Defining The Content Strategy

43 Tips for
KILLER
Holiday Retail
Campaigns

The 2013 holiday season is
coming up fast!
•  Struggling to lock down all your holiday media
buys?
•  Feel like you’re scrambling to keep up on the
latest trends and technologies?
•  Not sure how to practically apply the latest
buzzwords – big data, small data, hyperlocal,
second screen, native ads, gamiﬁcation – to your
ad campaigns?

Don’t worry – you’re
deﬁnitely not alone!

The good news: the rise of new
marketing channels and
technologies presents a HUGE
opportunity for advertisers.

Not sure where to start?
Let us help you out.
We know it’s tough out there for advertisers.
Attention spans are short, budgets are tight, and the
market is more crowded than ever.
To make things easier, we have a little gift for you –
43 tips to help you cut through the noise and make
an impact with your holiday ads.

1

Get smart about
segmentation.
Build detailed personas for each
your target audiences – who they
are, what they want, how you can
help – and tailor your campaign
messaging accordingly.

2

Mobilize your campaigns.
Over half of US adults own
smartphones. One third own tablets.
Avoid frustrating mobile users by
making your website, blog, emails,
landing pages, and any other digital
assets mobile-friendly.

3

Get creative with
retargeting.
Leverage both traditional ad networks
and Facebook Exchange ads to retarget
shoppers who visit a page or abandon
their cart without buying. Test different
messages, products, and audience
segments to ﬁnd what works best.

4

Leverage the second
screen.
Many US consumers watch TV while
using Facebook on their smart phones.
Synchronize your Facebook ads to air at
the same time as your TV ads. Yes, it’s
possible, and we can help you do it.
Contact us to learn more.

5

Use great images.
Don’t rely on tired stock
photos for your ads. Use eyecatching, high resolution
images that connect
emotionally with consumers.
This is especially true for
Facebook, where image-rich
ads have consistently better
engagement rates.

6

Leverage small data.
Big data may be all the rage, but small
data – timely, relevant snippets of data
often segmented and optimized from
big data sources – is what really makes
real-time marketing possible.
Connect your small data feeds, such as
inventory, email subscriptions, and cart
abandonments, to Facebook ads and
measure their impact on ROI.
Contact us to learn more.

7

Talk like a normal human
being.

No one wants to feel
marketed to. Use ordinary
language and a
conversational tone in your
ad campaigns. Avoid jargon
and buzzwords at all costs.

8

Tell a multi-channel story.
The best campaigns leverage multiple
marketing channels. Make sure you’re
telling an integrated, but not repetitive,
story across email, mobile, social
media, web, print, television, and any
other channels you’re using.

9

Make it all fun and games.
Try gamifying your online user
experience to motivate shoppers to
take certain actions. For example, you
might offer a 10% discount to refer a
friend, or create a system of badges and
rewards for leaving online reviews.

10

Have a compelling call to
action.
Beautiful images and artful ad copy
aren’t enough. If your audience doesn’t
know how to convert or where to go
next, your ads will fall ﬂat.

11

Integrate customer
reviews.
Third-party validation is everything.
Integrate consumer reviews into your
advertising content to give shoppers
conﬁdence in your product.

12

Give something back.
‘Tis the season for giving. Inspire some
good will among your fans and
customers by pledging a percentage of
sales to charity this holiday season.
For the best results, pick a speciﬁc
charity and timeframe (48 hours, for
example) to encourage fans to act.

13

Reward your best
customers.
Show your top customers and fans how
much you value them – reward them
with exclusive offers like discounts, presales, and free shipping.

14

Make it ridiculously easy
to share.
Give shoppers every opportunity to
share your amazing products, offers,
and content. Integrate social sharing
opportunities into every aspect of your
online campaigns, from emails to
content to product and thank-you
pages.

15

Show your holiday
spirit.
Give your brand a festive makeover
with holiday-inspired imagery on your
social proﬁles and web properties.

16

Let customers shop how
they want to shop.
Everyone likes to shop differently. Make
it easy for consumers to shop in
whatever way suits them best: online,
in-store, or on their phones.

17

Empathize with your
buyer.
Human beings are hard-wired for
empathy. Make sure your campaigns
speak to shoppers’ needs, hopes,
dreams, and challenges, and show how
you can help.

18

Do a holiday count-down.
Get customers in the holiday spirit with
a countdown promotion, such as the 8
nights of Hanukah, an advent calendar,
or a New Year’s Eve ticker.
Work in time-speciﬁc deals and offers
to create a sense of urgency.

19

On Facebook, focus on
the News Feed.
On Facebook, invest in News Feed Ads,
where you’ll see better engagement
and clickthrough rates. Leverage the
mobile News Feed, too, and remember
that beautiful, high-resolution images
are key!

20

Go native.
Native advertising is ad content that
blends into the surrounding context of
the platform, and it includes ads like
sponsored Tweets, Facebook News
Feed ads, and sponsored blog posts.
It’s a great way to engage shoppers
without interrupting their experience,
but there’s a catch – your content has
to be good. Include a call to action, too!

