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10 Social Media Tips to Elevate your Holiday Sales

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Published: December 23, 2015

The introduction of social media has changed, well, just about everything we do as well as how we do it. Holiday shopping is no exception. In fact, the mobility of shopping options today means most customers shop in micro bursts – researching from their phone in spare moments, then making their way to a brick-and-mortar store or online to snag each item on their list.

So what you do – or don’t do – to promote your products on social media this holiday season can create a tangible difference in whether you sell out early or scramble to sell late.

In this post, learn 10 tips for how to use social media to elevate your holiday sales – starting right now!

 

Tip #1: Follow the Social Media 80/20 rule.

With social media, you need to walk a fine line between overt promotion (20 percent) and responsive interaction that results in greater engagement(80 percent).

What to do: As you schedule your posts, make sure only about 20 percent contain links back to your site or promotions for your products/services. If you’re unsure how to quantify this amount, there are social media experts that can help to teach and guide you.

Digital Eye Media 80/20 Rule for Business Social Media
 

Tip #2: Make sure your photography pops.

Depending on who you ask, adding graphics to your text is both more effective and up to 10 times more effective at generating click-throughs than text alone. As well, original images perform better than stock photography.

What to do: This only holds true if your photography is visually alluring. So if you are not spending at least half of your social media post creation time on images, you probably have room for improvement.

 

Tip #3: Respond ASAP.

Acceptable business response time online                                                                            Tip #3
Social media is only as useful as the responsiveness of the account manager – in this case, you. Nearly half of consumers expect you to respond within 60 minutes to anything they post on your social media feed.

What to do: Unhappy or neglected prospects rarely turn into happy customers. So if you plan to be active via social media this holiday season, make arrangements to be present as well!

 

Tip #4: Include giving back/paying it forward in your promotions.

A recent report shows that, if all other elements remain equal, consumers prefer to do their holiday shopping with a brand that gives back.

What to do: Giving “a percentage of proceeds” can work in your favor, provided you choose a charity that is on the up-and-up and one your consumers resonate with.

 

Tip #5: Make sure your store and website are mobile-friendly! Half of holiday sales come from mobile shopping

This simply cannot be emphasized enough. Not only will you lose out on nearly half of all holiday sales with a mobile-unfriendly store/site, but you may be blackballed by Google itself.

What to do: Google offers a free tool to test your website to see how mobile-friendly it is. Use it now before it is too late!

 

Tip #6: Activate “shop now” buttons on relevant social feeds.

Did you know that Pinterest and Instagram now offer insta-shop buttons so customers can buy right from your feed? Facebook offers a new Store option where you can actually re-create your store from its platform.

What to do: Seek out and deploy all available shop features on your social feeds to maximize sales.

 

Tip #7: Integrate, integrate, integrate.

As long as they get to you, who cares how they get to you, right? Yet you don’t want to make your customers work too hard to find you either. So YOU do the legwork for your customers to connect the dots between your various social feeds, your website and your store.

What to do: Add share-friendly buttons so customers can easily share your social content on multiple platforms, and easily navigate from one of your platforms to the next.

Tip #8: Choose the right holiday promotions.

If you co

uld choose between a company offering a product you want that charges shipping and a company offering a product you want that offers free shipping, which would you choose, all else being equal?

Free Shipping through New Years with Digital Eye Media

Tip #8

You’d choose the one with the free shipping, right?

What to do: If you plan to allocate funds towards holiday promotions and deals, opt for the ones that are a “sure thing.” And free shipping is one example of a sure thing!

                    

 

Tip #9: Don’t forget to remind your customers to buy a little something for themselves for the Holidays!

As it turns out, self-gifting has been on the rise for the last few years now, and it shows no signs of slowing. Whether that is you offering a freebie with purchase, a discount for a later purchase or even a “happy New Year” coupon (it’s never too early to plan for a strong first quarter!), today’s customers love a personalized holiday promotion.

What to do: Buying yourself a gift quite simply feels good. So find ways to encourage your customers to add themselves to their holiday shopping lists!

Tip #10: Diversify your social promotions.

You can get away with doing more promotions (see 80/20 rule in tip #1) if you diversify which promotions you send to different social feeds. This also has the added side benefit of encouraging your customers to follow you multiple feeds, because they quickly learn they may miss a promotion if they only follow you on one feed!

What to do: Think through which platforms are best suited to which promotions, and then carefully diversify accordingly. You can use good old fashioned (and still exceptionally effective) email to support each of your promotions on different social feeds and also drive more followers to each of your feeds by showcasing all of your holiday promotions from an email newsletter.

Each of these 10 tips offers a proven strategy for improving customer response to your holiday offerings and generating more customer loyalty for the new year. As you take everything you know about your customers and prospects to implement these tips, you build a strong foundation for even more successful future marketing!

 

DigitalEYE Media Year Round Holiday Tips

 

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