Smarter Marketing Blog

guy writing leads on glass wall

Lead Magnets: How Your Small Business Can Create One

Once again, we have teamed up with Kayleigh Alexandra, a content writer for Micro Startups, to guest write an article for our blog.  On this occasion, her insights are on the topic of lead magnets for SMEs. Read on for our collaboration on the subject.

Lead magnets draw people to your brand by engaging customers through high-quality and relevant content. Building a strong informational bond means that your marketing efforts are more likely to get the results you want. We call this being smarter about your marketing.

The simple rationale behind using a lead magnet is that it enables you to get data from your target audience, engage them in a conversation, and ultimately, turn them into long-term customers.

Here are our thoughts on how you can create a lead magnet to draw customers into your business.

What are lead magnets? – A way of winning customers

To use a fishing analogy, great marketing is built on finding hooks to catch your target audience and reel them into your business. It might be an exquisite tagline (one Don Draper would go sober to own), or a hilarious moment in a video. Basically, a lead magnet is a way of attracting people to your brand.

The key to a great lead magnet is that it’s something your customers get value from. This value could be financial, educational, or recreational.

But before we go any further you must know this – lead magnets are a free resource. The point is that by giving your customers something for nothing they’ll give you something in return i.e. their details, and/or their engagement.

lead magnets men in suits at meeting

Credit: Flickr

You can then use the details you get from your lead magnets to help segment your customer base. This allows you to create targeted campaigns that expose your small business to the right people at the right time.

So, what are lead magnets? It’s a way for your small business to win more customers. And what argument could you have against that? Here are some different ways you can create a lead magnet for your small business.

Use Interactive content as lead magnets – create a fun quiz

Interactive content is the future. The popularity of experiential marketing shows that your customers want brand selling to be more about them (not your business). But interactive is also the present and ignoring it will leave your business in the past.

Creating an interactive lead magnet is perfect for driving engagement. Why? Because it lets them play and have fun with your brand. One popular way of getting your customers to play with your business (in a positive way) is to create a quiz.

While quizzes are a clickbait way of reaching out to your customers, they really do work. For example, Buzzfeed’s quizzes are viewed millions of times. There are two types of quizzes you can create for your lead magnet:

  1. Outcome: this tells your customers something at the end of the quiz. It could be “which marketing or advertising personality am I?”
  2. Graded: this will give your customer a score. You could have a soccer quiz, like “The Man Utd European Legends Quiz,” with 10 questions – if you get 7 right the score is 70%

soccer team quiz as a lead magnet

Credit: Wikimedia

You can create a Buzzfeed style quiz using this tool from TryInteract. To get your customers details you could make it a social signing to activate the quiz.

Provide a resource as a lead magnet – produce an eBook

Knowledge is power. With it, your customers can improve the way their businesses operate, or further their careers – it’s something they can use. The benefit of this to you is that providing people with something practical shows the value of your small business to them/your customers.

You can give your customers a practical tool by dipping into content and resources your business already has. What content and resources? Your whitepapers, blog posts, and industry experts. You can use these assets to produce an eBook or mini-course lead magnet:

  • eBooks: these are incredibly simple to make. This tool from Designnr lets you create an eBook and requires no design skills to use. It works for blog posts, podcasts, videos, and PDFs. To make it a lead magnet you just need to make it available to customers by asking them to submit their email address
  • Mini-course: you can run a mini-course via email. You’ll need to design the training program first. Once you’ve done that you can turn it into an email course by following one of the paths used by these people. Like your eBook, turn it into a lead magnet with an email sign up.

 

ebook as lead magnets

Credit: PxHere

Giving your customer knowledge helps to build a relationship between them and your brand. Once you have this the chances of them engaging positively with your business improve dramatically.

Buy your customers – vouchers, discounts, or gifts

If all else fails, you still have the time honoured tactic of really giving your customers something for nothing. There’s never going to be a time when your customers can’t be swayed by a voucher, discount, or gift – it’s free money – so turn them into a lead magnet.

