In order to take advantage of the holiday season and cater to your target market, it is important to nail your 2023 holiday marketing strategy.

Here are 10 tips that you can use to create the best 2023 holiday marketing strategy for your business.

1. Adding holiday site content

One of the most obvious ways you can improve your site before the holidays is to incorporate holiday content. Adding a few quick touches to your site in the messaging and design can help put your customers in a holiday mindset. You could do this through a holiday photo shoot, campaign, or product launch (if that fits your business). You can also design your own graphics for sharing on your website and socials, or you can use royalty-free image sites like Unsplash or Pexels. 

2. Personalizing your holiday message

Consumers have ever-growing expectations for their online shopping experiences in 2023. To meet their expectations, build on the previous tip of adding holiday content by personalizing it to your customer base. Use your website analytics to learn about your customer demographics. This will help you create content targeted toward them and the respective holidays they celebrate.

3. Holiday email strategy

While many people consider email marketing a thing of the past, it is still very important to your marketing strategy. According to Nosto, 42% of buyers want to receive personalized holiday email content. This type of content can produce click-through rates of 24% or more! An easy way to personalize the content to your consumers is by showing recommended products. These can be based on past purchases or on the data you have about their interests. Additionally, you can show products that they may have recently viewed in order to re-spark their interest. 

4. Retargeting for the holidays

Dynamic retargeting is a great approach to use during the holidays. Dynamic retargeting will use ads to show customers the last product they viewed on your site. This can rehydrate their interest similar to using previously viewed products in your email marketing. These ads help remind the user of your brand and hopefully pique their interest in your product once again.

5. Sitewide elastic search

During the holiday season, customers are often looking for very specific products that they know they want to purchase as a gift. Adding an elastic search that will pull results from all the products on your site is very important to meet your customers’ needs. When it is easier for them to find the product they are searching for, they will be more likely to follow through with a sale. Additionally, if you have a well-thought-out elastic search function you will be able to bring back recommendations to keep them on the site if you don’t have exactly what they are looking for. 

6. Sales and discounts 

Sales and discounts can draw in customers who may have previously been interested, but did not complete a sale. Make sure any holiday sales and discounts are very well publicized and included in social media posts, emails, and ads. Additionally, it is very important that discounts and sales are clearly highlighted on your site so they are easy for users to find. Emphasizing that these are time-sensitive holiday discounts can help push some consumers over the edge to make a purchase.

7. Holiday product lines

Creating holiday-specific products or holiday bundles marketed for gift giving can add new spice to your site and your inventory. Create holiday-specific product lines early enough that you can begin selling them in early November. This will give consumers time to purchase and enjoy them during the holiday season. When creating gift bundles, emphasize the simplicity and ease of having products that are ready to be gifted to family and friends.

8. Gift wrapping shipments

Many people will buy add-ons during the holiday season that they wouldn’t usually purchase. One of these add-ons that you can sell for an additional purchase would be gift wrapping. This means that if customers are sending this gift directly to their family or friends it would appear in some sort of holiday wrapping. If you utilize online shopping platforms to sell to customers, check to see if they have this as an option already set up through their site.

9. Holiday social media campaigns

The holidays are a prime time to connect with your audience on social media and build a relationship with them. Consider posting content outside of your usual content to focus on the holidays. Additionally, make sure you highlight any special holiday products or sales. Include easy links for customers to reach your site on all your social media platforms so you can drive more sales out of your content.

10. Clear return policy

Inevitably, there will be many returns after the holiday season for any e-commerce business. By creating a clear (and somewhat forgiving) return policy and creating a positive return experience, you can take advantage of the 45% of customers who will repurchase from an e-commerce store after making a return. Focus on creating a seamless experience for customers with a return and maybe even consider being a little more generous than other seasons of the year.

Creating your 2023 holiday marketing strategy

There are many ways you can get your e-commerce store ready for the holiday season. To create a strong holiday marketing strategy, pick a few of these tactics and focus on really perfecting them. Check out your results from the tactics you utilise and then decide if you are ready to expand to include more. 

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Yours in success,

Sarah x