If you’re looking forward to the holiday season, then you know just how lucrative holiday shopping can be. When you market your products to your target market using gift guides, you give them a hassle-free way to find exactly what they’re looking for. You may be surprised to find that many consumers are actually looking for guidance exactly like this.
During Christmas, people go all-out to find the best gifts for their loved ones. Holiday shopping deals are a huge favorite among consumers, and they play a significant role in improving customer engagement and loyalty.
1) Gift Guides and Online Marketing
Most people turn to online shopping when they look for Christmas deals, New Year’s shopping deals, Valentine’s Day deals, and more. It helps people find a curated list of everything they could possibly need – all in one place.
Customers were asked how they would shop during the holidays, and nearly 59% said that they would prefer online shopping, while 36% said they intended to visit stores. Some of these shoppers also combine online shopping with retail shopping.
In 2020, online shopping is set to be the more popular option. And this means you need a strong online marketing campaign to create awareness about your products and boost sales. A gift guide is a powerful online marketing tool that can easily convert a reader into a buyer within minutes.
Shoppers typically don’t invest the same amount of thought and insight into every gift they buy. While they may pay more attention to what they get their near and dear ones, acquaintances and colleagues get more standard gifts. However, this doesn’t mean that they want to appear as if they haven’t put any thought into their gift.
This is where a gift guide can help. In the gift guide, you highlight your preferred products and include what makes them great gifts. Someone who doesn’t know what gift to purchase can find the guide through social media or a Google search. If your content marketing is convincing enough, you’re very likely to get a new customer from the process.
People look for all kinds of gift guides online – from wedding gift ideas to birthday gift ideas. Your gift guides can expand beyond seasonal marketing and become a regular part of your digital marketing strategy.
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2) Gift Guide Marketing Strategy
Even if you create a great gift guide, you need to make sure that it reaches people as well. You shouldn’t expect people to visit your website, find your gift guide, and then read it. You need to actively take your gift guides to your target market. This is where a comprehensive online marketing strategy should help you. Your strategy should include:
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3) Early Bird Shoppers and Last Minute Shoppers
There are two primary categories of shoppers you need to target with your online marketing campaign. The first of these is the early bird shopper. These shoppers start early and plan ahead.
In the week between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, people spent $28.5 billion on purchases in the United States. Most of this came from Early Bird Shoppers. They spend more money and often want to find only the best gifts.
Here is where a specialized gift guide can make all the difference. Some examples of these include ‘gift guides for bosses’, ‘gift ideas for colleagues’ or ‘best gift for him/her’.
Almost 60% of shoppers start their Christmas shopping before November ends. This means that you should constantly be rolling out gift guides during this time, ideally a few every month.
Last-minute shoppers, on the other hand, wait until the Christmas is just around the corner to purchase. They may be waiting for the best deals or trying to find the perfect gift. You can solve both these problems by gifting them a free online resource that points out the bestselling products from your brand.
Create gift guides for different price ranges, early shopping deals, late shopping deals, and more.
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4) Don’t forget Seasonal Marketing
Mobile searches for gift guides start early. For the Christmas shopping season, the search begins right after Black Friday. It goes on till the week just before Christmas. Similar narratives exist for other seasonal events as well. Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s shopping, these holidays all lead to an increased search for ‘gift ideas’ or ‘gift guides’ in the weeks leading up to the celebration.
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