Making a lead magnet from a voucher, discount, or gift is almost too simple. All of the major platforms worth their salt either have their own tools, or an app/plugin integration to do this. As WordPress runs 32% of the internet, I’ll give you some examples for WooCommerce – if you’re not a WP user simply search “voucher, discount, or gift,” “app” and “X (your CMS).”

  • OptinMonster
  • Gift Cards
  • Coupon Creator
  • YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards
  • Coupon Generator for WooCommerce
  • WordPress Notification Bar
  • WooCommerce Gift Coupon

There are so many plugins to choose from that I’ll stop there.

special gift membership as lead magnets

Credit: PXhere

How you get your customers is up to your small business. You could give them a membership, a free trial of your software, a discount code, or more. Whatever you choose, make the offer contingent on (yes) your customers handing over their details so your marketing team can use them.

Recommended reading: 18 Useful Smarter Marketing Tips You Might Want to Know

Marketing is one of the most important parts of any business, but most of us don’t want to be marketed to. By using a lead magnet you can build a relationship with people, then sell your business to an engaged audience. All you need to do is pick the lead magnet that works best for you.

Kayleigh Alexandra is a content writer for Micro Startups — a site dedicated to spreading the word about startups and small businesses of all shapes and sizes. Visit their blog for the latest marketing insights from top experts and inspiring entrepreneurial stories. Follow them on Twitter @getmicrostarted.

“Thank you to Kayleigh for her input and to you for reading our blog post today.

If you require any assistance with your marketing including e-commerce websites or mobile apps do not hesitate to give us a call.

Cheers –  Aidan & Jim.

From time to time we send a heads-up email to advise publication of our smarter marketing blog post.

Would you like to be included and get free smarter marketing tips? – yes please 

How to Use Marketing in Summertime to Your Advantage

marketing in summertime-pop up shop on beach

Summertime and the living is easy. At this time of the year, businesses might be tempted to relax their marketing activity for a couple of months. For some small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there’s even a perception that marketing in summertime is pointless.

They look on the summer months as a period of slower business and fewer opportunities for growth. Unfortunately, the perception can become a self-perpetuating prophecy.

“Everybody is on holidays” is the common refrain. That statement might hold some truth here in Ireland, in that if we get a hint of a heatwave, we are distracted by what’s rare and wonderful. Worried that the heatwave will not be a recurring experience, we want to seize the opportunity to rejuvenate the batteries in this rare and relaxing environment.

What’s more, in the absence of such heatwaves on this Island, many people decide to travel abroad to get their ‘fix’ of Vitamin D. This adds to the SME perception that marketing in summertime is a waste of time and money i.e. when nobody’s around new business is harder to find.

We in O’C&K like to look at this in another way. If a business owner is to have any chance of new business, their company has to be front-of-mind, or at least more so than their competitors. So to reduce marketing communications at any stage, never mind the summer months, could result in competitors gaining an advantage.

I would suggest that using marketing in the summertime is actually a smarter business move rather than a wasted activity.

I will use the rest of this post to outline some ideas for how you might go about this.

Use Marketing in Summertime For Your Business Advantage.

Think about it, if many businesses do slow down during July and August then there will be less competition for your promotional efforts. There would also be fewer people attending networking events, which means your relationship building can be more focused. And, if the aforementioned inertia exists you should get more bang for your marketing buck.

If nothing else, summertime is also a good time to check your progress against your start-of-year business plans and to stockpile some fresh ideas.

Summertime is a good time to check your progress against your start-of-year business plans and to stockpile some fresh ideas.

