Small businesses across the US have pulled out all stops for holiday product discounts, last-minute holiday sales and social media promotions. As content teams and business writers furiously work on new copy and content, SMBs look to find new ways to capture sales in the next few weeks. Or at the very least, they hope to garner enough business leads for the New Year from the expected tsunami of holiday shoppers.
A new holiday promotions report from Ink from Chase aimed at small-to-medium-sized businesses found that 47% of the 500 owners surveyed were already increasing holiday inventories and marketing levels prior to Thanksgiving. Nearly a quarter of the small business owners planned to enhance their presence on social media sites in the coming weeks, while 34% felt that holiday business will be stronger this year than last year.
And that’s positive news for companies and the overall economy. But business owners are also painfully aware that the holiday season also brings out many casual product browsers, only cruising for price comparisons on web sites and checking in-store promotions. Instead of brushing these visitors off this holiday season to get to the actual buyers, what steps can SMBs take to secure these non-buyers as 2014 customers? There are some tactical moves for an owner to use to build up their leads for January and beyond.
Post-Holiday Sales Content Across Sites
These in-store or on-site browsers may not buy on the first visit, but it’s your chance to do simple email or Facebook captures. At your web site, try to reach these visitors with a pop-up box asking their OK to send them discounts, promotions and post-holiday sales items. Or get them while they are in your store to sign up for post-holiday sales discounts. Many shoppers show an inclination to hold out until after the holidays to really save on holiday items. Using the lure of lower prices and better deals will almost always capture email leads for your ongoing 2014 marketing efforts.
Ad Retargeting
Many of you have seen retargeted ads on your web browsing. You might visit an auto site to look at a few models of wish-list cars, and then click off the site for other browsing. It’s at that moment that auto ads for those models start popping up on the other sites you are visiting. This is known as retargeting (AKA re-marketing). Your business can serve up ads to those web visitors who click off without buying anything. These ads are based on page visit information, user search activity, and other relevant information. Having this visitor information, your marketing team or agency’s sales copywriter can retarget effective, targeted ads that relate directly to their earlier web user history.
As important as holiday sales are to a small business’s bottom line, it’s equally important to try to convert these holiday shopping visitors to 2014 regular customers.
Dave M is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