21

Build a mobile
application.
Mobile-friendly websites are important,
but they aren’t enough. To offer a really
stellar mobile shopping experience,
build a mobile application for your
shoppers.
Once you’ve built your app, Facebook’s
mobile app download ads are a great
way to promote it.

22

Encourage mobile
engagement.
Building your app is just step one. Once
users have downloaded it, utilize
Facebook’s new app engagement ads
to keep them coming back.

23

Don’t make it all about
the sale.
Promotions and discounts are great,
but you’ll sell more in the long run if
you focus on helping shoppers, too.
Help them solve a problem, such as
ﬁnding the perfect gift or locating a
rare item, and you’ll gain their loyalty as
well as their dollars.

24

Get hyperlocal.
Shoppers in Manhattan want different
things than shoppers in Memphis or, for
that matter, in Queens. Tailor your
messaging to reﬂect the style, quirks,
and preferences speciﬁc to local
markets, without succumbing to
stereotypes.
Start with small tests and iterate quickly
on what works.

25

Hold a contest or a
sweepstakes.
Sweepstakes and contests are a great
way to gather new email addresses that
you can market to year-round. Think
carefully about your target audience
and offer a prize that will attract the
right people.

26

Build an interactive
Facebook application.
Why should you get to have all the fun?
Build an interactive Facebook app that
lets shoppers create their own wishlists,
ﬁnd the perfect gift, follow Santa’s
journey… you get the idea.

27

Use videos, but keep them
short!
Create short, memorable videos - no
more than 15 seconds long - that
showcase new products or share
holiday tips. Include a call to action at
the end to encourage shoppers to
purchase, share, or simply stay
engaged.

28

Create a warm, fuzzy
holiday feeling.
Your fans will get bored if you talk
about your products nonstop. Give
them a warm, fuzzy feeling with
seasonal holiday content, such as tree
decorating tips, favorite recipes, or top
holiday movies.

29

Say thank you (and mean
it).
You wouldn’t be here without your
customers. Remind them with a simple,
heartfelt thank you. Bonus points if you
send snail mail.

30

Ask customers what they
want.
Smartphone or tablet? Cinnamon or
peppermint? Christmas sweater or
Santa hat? Holding votes can be a great
way to gather customer intelligence.
Not only will this help you know what
customers want now; you can use this
data to segment and target offers
throughout the year.

31

Ask your fans a trivia
question.
Add a little fun to your social marketing
messages by throwing out some
holiday trivia. To encourage
participation, offer a prize to the
winner.

32

Respond to fair or
frightful weather.
Sudden blizzard in New York? Just hit
80 degrees in Phoenix? Synchronize
your Facebook ads with the weather
outside for hyperlocal relevance.
We can help you do just that.
Contact us to learn how.

33

Capitalize on trending
conversations.
Creating buzz for your brand is hard,
but you don’t have to do all the work
yourself. Piggyback off of known
buzzworthy events. Black Friday, Cyber
Monday, and National Free Shipping
Day (Dec. 18, 2013) are a few that come
to mind.

34

Use scarcity to your
advantage.
Nothing generates urgency quite like
scarcity. Inspire shoppers to act quickly
with ﬂash sales, limited-time offers, and
limited-quantity supplies.

35

Offer a little something
extra.
Whether it’s free shipping, free gift
wrap, or free valet parking, go above
and beyond to stand out in the eyes of
your customer. They’ll remember it
later.

36

Indulge in a little
nostalgia.
Who doesn’t love reminiscing about
time-honored holiday traditions?
Inspire some feel-good nostalgia
among shoppers by incorporating oldtime photographs, carols, movies, and
classic advertisements into your
campaigns.

37

Tie your ads to your
inventory levels.
Pay close attention to your inventory
supplies. Turn off ads when an item is
out of stock, and ramp them up when
you have a surplus. We can help you do
this automatically! Contact us to learn
how.

38

Ask shoppers to share
their stories.
Invite shoppers to share their favorite
holiday memories. Hold a contest for
the funniest, most unusual, or most
inspiring stories.

39

Show the people behind
the brand.
It’s nice to be reminded that real people
work behind the brands we love. Give
your campaigns a human touch by
showing your own employees getting
into the holiday spirit. Keep it honest
and authentic, not contrived.

40

Don’t forget to have some
fun!
The holidays are a stressful time for
retailers, but don’t be afraid to let your
hair down every once in awhile. Have
some fun with your marketing
campaigns. Not only will it make your
job easier; shoppers will pick up on the
positive vibes, too.

41

Use the right keywords
and phrases.
Shoppers don’t have time to browse
your entire collection. Choose words
like “Gifts for her” and “Gifts under $50”
to categorize products and guide your
shoppers toward the products they’re
looking to buy.

42

Seize the (ﬁnal) moment.
Help out your last-minute shoppers
with goodies like overnight shipping,
free gift wrap, and guaranteed delivery
dates. Your stellar service and helpful
spirit will make them more likely to
come back next year.

43

Think about next year,
this year.
As you’re busy creating content for this
year’s campaigns, make it easier on
yourself for next year. Carve out some
time to focus on your goals, priorities,
and strategic initiatives for 2014.

Next Steps
Want to talk social media marketing and
optimization? We’d love to! Let’s chat.
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Defining The Content Strategy

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