As much as a digital marketer’s focus is on creating groundbreaking campaigns for social media during the holiday/festive season, with great content and attractive visuals, it is equally important for them to concentrate on making the most out of the season and bring the brand under the spotlight of sales.
The festive season holds great importance in marketing on the whole, but it is all the more significant for digital marketers as they go beyond just creating wishing posts, and place a majority of their focus on planning and executing offers and campaigns in the grandest and the most viral ways possible.
With endless possibilities in the field of digital marketing, a digital marketer has to focus on using the medium to its full potential while planning a digital strategy for their brand during festivals.
Here are a few tips that would help you get in the groove of effective planning.
1. Plan in advance!
It is very important that you start planning much before the season begins. Consider how significant the festival is and what communities it is widely celebrated by and start outlining your plan well in advance. This will give you ample amount of time to ideate, brainstorm and come up with a solid campaign that touches the audience as well as markets your business.
Last-minute planning seldom works, if you want to reap the benefits of festive season promotions. To define your marketing objectives for the season, narrow your audience as much as possible, construct a clear plan of action and put them to execution.
As for e-commerce, an early start is extremely important especially to avoid any delays in the shipping and delivery of orders. If the orders are giftable, then delays would be unacceptable by the customers. It is advisable for you to put up a disclaimer on your site about unexpected delays in delivery due to surge in the number of orders.
2. Tap the right audience
Most of the festivals are either specific to select communities or are celebrated in different ways, by different communities across the country. Study the history of the festival to tap the right group of audience, and come up with a strong campaign that would appeal emotionally to the targeted group. Hard-hitting campaigns work the best in general, but for campaigns revolving around festivals, the culture and the historic connect will work wonders for the brand.
3. Use the right Festive Hashtag
Festival-based hashtags have a high search volume only during the festive season. So focus on making the most out of hashtags on social media. Use the right hashtags while posting – look for the ones related to the festival, the region it is celebrated in, famous rituals involved, etc., while sourcing hashtags. See to it that the hashtags are a mix of specific, generic and brand-based ones.
For example, the specific hashtags for Diwali will be #diwali #happydiwali #festivaloflights #deepavali #diwali2021; the generic ones will be #festivals #indianfestivals #festivalsofindia; brand-based would be ones according to the niche of your brand – for real estate, the brand-based hashtags would be #realestate #property #investmentsproperty #flatsforsale #apartments, etc.
Promote these posts extensively to the right audience to make sure that the right people are seeing your posts.
4. Come up with irresistible offers
Festive seasons call for offers, discounts and sales. Offers and sales are something that excite people, always. Come up with a strategy that would satisfy both your client and the customers. See things from their point of view, contemplate their needs and think about an offer they would not think twice before claiming. Ideate exciting offers for your brand that would pull customers, making it difficult for them to miss, thereby generating a good amount of conversions for your brand. These offers can also be driven by building a game for the audience to play on social media.
5. Be prepared for the rush
Irresistible offers often lead to an overflow of demand. In that case, make sure that the marketing team is well-equipped and prepared to take the load on. Switch to automated tools to manage the plethora of enquiries that will pour in and have an automated lead management system, to make things smoother and hassle-free.
6. What to promote in ads?
Always see to it you promote the best of your brand’s products and services in ads. Showcase eye-catching pieces in case of products, and in case of services, pick the most sought after and the best-selling services for ads. You can also promote giftable products, as most of the customers will be looking at buying gifts for their friends and family during the festive season. For this, study your customer base and figure out which of your products are the most popular amongst your target audience.
7. Revamp your website
Consider revamping your website for the season to make it more festive-friendly. You can also add pop-ups relating to the festive-offer in a catchy colour theme, to make visitors stop while they scroll. A separate landing page can be created especially for this and the link can be provided in the posts on social media and automated broadcast messages and e-mails.
8. Email marketing
If you have a huge database of customers’ e-mail addresses, consider yourself to have bagged the jackpot. E-mail and SMSs have a huge reach and is always a smooth way of reaching your target audience. People always subscribe to e-mails of businesses/brands that they trust or have had happy experiences with. If your e-mail database is strong, then your customer base is loyal to you! What’s notably important here is that you lure your customers with a hooking subject line that would make it difficult for them to delete your e-mail without opening it! Do not miss the bus of e-mail marketing, for they can help you reach your target audience and bring sure shot results!
9. Work with influencers
Influencer marketing is a great way to reach your customers and people outside of your customer database. Try getting influencers with huge fan-following on social media platforms, especially Instagram, to endorse your product/service and post content in support of your brand. This can do wonders for your business/brand/client.
When it comes to influencer marketing, one of the biggest mistakes digital marketers and clients make is that they blindly pick influencers purely based on their follower count. What matters more than this is that the influencer should not be completely irrelevant to the brand. Always ask the question. ‘Will I find this relatable and interesting if this influencer sold me this particular product?’, before zeroing in on your influencer. Relevancy must take top priority, over follower count.
10. Host an event/virtual event
Events during festive seasons can either be a hit or a miss, but are not a bad idea entirely. You can either have an on-ground activity which you can promote extensively online, or organise and run a virtual event, with attractive and substantial giveaways. The success of an event is always dependent on how interesting it is and how well it is planned and its effective execution. Tap your audience interests and find an intriguing way to spin your brand or your product into it. Plan activities that are partially challenging and fun, to draw more participants. Events are a great way to build a strong community around your business.
11. CSR – A chance to give back to the community!
Consider taking up a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activity and look for ways your brand can contribute to a good cause. This has an added emotional value when taken up and done during the festival season, as most of them promote giving and sharing. You can either plan a fundraiser event by partnering with a local NGO, or adopt small underprivileged groups/small businesses and help them work their way, profitably around the festive season, by either promoting their products through an event or partnering with them for goodies and giveaways and more.
Conclusion
Festive seasons present us with abundant opportunities to scale up the brand-name through digital marketing, and digital marketers need to be proactive to gauge the opportunity well in advance and come up with a heartwarmingly path-breaking campaign and desirable offers. Marketers need to have a strong foresight and spend quality time in ideating and planning a campaign effectively.
The aforementioned tips are tested-to-be-successful and will help in increasing sales and improving your brand’s image. Take the festive season seriously and make the most out of it!