Here are some ideas for using the summer months to build competitive advantage:

  • Write blog posts, take videos or do interviews and create a stockpile for future use
  • Audit the content on your website and if required, update for better SEO
  • Catch up on your industry related reading – those ones you placed in Evernote for reading later
  • Bookmark content that may be of interest to your existing customers
  • Identify previous content for repurposing on industry specific sites
  • Audit your social media presence for branding and professionalism
  • Have a look at how your competitors are promoting themselves (online and offline)
  • Brainstorm with staff in relation to marketing in summertime initiatives
  • Write a thank you note to your top customers. Not selling, just showing your appreciation
  • Plan for the back-end of the year, based on performance to date

Of course, we all need to take a break every now and then, but if you use your summertime constructively, you just might sneak ahead of your competitors by the pool.

8 Ideas for Marketing in Summertime

For instance, summertime is a particularly good opportunity to run online contests. People are more relaxed (on holidays perhaps) and are more open to entering relevant competitions for fun. Here are some tips if you are going to use a summer giveaway in a contest:

  • Make sure the headline includes the benefit of entering (i.e. the prize)
  • Prizes could include: tickets for a local event, a shopping spree, a night out, a day trip or clothing
  • After a person enters, prompt them to share the contest with friends (if they do they can enter again)
  • Run an advertising campaign. Organic reach won’t be enough, so you might invest a little money
  • Share-to-enter contests (on Instagram and Twitter only) – increase reach to common audiences
  • Give away your product, a gift card or a joint-promotion coupon with a similar brand in your industry
  • Set up a Facebook group and host an online summertime sale
  • Host a photo contest with a summertime theme

I believe that the warm summer months definitely offer opportunities for smarter marketing. Even if you don’t sell items that relate to the summer, chances are that you can still build a summer-themed campaign.

Boosting Summertime Sales

Let’s presume that the weather, on the whole, is better during the summer months. This allows business owners to try on-street marketing initiatives in the local market. Examples would include: handing out flyers with coupons, using street artists or entertainers, providing free samples or relevant giveaways. Giveaways would include, beach towels, sun cream, water, coffee, picnic samples, ice cream etc. The idea is to make the giveaway relevant to the audience and if possible, to your brand.

You might offer discounts if customers share the love by sharing a picture of their purchase on social media.  You could link discounts to the actual temperature outside. Open up a pop-up store on the beachfront or at a local festival. Any activity that gets your brand to where the audience is – is worthwhile pursuing.

Finally, not that you should limit your showing customer appreciation just to the summer months, but summertime allows you say thank you in novel ways e.g. host a BBQ, or offer free outdoor classes (wine tasting, craft making etc.).

13 Activities for Marketing in Summertime

  1. Use outdoor banners at festivals for hashtag competitions
  2. Place postcards at tourist centres and flyers at shopping centres
  3. Run social media photo sharing contests
  4. Host an event that relates to your business and issue invites to the public
  5. Partner with non-competing businesses to package attractions
  6. Use sponsorship for awareness and product sampling
  7. Use street side teams to distribute product samples
  8. Try professional graffiti branding in unexpected places or chalk drawings on pathways
  9. Piggy-back on unique holidays
  10. Leave business cards in leisure facilities or hotels (with permission of course)
  11. Generate summer newsletters full of summertime activities and news
  12. Write a summer themed blog for the local press or be interviewed on local radio
  13. Use table tents, with holiday tips, in your own premises (if applicable) or other agreed venues

Conclusion

Marketing in summertime can really help to boost sales or build the profile of the human side of your brand. Most people are in a positive mood during the summer so cash in on the sentiment with your marketing. It is a time of year that you can try out new marketing tactics (which can also be a test for future use).

The main thing to remember is to have fun, be smarter about your marketing – and don’t burn the hamburgers.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today, we hope our pointers will help your business grow.

Cheers –  Aidan & Jim.

From time to time we send a heads-up email to advise publication of our smarter marketing blog post.

Would you like to be included and get free smarter marketing tips? – yes please 

18 Useful Smarter Marketing Tips You Might Want to Know

useful-smarter-marketing-oc&k-scrabble-tiles

As a marketer, you know that the concept of useful marketing is still about connecting people with a brand in the hope that they will buy something.

