The holidays are in full swing, and retailers are doing everything they can to reach their target audience, especially on their mobile devices. The scramble for the best holiday deals officially begins on Black Friday, and doesn’t stop until December 24th.
Shopping habits are turning increasingly digital. Influencer marketing continues to be one of the best ways to cut through the noise and get the biggest bang for your marketing buck. From the moment they go online, shoppers are inundated with splashy, aggressive and persistent marketing messages, a trend that grows exponentially during the holidays.
How to Make Your Message Stand Out in a Crowd
1. Encourage eCommerce through real-time influencer campaigns
The ten biggest online spending days all occur over the holidays – spanning Black Friday to December 13th, with the biggest day of the year being Cyber Monday. In 2014, these ten days all occur in a shorter than average holiday shopping season. There are just 26 total days between Black Friday and Christmas Eve this year, compared to over 30 days many other years. This will cause advertising to be more aggressive and to-the-point, as consumers feel the crunch of a shortened season and their tendency to procrastinate.
Since you can expect many consumers to seek out deals and promotions for their online holiday shopping, traditional online ads won’t be as effective as a properly executed holiday influencer campaign. By partnering with an influencer who is prominent on a real-time network like Twitter, you can create urgency around your messaging to match the behavior of your audience.
Example 1
You could give your influencers a 24-hour window in which to hold a holiday shopping spree contest. They could tweet images and products from a recent shopping spree, and encourage their audience to tweet what they would buy if they won their own. This builds social engagement with your brand, and loyalty among your influencers and their audience. The urgency of a 24-hour contest is enough to thrill even the most last-minute shopper.
Example 2
Influencers can also tweet limited-time-only deals and coupons that point directly to your eCommerce site. This will entice shoppers who need to make a purchase quickly.
2. Create a Mobile-Centric Influencer Campaign
From tweens to their grandparents, everyone is shopping from their mobile devices these days – a trend that is especially strong during the holiday season.
According to eBay Enterprise, Cyber Monday 2013 saw a massive 98 percent year-over-year increase in orders placed via mobile phone. Shoppers aren’t just using their phones as simple order-placing devices – they’re actively researching, comparing and searching for products while at home and in stores. In fact, eMarketer found that the majority of US smartphone owners – in all age groups – shop in-store with their phones.
Knowing that your audience will likely be viewing your marketing messages on their phones this holiday season, why not develop an influencer campaign that will grab their attention on the go?
Example 1
Consider co-creating a holiday gift guide with your influencers that is mobile-friendly. Your influencers can create an image-centric guide of the best holiday gifts in your niche on Instagram or Pinterest, making sure to include your products on the list. When the influencers’ audience sees a pre-made gift guide shared by someone they trust, their thumbs will be itching to hit the buy button on the products – and yours will, of course, be among them.
Example 2
Twitter is also a mobile-friendly platform, and getting a product review or recommendation from a Twitter influencer during the holidays is an effective way to target consumers while they’re actually shopping. Since they’re poised to make a purchase, you could see a huge sales spike thanks to just one or two strategically tweeted influencer reviews.
With all of the splashy, eye-catching advertising that is soon to begin, marketers need to find a way to stand out from the crowd and reach their audience during the most lucrative time of the year – and influencer marketing is the way to go. For more information on boosting your holiday campaigns, email us at [email protected]