For the best possible results, companies should not take the same exact approach to online marketing, search engine optimization, and SEO marketing in February, June, and during the holiday season. Customers will take note of company efforts, and whether they send the right message (that the company is open and actively improving day by day). Here are a few ways to show customers you are putting in effort every single day, and especially during the holidays.
Get People Directly Involved
Patrons and customers will be infinitely more interested if you can make it about them. Consider holiday-themed social media and internet marketing campaigns that have been successful. Some of the most popular campaigns invite users to upload pictures of themselves and insert them into videos of dancing elves (Office Max’s Elf Yourself), or design their very own tacky Christmas sweater (Coca Cola). Either way, it invited users to create something individual, completely unique, and about them.
Have Some Fun With It
The holidays give you the perfect excuse to have a little bit of fun — and to float some humorous campaigns and see what does and does not perform well. JC Penney, for example, tweeted several highly suspicious texts during the 2014 Super Bowl. The tweets contained several typos and blatant errors, leading pretty much everyone to speculate that an employee had indulged a little too much at a company Super Bowl party. JC Penney let everyone wonder for a little while, and then revealed the true intention of the tweets: to promote a sale on mittens (which the employee was apparently wearing while they tweeted).
Spread Some Cheer (Think Coupons, Discounts, and Giveaways!)
Think like a customer. What do you want this Christmas? While you can’t necessarily give everyone money, you can do the next best thing: save customers money. Offer website and mobile-only coupons and giveaways. Remember, 60% of your customers are using smartphones — meaning that they may be accessing your webpage to do some Christmas shopping on the go. Make certain websites are in top working order this holiday season as well. Server downtime and similar web failures have cost companies $70 million in the last five years. Don’t miss out on winter sales due to downtime!
A local SEO company can help you with all of the ins and outs of online marketing — whether it’s during the holidays or at any other time of year. Find out more about this topic here.