiday season while the pandemic still carries on. Here are tips that will make your audience feel comfortable and happy buying from your business.
Highlight product value
It’s important to start by understanding the current emotions of people today. A study by McKinsey & Company provides us with helpful information about how your audience is likely to behave during the holiday season.
- People value essential goods more than discretionary goods and services i.e. anything that isn’t an essential item
- Loyalty is not as important as before as people look for the cheapest, most available, or most convenient items
- According to this study, the intent to spend during the holiday season has decreased
From these details, it’s evident that your business needs to focus on driving value. What does this mean in today’s climate? Here’s more information from the same study in the image below.
When pricing content and creating your marketing messages, talk about savings, lower prices, and good value for money. If pricing isn’t the right pathway for you, then telling audiences about the availability of your products and that you can deliver it to them on time or for free.
Have an omnichannel strategy
Internet usage has skyrocketed this year as more interactions and work takes place online. Online shopping has increased and so has the use of social media. For your business, this means that you can’t afford to leave any channel unmonitored.
Create updates and stay active on your blog, website, and various social media profiles. Also, make sure that you’re present on relevant business listenings including Google My Business. Google’s business listing platform is a critical place to update your company information because your company could appear as a local business snippet.
It takes effort, but keep all your profiles, listings, and sites updated with information. Here are some key elements to cover:
- Fill in the About or Description section. Make sure you add keywords that your audience will type when looking for your services
- Posts and updates. Many business listing pages allow you to create updates that look like social media posts to inform users about offers and news
- Add opening hours and the days your business is open. Also, let people know if your physical store location is operational
Of course, you need to create good quality posts on a regular basis. A good tip would be to incorporate more videos as well as AR and VR content for goods that people cannot experience or test before buying.
Create a pandemic related FAQ or resource section
Your potential customers feel uncertainty and risk averseness because things are not running as usual. You can ease their discomfort by being forthcoming with information about how your business will function during this time. Create a resources page or a FAQ page or both that addresses the following:
- Whether you will take returns, give refunds, and what procedure your customer needs to follow if they want to return something
- Give detailed information on your safety precautions
- Tell your audience how long it could take for a response from customer support
- Provide information about shipment or delivery delays
- Inform your customers about safety precautions to take when they visit your physical store
It’s a good idea to look at what people are asking on your social media pages to figure out what kind of information to add. When your audience finds clear and comprehensive information on your site, they’ll feel better about buying from you.
Add live chat assistance
Another way to build confidence in your customers during the holidays is to add live chat to your website.
Live chat customer support allows users to ask a question and get a reply immediately. There’s no better way to convey that you’re available and will look after your customers when they need help.
So, add live chat plugins that help both your user and your staff. A good live chat solution will integrate with CRM platforms and create a rounded view of customers so that you can provide personalized services.
Keep your email marketing on track
Your email marketing is likely the most important tool in your marketing kit. Leverage it to boost your sales and to give your customers critical information during the holiday season.
Your first step is to build an email list. A great way to boost your email list building is by sharing holiday discounts to subscribers. You could also offer a seasonal lead magnet like a checklist for a specific event or holiday.
When you have your email list, make your marketing efforts automatic by creating a drip campaign. You can configure drip campaigns to send pre-written emails to your email list at specific times. By having your content leading up to a major holiday, you could drive a large number of sales in a very short time.
It’s also essential to check that your email doesn’t land in the spam folder automatically. Email marketing conversion rates are the highest of all marketing tools. For every dollar you spend, you make a return of $44. If your email doesn’t make it to the inbox, you’re missing out on sales and you could also get your domain in trouble.
One way to deal with this is to use a whitelisting service like WP Mail SMTP. Getting your domain verified can be complicated but you can do it easily with the help of a plugin.
Back to you
We’ve covered some effective ways to boost your communication during the holidays. Follow the tips here and you’ll be able to boost sales during the sales in spite of the issues caused by the pandemic.
Credit to Business2Community.