If you have been a marketer for many years you probably use a marketing approach that has worked to-date. This post, therefore, may serve as a checklist for you or hopefully will give you some ideas to try. For people new to the industry, start-ups or SME owners I’ll include some tips that can start you on the road to success.

There are plenty of useful smarter marketing activities that are being lost in the sea of buzz words such as – content marketing, digital marketing, strategic marketing etc.  It is becoming more and more obvious, to us anyway, that despite the description of the method used, successful marketers realise that people will always have different relationship needs.

If marketers want to be able to focus on these needs, they really need to be much more flexible in their approach and thinking. This requirement is even more pronounced in our ever-shifting digital world.

In addition to traditional one-to-one communication, this flexibility also means having the ability to adapt to social media insights, behaviour analytics, personalisation, big data, etc. You could argue that never before has it been so easy to deliver the right kind of messaging to the right person at the right time.

So yes, building relationships are nothing new, but it has never been as important as now if we are to create a positive experience for our brand (or that of our client’s brand).

Marketers need to be much more flexible and this requirement is even more pronounced in our ever-s­hiftin­g digital world.

Click to tweet

In many of our previous posts, we stated that the smarter option for success is to link marketing objectives to business objectives. The challenge for marketers, however, is not to get caught up in the trap of only focusing on quantifiable business results. In doing so, we forget that regardless of the result, marketing remains about the one thing mentioned above – relationships.

Here’s one more complication, relationship types don’t remain fixed. Depending on outside factors people may change their relationship needs daily, hourly, weekly etc. especially when they encounter your marketing message. No, it’s not as easy as it used to be but if you get your focus right – you will be successful with your marketing activity.

Useful Smarter Marketing and Business Priorities

So what am I saying here? Firstly, we don’t have to learn and undertake new types of marketing. We just need to be smarter about what we currently do and use the tools available. Some specialist skills might be required but these can be learned or outsourced. Secondly, if we are genuine about building relationships, we have to think about people’s priorities and not put our own first.

If you can message people according to their priorities, you have a better chance of being successful. Caution is required when engaging people many times with the same messages because most of them will not be at the same part of the buyers’ journey. The danger is that while your messaging can be establishing or cultivating a relationship, it may also be damaging it.

Here is a useful checklist that we put together that may help you reconsider your business priorities. The idea is to put relationship building front and foremost in your objectives.

Useful Smarter Marketing Priorities Checklist

As marketers, we should realise that how each time we touch a person with content is important because it forms part of building a relationship. If you are doing this right, therefore, it means that marketing campaigns would change, in real-time, to individually fit/ respond to the customer’s needs.

On this point, here is a link to a related article on just-in-time marketing that’s well worth a read.

The downside of this relationship building is that there is no definitive way to measure the impact of relationship building. From a sales point of view, we can check metrics such as leads generated and conversions but this can’t be directly quantified to the nurturing element of our engagements.

What is becoming the norm though is that people want to deal with a brand that is human-friendly. They do not want to be seen as leads, opportunities and in-the-pipeline. No, they want to have a relationship just like every other aspect of their life. For an established brand this is a challenge and for start-ups, it really needs to be up front and central in their planning.

6 Useful Smarter Marketing Approaches for Start-Ups.

  1. Market your product/service before it is ready
  2. Explain why you’re different (the benefit), don’t compare
  3. Listen to your customer (sometimes they defy logic but are usually right)
  4. Test fast. Fail Fast – think outside the box (live streaming etc.)
  5. Connect multichannel advertising and PR activity (builds credibility)
  6. Provide a place for customers to engage with you (website etc.)

Useful Smarter Marketing Essentials to Grow Your Business

I’ve often been asked at networking events, to provide a quick list of essentials in a marketing approach, for start-ups and established organisations alike. Here are 5 main marketing approaches that I suggest they should really be using.

