4 Questions to Ask When Planning Your Social Media Holiday Campaign

 

‘Tis the planning season, which means marketers are solidifying their holiday campaigns for the most important retail season of the year. Here are four important data points to consider when planning your social media holiday campaign for 2014.

Blue Print Graphic - Planning Social Media Campaigns This Holiday Season

What type of deal or incentive does your target audience value?

discount vs shipping chartA social exclusive offer can help brands stand apart from competitors and also drive trackable  social sales during this busy season. But with more and more brands jumping on the discount bandwagon each holiday season, it’s important to consider the types of incentives your target audience may value when planning your social media promotions.

eMarketer recently conducted a study on the most effective incentives for customers based on demographics.

A major finding in the study was that the incentive preference differed greatly by age group. Millennials, ages 25-34, strongly prefer a discount over free shipping. However, 56-65 year olds would rather have free shipping.

When selecting an offer for your social campaign to promote this holiday, keep these insights in mind to determine which incentive will resonate best with your target audience.

What’s your local/mobile strategy?

The importance of local/mobile marketing is increasing each quarter, and it is expected to play a significant role in this years’ holiday shopping season (accounting for an estimated $345 billion dollars).

A study conducted by Deloitte showed that 84% of shoppers use digital tools before and during their shopping trip. The task for the social media marketer is to determine social integrations that can leverage these technologies.

Geo-fencing and Beacons may offer more integration opportunities for social media marketers this year, with close to 30K beacons in the US (75% in retail stores). And within 12 months, 54% of mobile marketers plan on using beacons. These technologies can push messages, social content, ads and offers to users’ mobile phones (with location services/Bluetooth enabled) when a customer or potential customer enters a designated location.

How are you engaging with your loyal customers?

According to a 2014 Gallup report, engaged customers represent a 23% premium in: share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth.

In your holiday planning, consider how your brand can engage your current and loyal customers. While exclusive offers to a subset of customers or engaged fans may be one approach, tailored content and experiences designed to thank or help this audience during this season are an effective way to develop deeper relationships and turn existing customers into loyal advocates.

Is referring site traffic important to your brand?

With marketers continuing to hear of significant reach declines on Facebook, and recent data showing teens are not as active on the channel as they are on Instagram and Twitter, it’s tempting for social media marketers to look to other platforms this holiday season (and rightly so).

Social-Media-Traffic-Referrals-2014

However, an important question to consider in holiday planning is how important referring site traffic is to your holiday goals. While other networks are gaining steam, Facebook still remains #1, by a significant margin, in driving traffic referrals. In fact, in Q2 of 2014, Facebook was the only social channel that had an increase, about 10%, in traffic referrals (direct, social referrals, organic search and paid search).

 

How do you plan on leveraging social media to reach and engage your customers during the upcoming holiday season?



Ignite Social Media