Plus 3 Strategies to Boost Your Holiday Marketing Efforts
We can’t say it enough: it is never too early to start planning your holiday marketing strategy. In fact, if you haven’t already started thinking about it, you could already be behind! But if you feel like you are getting a late start this year, here are some creative holiday marketing strategies to help inspire you to get the ball rolling on your own brand’s strategy.
Past Trends to Inform This Year’s Marketing Ideas
First, let’s take a look back at the trends from 2023, which can help when planning programmatic campaigns. Overall, retail sales continued to grow in 2023 according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). Despite inflation and high interest rates, retail sales grew 3.8% year-over-year during the 2023 holiday season. Annual retail sales also saw steady growth, growing by 3.6%.
Cyber Week set records in 2023. A record-breaking 200.4 million customers shopped either in-person or online from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
What to Expect for the 2024 Holiday Retail Season
The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts good things for both brick and mortar and online stores for the 2024 holiday retail season, with sales up 2.5% to 3.5% from last year. That’s great! But let’s look at the actual trends that can help you develop more targeted and effective marketing.
The first trend has to do with in-person versus online shopping. While brick and mortar stores accounted for 70% of retail sales in 2023, online shopping is expected to continue to grow between 7% and 9% year-over-year in 2024. So if you are an online-only retailer, start digging into last year’s data about when consumers are shopping for the products you sell, so you can make sure your ad campaigns go live at the perfect time.
The second trend is that consumers will continue to look for deals. Inflation has had an impact on how consumers feel about the economy and how they spend their money. While inflation continues to rock our world, most consumers say they still intend on spending about the same amount as they did in 2023. To attract customers, offer deals that will help them stretch their holiday spending budget further. Some examples include coupons, promotional codes, loyalty rewards, discounted shipping prices, and sales (no code or coupon required).
Finally, another trend we expect for 2024’s holiday season is a rise in M-commerce. What is M-commerce? It’s retail sales and browsing on mobile devices. This underscores the importance of having a mobile-friendly site, so whether your customers are doing in-store price comparison or purchasing online, they can have a smooth and seamless experience.
Marketing Strategies to Leverage for the 2024 Holiday Marketing Season
Let’s dive into three of our favorite strategies for boosting your holiday marketing efforts.
1 | Use a Multi-Channel Strategy
A multi-channel strategy allows you to reach your audience across multiple platforms. Multi-channel is essential year round for an effective digital marketing strategy and can only serve to boost your end-of-year campaigns. The key to a successful multi-channel campaign is to implement a cohesive message across your channels.
2 | Personalize It!
Personalization generates faster revenue growth. Why? Because today’s users are looking for a personalized experience and have even come to expect it. So tailor your messaging to an individual or specific audience. You can do this by defining your audience and serving up the right messaging at the right time. What do we mean by this? Think of it in these terms: you wouldn’t send someone an abandoned cart message if they never actually added anything to their online cart. That means speaking to customers where they are in their customer journey!
3 | Capture Attention with Interactive Ad Formats
Interactive media, such as the ability to swipe through recommended products, can help you capture the attention of your target audience and build brand awareness during the season. Many platforms offer these interactive ad formats, so if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, give it a try this holiday season.
Help from the Experts
Does creating a more effective holiday marketing strategy for this year seem overwhelming? Not sure where to start? Just don’t have the time? Tintero Creative would love to help! Connect with us today to learn more about how we can help you reach your business goals for the upcoming holiday shopping season!