Create a Marketing Plan

We have mentioned the importance of a marketing plan in many posts before e.g. ‘Marketing Plans: Who Needs Them Anyway‘ and the main reason for it is consistency. Sending out flyers, using social advertising and building a website on separate occasions do not make for a concerted effort – results will be unpredictable. Create a plan for 6 months at a time and keep the priorities in the graphic above, in mind.

Build a Mailing List

All traffic directed to your website or landing page takes time, effort and money. If you don’t secure people’s contact information while they’re there, you are throwing money away. Building an email list is the easiest way to stay in touch with your customers/prospects. Use a monthly newsletter or lead magnets so as to offer value in exchange for their email address.

Have a Mobile Presence

Every day we are seeing statistics on how using a mobile device is the main way that people are searching online. If your site or content isn’t mobile friendly, your business will not survive in the long term. Even if you are a bricks-and-mortar business you should allow your prospects shop from their mobiles.

Social Media

I don’t need to quote all the statistics for social media usage in Ireland here, but suffice to say that almost 50% of the population have smartphones and 700,000 of them use Twitter, for instance. People use social media for various reasons but from a business point of view, relevant automated posts and a presence for answering queries is a must to stay in the conversation with your customers and prospects.

Search Engine Optimisation

The blogosphere is awash with posts that delve into the specifics of Search Engine Optimisation. Whilst it can’t be gamed anymore, it should definitely be incorporated into any marketing campaign so as to make sure your efforts are recognised by the various search engines.

Of course, not all of your marketing ideas will generate a profit. In fact, you might lose money at the start of a campaign. But as long as you know what factors to measure, you will be able to adjust your approach.

Tips to getting your marketing plan on the road to success.

We believe that you can certainly be a better marketer in this day and age by working smarter and not necessarily harder. Here are 7 smarter marketing tips to contemplate, that might help you along you along the road to success:

  1. Be professional – have a unique and descriptive business name with the online domain to match.
  2. Don’t be boring – build your brand on being remarkable, authentic and realistic.
  3. Have professional branding – consistency is the key word because first impressions count.
  4. Deliver your message in different ways – use multi mediums (social, radio, referrals, online ads etc.).
  5. Make sure everyone knows you – ensure you/your business is the most recognised in your market.
  6. Out-serve your competition – market where your competitors aren’t
  7. Always improve your digital visibility – social media, website, landing pages, SEO etc.

Conclusion

No business can succeed really, without good marketing. While nobody has the ultimate cheat sheet that propels us up to the next level, being smarter about your marketing can definitely contribute to success.

Instead of copying everybody else in your marketing plans, be remarkable in what you do. Look for unique ways to appeal to and reach new audiences. If you are to build a relationship with your customers/prospects, it is essential that you talk with your customers and not at them. If they have a complaint, deal with it and if they have a question – answer it.

Finally, admit to yourself when something isn’t working. You have to make changes if your marketing isn’t creating the impact that you want it to have on your customers. If people didn’t respond to your first efforts, you can be sure they will dislike having you repeat the process for the second time.

Plan to be smarter about your marketing and you will eventually see some real return for your efforts.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – Aidan & Jim.

By The Way: Can We Send You Emails During the Year?

Twice a month or so we send an email with our best content. We never bug you; we just send you our latest piece of content.

Join others who love to get free smarter marketing tips –  right here, right now.

 

 

How to Realise Your New Year Ambitions for a Successful Business

2017-tablet-keyboard-successful-business

I remember reading somewhere that only about 10% of us stick to and achieve our New Year resolutions. Doesn’t that mean, therefore, that making them is ensuring a 90% failure rate at some stage? Luckily, planning for a successful business doesn’t usually adhere to the same statistics.

That being said, many people will use the start of 2017 as an opportunity to undertake a make-over, whether personal or business. Nothing wrong with that of course, but the 90% figure above hints that most of them are probably doomed to failure. Why is this? – We reckon it’s because of competing priorities, lack of simplicity or procrastination.

