This year’s holiday season has already been the highest one, as many experts already predict.
The Cyber Monday order volume grew by 16 percent over 2014 and the revenue increased by 15 percent, while the Black Friday has increased by 16 percent. The trends also marked the true value to create the best marketing campaign as possible, where campaign builds and entry collection were both up.
All of these numbers prove the opportunity businesses gather during the holidays — but do you even realise the biggest mistake businesses make during the holidays? It’s stopping their marketing campaigns after their holiday promotions are over. Do you want to gain more even when the holiday season is over? Try keeping the momentum of this past weekend going well into the New Year!
The good news is you are not late yet. You can still keep increasing your engagement and sales once the holidays are over. Most businesses see a break in engagement after the New Year. However, great companies continue to see great numbers as long as they keep up their efforts past the holidays.
Essentially, it’s time to throw the “one and done” practice out the window when it comes to your marketing campaigns and to come up with new strategies that will keep your engagement and reach up. In today’s post, we will share six easy peasy tips you can do to keep your audiences’ attention when holiday season is over. Let’s start with:
1. Optimise all the elements
Not every action you take on social media will gain a lead. Social media was designed as a place to “socialise” with friends, colleagues and brands. It was never intended to be a selling tool.
When you are able to expand your marketing beyond promotions, you’ll open the door to a variety of campaign options that you can run all year long. Here are some non-promotional campaign ideas you can optimise:
- Landing Page
- Contact Us or Request More Information
- Reservation or Appointment
- Events or Calendar
- Thank You
- Coupon Offer
- Quiz
- Newsletter Sign Up
- Countdown
- Crowdsourcing
2. Exploit the ‘New Year Resolution’ tradition
Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions. Most people have committed to do, or stop doing, something. Still, only eight percent of people actually achieve their goals. By the middle of February, most of those commitments are long forgotten.
So why not encourage your fans to keep their New Year’s resolutions? Try running a campaign asking your audiences to submit their New Year’s resolutions. When people have an audience, mostly they have more accountability, so an essay contest can be a great place to host people’s resolutions.
You can even set the questions based on the network you’re posting on. For example: “What are your New Year’s resolutions for your Twitter account?” Another way to leverage the idea of a fresh start is to suggest some resolutions for your fans or provide tips on keeping the ones they’ve chosen.
3. Resource is the key in 2016
The best way to keep your audience engaged after the holidays is by telling them to stay. Most users look to a brand’s social profiles to be further educated about that brand and the relevant industry. The new year is the perfect time to position yourself and your company as experts. Social media is an ideal platform for sharing content, so take what works for your audience and help them succeed in 2016.
Don’t forget to use the 70/20/10 rule: 70 percent of your Page’s content shared should be information that is valuable and relevant to your fans; 20 percent of your posts should be shared content, i.e. content that comes from other people and the the final ten percent should be promotional posts. The promotional content can be sale announcements, new product alerts, events, etc. Don’t forget to share Facebook content across all of your networks.
4. Reminisce your 2015’s success stories
There’s no better way to keep the chatter going then to reflect back on the previous year. Offer up annual reports, infographics and success stories from 2015 that will excite your fan base and encourage them to move forward with you into 2016. If you had an awesome year on Twitter, let your fans know and share with them how you’ll meet your goals for 2016. Or maybe you focused a lot on Twitter and are looking to break into Facebook? Now’s the perfect time to transition your fans onto a new network. Graphical data from 2015 can be leveraged not only on social networks but through email marketing as well, which can drive new leads to your social profiles.
5. Valentine’s Day
When one holiday ends, there’s always another one in the pipeline and Valentine’s Day is nearby. It all about the love, so brainstorm ways to show your fans how much you appreciate them. This could include a variety of photo, essay or video contests or simple “thank you” messages from you to your Fans. Social networks do not need to be all about business, never forget to sit back and simply thank your fans for being your fans. Show them the love!
The worst thing you can do is accept the mindset “stopping when the holidays end”. Do you only sell items, run ads and write on your blog only during the holidays? The answer is obviously a big no. If all of your competitors don’t stop, why should you?
6. Save at least one big campaign after holiday
This may sound a little bit off, but have you ever thought of waiting for your big campaign push until after the holidays? If your business is one that already sees a great uptick during the holidays, consider pushing your promotion strategies back a a few weeks and piggy-backing on the excitement of the holidays.
Expanding your marketing beyond the holidays does not have to be expensive. The most important thing is to remain visible to your audience, whether it be with ongoing promotions or campaigns that allow your audience to interact with you and your website.