Holiday Marketing – Give More Than You Take

by | Nov 9, 2011

Holiday Marketing – Tis the Season to Give

The holidays – a time to stuff our faces with food; all the marketing, sales and business ideas that swim in our head often take a backseat holiday marketingwhile we try to enjoy the festivities and the grub that goes along with it.  Food is an important part of the holidays, as anyone who throws a party will tell you;  it’s where people gather and congregate.  There’s always a diverse selection with a lot of appetizers, and you know it’s going to be a great party when the main course features a number of primary dishes to suit the palate of even the pickiest eater.

In all my years I’ve yet to attend a function where there was a limited selection of food and drink, or even poor choices.  That’s because most party hosts take the time to figure out what people like, what they want to enjoy and how much they need to provide to keep everyone happy.  Imagine how you would feel if you were obligated to attend a party where they only served what they wanted eat without a care for the guests?

When it comes to holiday marketing, there are a lot of businesses doing just that.

Holiday Marketing – What’s Good for Me is Good for Everyone

The concept of “what’s good for me is good for everyone” is a broken one that does not fit into business, especially when it comes to the competitive nature of the holiday season.  A business owner who does not take the time to figure out what is popular, trending and important to their customers is going to completely miss their mark in holiday marketing.  That equates to a very low return on their marketing investment.

You have to look at your holiday marketing and the offers you’re making like you’re preparing a big holiday dinner party.  Think about what people like to see, what they want to eat, what dishes compliment others.  This equates to your holiday marketing as well.  Your internet marketing needs to attract people based on what they want – because they don’t care about what you want.

Holiday Marketing – Setting Up a Listening Post

I’ve written before on the importance of listening to your customers.  This is an important time to reinforce that practice.  There are some very easy steps you can take to stop, listen and gather information to set your holiday marketing up for success.

  • Follow conversations in social media to see what people are talking about
  • Look at concerns and questions from customers contacting customer service
  • Research competitors and see which products or services are being featured in comparison to yours
  • Talk to distributors or your vendors and look for available research on growing trends, popular items and forecast information
  • Check keyword research data in relation to your products and services – see what’s popular
  • Look into search trends for hot topics relating to your industry
  • Setup keyword alerts relevant to your product or service to see what customers are talking about in your market
  • Ask your customers – there’s no better way to find out their interests and their pain points thank getting it direct from the source

 

If you take the time to understand what interests and/or bothers your audience then you’re far less likely to have them turning up their nose at your offering once your holiday marketing takes off.  You can also expect a higher return and improved conversions within your marketing campaign because more of your customers are able to connect with your approach.