If this sounds familiar to you, don’t worry you’re not alone. Personally, each year, I have to remind myself to tackle these three pitfalls.

i) To avoid procrastination I try to change the way I think. We have all heard that we should start the most difficult tasks first, which is good advice. So, by saying to myself do-it-now, without weighing it up, I find works well. Do this for the month of January and it’ll set you up nicely for the rest of the year

ii) When trying to keep goals simple I have to remember to break activity into small bites. I think it is always easier to achieve small goals than one overwhelming one. Also, there’s a sense of accomplishment I find, as you strike them off your list.

iii) With regard to competing priorities, I make all my goals as tangible as possible by writing them down (or share with colleagues/friends). It makes it easier for me to prioritise my activity.

Realising your ambitions for a successful business in 2017.

The rest of this post will be for those people who have either been thinking about creating a business or want their business to be more successful in 2017. I suppose it is natural to look to the start of a New Year as the perfect time to plan guidelines for the year’s goals.

This post, however, won’t be a bullet point guide as to how you should plan for a successful business. Instead, initially, I’m going to focus on three outlooks that might help you with your 2017 business aspirations.

The foremost thing that I have learnt since setting up O’Connor & Kelly is that the purpose of business is to cater for people who will/can actually pay for the services provided. To do this there must be a complete focus on who the customer is.

For instance, we have recently launched a bundle of smarter marketing packs on our website. We based these on what we have learnt from various organisations over the last three years. We focused on different customer segments; SMEs, Clubs and Non-Profits, and have built up an understanding of what their needs really are.

What helped us with this is that we put ourselves in the shoes of the customer and asked:

-What is the trigger that would cause them to consider a purchase?

-What would deter them from going ahead with the purchase?

-Is the price matching the value that they perceive they will get?

When the customer’s needs become your focus – you can deliver value in a real way.

magnifying glass-value

The second outlook is to ensure that you are a customer’s preferred option. The main way to do this is to be relevant by providing outstanding value. If your value is not outstanding, you won’t have loyal customers, which means you won’t have repeatable business – which means higher costs looking for new customers.

Again, using O’C&K as an example, although we have targeted our smarter marketing packs as outlined, any organisation can mix and match. The point is that we have developed a good understanding of these segments based on customer insights. As a result, we believe that we can solve any particular marketing problem (flexibility) based on our experience, and can help those organisations with their growth.

Finding your own strengths to match customer insights is essential. The question to ask yourself is – are your services improving the life of your customer?

The third outlook we propose relates to marketing. If you want to realise your ambitions for a successful business in 2017, it is essential that you have a marketing strategy. In many of our previous smarter marketing blog posts, we have emphasised that marketing is an investment – which means allocating budget to it.

Look at it this way, if you have a great product/service, a great location and great staff but, nobody knows about it – you will never have a successful business. Here’s a simple, 2 part, strategy for you –  a) be seen by your target audience and b) convert that attention into business sales.

magnifying glass-strategy

Focus on these activities and avoid the other two other stumbling blocks of self-doubt and unnecessary spending.

It doesn’t matter what tools/channels you use (online ads, trade shows, social media, sponsorship, emails etc.) as long as you are showing how your solution can solve their problems. One final point on this, sales is a numbers game so you will hear a lot of no’s before getting a yes.

If you want to realise your ambitions for a successful business in 2017, it is essential that you have a marketing strategy.

Click to tweet

Personal New Year Resolutions Play a Part in Your Business Success

Whether already in business, a club, a non-profit or starting up a business, it is worth focusing on some personal resolutions also. This year why not try something new instead of adding the usually failed goals to last year’s list. It might be an idea to pick something that you would enjoy (rather than giving up something).

Here are some ideas – enroll in a certificate programme for a hobby, activity or ability you always wanted to try (learn a language, creative writing, song writing etc.). Listen to podcasts, audio books and become an expert in one topic – fundraising, for instance. Volunteer for the Board of a local charity. Mentor somebody and pay-it-forward. Try a life coaching or motivational speaking session (e.g. Howard Hughes International).

