During the holidays, there’s always a disproportionate amount of spending that occurs between retailers and consumers. Merchants slash prices with the expectation that holiday promotion will motivate people to spend more money. Businesses invest a lot of time and money trying to promote the sales they are having. But is that enough? Whether you it’s black friday marketing or just holiday marketing in general, below are some important tips.

Businesses that fail to cash in on the holiday season are missing a gigantic revenue opportunity. Brands that only invest a tiny portion of their budget on seasonal ads falter while their competitors with larger budgets usually win the wallets of customers.

During the holiday season, companies have an opportunity to capture tons of new customers. Typically, ad impressions increase by 50%, direct traffic blossoms approximately 150% and conversion rates can increase a whopping 60%. Unfortunately, few marketing budgets have the ability to accommodate such rapid growth in this marketing opportunity. Brands need to start preparing for the holidays early, so they can celebrate their success sooner.

Keep An Open Mind

The most important thing you can to do is establish a sound marketing plan. While developing your campaign strategy, you need to focus on both your target audience and mainstream holiday shoppers. Christmas marketing isn’t the only effort that you could be targeting.

Holiday-Themed Offers

People tend to get caught up in the holiday frenzy, so you need to maximize engagement by creating a social media plan that draws people in. Holiday-themed offers on social media platforms give you just enough exposure to stay relevant in people’s minds. Make sure you have great visuals and graphics, because social media is such a visually oriented platform.

Here’s a great example from Free People discussed by HubSpot:
 

 

Recycle And Reuse

Rethink your ad copy to make the most of your previous campaigns. Toss in a few holiday-themed keywords to pique interest.

Advertise Early

If you want to get a head start on the holidays, you should start promoting ads several weeks in advance. This gives you ample opportunity to test out your latest creatives without blowing your budget. By promoting yourself early, you’re able to prime shoppers to choose you as the go-to shopping destination.

When you celebrate the holiday season early, you have a chance to have fun with customers, dramatically increase revenue and outshine your competition. Think as if you’re a holiday shopper? What type of advertising would appeal to you?

Both current customers and potentially new ones want to see your human side. They want to connect with their favorite brands. That means you need to make them part of the equation long before the holiday season sets in.

About Author

Emma is a freelance writer currently living in Boston, MA. For graphics and design, Emma writes for Arc and Co. To see more from Emma, say hi on Twitter @EmmaSturgis2

There’s really only one item that brave Black Friday shoppers need — a mobile device. Whether you’re rocking a phone, a tablet, or one of those new hybrid ‘phablets,’ your device is the perfect tool for plotting your shopping route and letting you know where the best deals are.

This year many stores have created special content especially for social networking fans and device owners. As more and more users sign up for communities like Facebook or Pinterest, smart businesses are too.

Macy’s

Photo by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr

The retailer sometimes gets blamed for starting this whole Black Friday madness in 1924 with its Thanksgiving Day parade. The day is the official signal to the world to get shopping! Macy’s also got a lot of attention this year by announcing it was going to be open Thursday night for the first time. People wanting to shop at Macy’s on black Friday or preview what’s going to be on sale can check out all sorts of online resources, including the official Macy’s page, a Macy’s mobile app and the official Macy’s Pinterest page. They can also sign up for special Black Friday text messages.

Wal-Mart

Photo by djLicious via Flickr

The world’s largest retailer also wants to be the world’s largest holiday retailer, and has come up with an entire “Your Black Friday Destination” campaign for that shopping day and beyond. This includes access to sale information for its stores and online catalog plus an official app for every common device platform. With the app, you can add products to a Favorite list by clicking the item in various listings, search by voice, or scan the bar code of the item in the store. You can also sign up for emails or notifications when certain items come on sale.

Best Buy

Photo by tshein via Flickr

The electronics retailer has some good things going for it. It typically offers great deals on Black Friday, Saturday, Sunday and CyberMonday. Deals abound on Black Friday, and fans are encouraged to follow Twitter and Facebook on their computers or mobile devices for special announcements and in-store and online exclusive deals. You also can share your email to be put on a list for other super Black Friday offers.

Toys R Us

Photo by thinbegin via Flickr

The world’s largest toy store knows how to wow kids, especially by printing larger and larger inserts in the newspapers as early as mid-October. The release of the Big Toy Book has become a special event, and the store gives kids plenty of time to page through it to circle everything they want. Mobile device owners can visit a Black Friday portion of the store’s site to get everything from current sales to a store locator. There’s also links to commercials on YouTube plus a Pinterest page of deals. The store also plans to open Thursday evening.