In our previous blog post, we shared some of our top social media marketing practices for brands looking to capitalise on the holiday period. But aside from social media, there are plenty of other online marketing tactics for brands to leverage this holiday season.  

When it comes to mobile, last year’s figures for the holiday season proved that customers are heavily relying on their smartphones and tablets for browsing and buying. The 2014 holiday season showed that 45% of all online traffic came from mobile- (falling only slightly short of desktop traffic.) And between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday alone, mobile accounted for 22.6% of all online sales. With these figures in mind, brands should look to focus on their mobile marketing strategy, particularly engaging customers with seasonal offers. For instance, push notifications based on geo-targeting can be used to present deals, both online and in store. And in terms of their apps, brands should look to create seasonal-specific content which is immediately visible to the user upon entry. This can be anything from a wish list, or gift-guide generator for instance, or even a carefully chosen list of product recommendations based on the user’s data, browsing and purchase history.

Typically, the holiday period sees a 50% boost in ad impressions, while conversion rates increase by 60%. Therefore, display ads should be optimized to showcase seasonal offers and promotions, with images tailored for desktop, tablets and smartphones too. Ensure you link these to your site, specific landing pages, and even your social media channels for further information and follower-exclusive deals. As part of your advertising strategy, it is also lucrative to place importance on paid search ads and Google Adwords too, so you can drive traffic with specific key words. Consumers will likely be looking for holiday-related information, ideas, and products, and so featuring descriptions of these alongside call to action phrases such as “Shop now”, can really help turn targeted viewers into customers.

In addition, brands should certainly consider retargeting practices as part of their advertising strategy. This enables your ads to be seen by viewers even after they have left your site. Facebook and Twitter offer two of the best platforms for retargeting- on Facebook, business page admins can simply target custom audiences on their Ads Manager page, enabling them to create and serve ads to either existing Facebook fans, or past site visitors for instance. Again, these may display top seasonal products, promotions and exclusive offers with the viewer in mind, making for a highly personalized ad. Similarly, Twitter’s “Tailored Audiences” feature offers the same, enabling brands to serve promoted tweets to those who have previously visited their site.

Email marketing will also be particularly useful at this time of year, with targeted email campaigns helping drive relevant information to different demographics. 2014’s holiday season figures showed that email drove 23% of sales between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, making it an essential medium. It is crucial to segment your audience into categories- these may be repeat purchasers, age-based, high value spenders, or potential customers, for example. Content will be influenced by varying groups, but a winning formula for any successful seasonal email marketing campaign should contain specific information about products or deals, questions to engage viewers, and convey a sense of urgency through the use of “call to action” features and deadlines.

What are your most lucrative marketing tactics for the holiday season? We’d love to hear your tips too, so please share them with us on Twitter @PracticeDigital, and on our Facebook page.