How about using social media at a personal level? You might have been building relationships online for your organisation, but how about your personal brand? You don’t have to post every day, but you can expand your own network with people that have similar interests. You might even enjoy it. 😃 As a bonus, from a brand point of view, it would be another way of allowing your personality shine through your engagement.

If you do any of the above, you won’t just be setting targets for 2017– you’ll be acquiring benefits that stay with you forever.

Tips about getting rid of those nasty habits

We outlined 3 outlooks earlier that will help you realise your 2017 aspirations whether you are setting up a new business or kick-starting an existing one. There are six mindsets that should be dropped before embarking on your 2017 odyssey.

  1. Don’t try to do everything on your own – ask for help or outsource if required
  2. Don’t try to be perfect – everybody fails sometime, making mistakes is OK as long as you learn
  3. Make it happen – don’t wait for business to come to you
  4. Procrastination – stay in the present by measuring your targets and your goals
  5. Don’t let competitors’ success frighten you – learn from them and do it better
  6. Keep focused on the mission – don’t spend money on things that won’t help you achieve it

There are plenty of things that can become obstacles in your business. Don’t let your mindset be one of them.

Plenty of things can become obstacles in your business Don’t let your mindset be one of them. #smartertips
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Conclusion

In this post, we suggested three outlooks that entrepreneurs and/or business owners need to have in order to realise aspirations for a successful business in 2017.  They were: a genuine customer focus. providing outstanding value and having a marketing strategy. We also mentioned that personal resolutions can impact on your organisation, so it might be worth planning for them as well.

Our tips above focused on some bad mindsets that business people should probably drop if they are to succeed in 2017. Our final caveat is not to focus purely on the science of marketing in 2017. Finding creative and smarter ways of delivering the message will always be the artistic side of marketing. We hope you will continue to be artistic and have a fun-filled and prosperous 2017.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – Aidan & Jim.

By The Way: Can We Send You Emails in 2017?

Twice a month or so we send an email with our best content. We never bug you; we just send you our latest piece of content.

Join others who love to get free smarter marketing tips –  right here, right now.

‘Tis Time to be Boosting Your Seasonal Marketing

seasonal-marketing-shopping-cart-

As we fast approach the Christmas holidays we believe that it is never too late to add some sparkle to your seasonal marketing. Even if you haven’t the time or experience to implement these over the next few weeks – you have approximately 52 weeks left to get ready for the next one.

Every year we can count on a few seasonal stalwarts: decorations will be up earlier than the previous year (people will be complaining about this), the John Lewis ad and Christmas FM will single the real start to the festive season and the Miracle on 34th Street movie will start showing on TV.

What is changing slightly, though, is the effect of the internet on shopping habits and behaviours.

The over-riding message of this post will be that it is really important for small business owners to boost their efforts during this hectic season of impulse buying. The rest of this post will offer 28 activities you can start, continue, or consider for next year. In fact, most of them are transferable to other holiday seasons also.

Seasonal marketing lends itself to much more than just SEO and advertising. People are usually happier and appear more open to interacting with brands. These interactions may be through channels such as social media, on-site reviews, blog comments and video feedback.

seasonal-marketing-girl-christmas-bauble

Because buying behaviour is different around this time of year, driven by festive cheer and promotions (discounts and special offers), – a simple seasonal marketing plan therefore, might include some or all of the following:

– A festive-themed landing page to promote an offer / attract the Christmas audience

– A PPC campaign that has identified keywords from your clients rather than popular festive ones

– Branded video content that will encourage positive comments from browsers (or sales)

– Email and social media activity to generate a buzz around your brand (share discounts)

– Joint marketing activity with regular activity you have planned (use search & social data)

Before we continue with the tips, however, we have two recommendations. Our first one is to check out what worked, online, for you last year. Google Analytics is a great tool for determining which channels were responsible for most of your sales. They can even reveal how your customers found you.

Our second recommendation is that right now you should review your budget. If you have budgeted a specific amount for seasonal marketing – check if you’re on track. If not, don’t worry – you might still be able to put aside a small amount to do some of the activities listed below.

Whatever activity you pursue, though, it must serve to attract traffic to your website / outlet, generate sales and/or enhance your brand.

Whatever seasonal marketing activity you pursue, it must serve to attract traffic to your website / outlet, generate sales and/or enhance your brand.

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Make your Seasonal Marketing Smarter and Wonderful this Year

Content Marketing:

  • Think about the content you share. It is a time of joy and goodwill. Relax your tone, have a bit of fun and go off-piste with your content (if you dare).
  • Share seasonal content with your audience e.g. useful seasonal tips get shared the most.
  • Spread a bit of holiday spirit in your campaign – relax the sales pitch (e.g. John Lewis)
  • Change you visuals graphics to be more seasonal – especially for smartphones
  • Organise a (brand-relevant) Christmas competition e.g. share a funny Christmas jumper pic
  • Include a specific Christmas offer in your content (free shipping, BOGOF, special discount)

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Digital Marketing :

Increasingly, shoppers have begun to rely on online shopping and this year looks no different. With such growth in online shopping, the number of ways your business has to reach people has increased significantly. Try these ideas to differentiate your business:

  • Offer a gift messaging service – allow recipients know when the gift is en route
  • Use your data base to personalise messages via SMS to customers
  • Set-up push notifications to reach people when they are shopping
  • Produce and share gift guides e.g. videos, flipbooks and segment into categories
  • Use seasonal emojis in your messaging
  • Use geo-location (beacons) to offer deals when customers are close by
  • Ensure that your website has a responsive design (check here)
  • Integrate your social media promotions across all channels you use
  • Make use of seasonal hashtags (try hashtagify)
  • Make sure your business address, directions and opening hours are correct
  • Offer live support on your website (try drift.)

Use your imagination when engaging your customers, be it online or offline. Get people excited about Christmas and your brand. As competition increases around Christmas like no other holiday, don’t miss the opportunity to really engage with your audience through smarter marketing.

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Christmas Hashtags

Tips and ideas to boost your seasonal marketing

Almost any organisation can add a bit of seasonal sparkle to their branding. If there is a small cost, well we reckon it can be justified as a renewable resource year on year. Spread sparkle on such things as social media profiles, header images, emails, online ads and of course eCards. In addition to the tips outlined above, here are 12 others that might help boost your activity:

  1. Remember – don’t skimp on the decorations (use brand colours if possible)
  2. Reward social media friends / followers with exclusive seasonal discounts
  3. Use a specific theme for a campaign e.g. tips over 12 days of Christmas
  4. Place your print catalogue / book / holiday brochure online and share ideas
  5. Check your campaigns / SEO for keywords that reflect your seasonal campaign
  6. Use remarketing and create a sense of urgency in your advertising
  7. Get involved with a charity campaign locally (host a fundraising event)
  8. Distribute exclusive offers to customers that have downloaded your app (if applicable)
  9. Form a group to promote the local community
  10. Get branded Christmas cards, sign them personally and send to customers
  11. Provide free chocolate samples and have gift cards available at cashpoints
  12. Provide gift wrapping and tagging beside impulse buy points in store

Conclusion

It is never too late to add some sparkle to your seasonal marketing. In this post, we provided business owners with 28 practical tips on how to boost their marketing activity this Christmas. Many of the tips will work for all types of organisations and if not perhaps it is time to start planning for 2017.

Our last tip is to make sure you load up your Spotify app (O’C&K has no affiliation) with suitable music. Although there are many playlists available for the special day – how about collaborating with the family and create a fresh one to suit all tastes.

“Thank you for reading our blog post today – we wish you Season’s Greetings and a Prosperous 2017″ – Aidan & Jim.

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