The festive season is almost here! Anticipation is in the air as people look forward to starting the new year on a positive and meaningful note. After a difficult and challenging year, everybody longs for a fresh beginning. At the heart of the festive season lies the quest for meaning and purpose, through social gatherings and celebrations. It is a time when people come together to exchange gifts, dine, and experience the joy of giving and togetherness. Most importantly, this also presents a golden opportunity for brands to engage in small business marketing for the holidays and capitalise on the festive spirit to boost sales.
Festive or seasonal marketing is the process of marketing products or services during special points of the year. This could mean everything from Christmas and Lunar New Year to Valentine’s Day, or even International Women’s Day. Festive marketing is highly dependent on the cultural context and nuances of the local market.
As a business owner, there are two crucial factors to keep in mind when leveraging holiday shopping trends and the potential for business growth during the festive seasons.
– Firstly, there is a typical increase in demand during this period. Consumers are willing to spend more.
– Secondly, it is important to be familiar with recent events that may affect consumer behavior and purchasing trends.
Businesses can tailor their product offerings, service delivery, and SME marketing strategies to create lasting impressions of their brand and maximise profits. To help with your business cashflow, you may want to consider a working capital loan or a small business loan.
Singapore’s multicultural society also offers a unique opportunity for festive marketing campaigns. Beyond the widely celebrated Christmas and New Year, each major racial group has its own significant celebrations such as Hari Raya and Deepavali. Businesses can create campaigns that celebrate the diversity of the country, featuring elements from various cultures.
Improving Your Market Platform
The key to capturing the market is knowing the strengths and features of your platform, and leveraging them to create a personal connection with the customer. By doing so, businesses can meet their consumers’ needs, and build long-lasting relationships with them.
Traditionally, physical stores place a greater emphasis on improving the shopping experience. This is because customers are more likely to spend when they have positive and memorable experiences with the business. As a result, physical stores usually add amenities to enhance customer experience and brand impression. For example, luxury shops offer complimentary refreshments to make shoppers feel pampered and important. This can also serve as a marketing tactic as potential customers may want to experience the same treatment, increasing footfall in the physical store.
Similarly, online retailers have to maximise their digital marketing potential by using their website and social media platforms creatively to convey the right message to customers. One way is through influencer marketing on social media platforms such as Instagram or Tiktok. Increasing in popularity, influencer marketing can be a cost effective strategy if the influencers partnered with represent the brand well through their user generated content (UGC).
UGC is what sets influencer marketing apart from traditional small business marketing strategies as the promotional marketing content comes from customers, rather than the brand itself. Other organic forms of user-generated content that serve as a brand promotion strategy include reviews, testimonials, and unboxing videos.
However, a downside of online retailers is the need to focus on after-sales customer engagement. Unlike physical stores, there is no face-to-face interaction between staff and customers, so it is harder to build brand loyalty and trust among customers. Businesses can overcome these challenges by adopting dynamic small business marketing strategies such as hashtag challenges on social media or loyalty programs. Funding such initiatives can cause cashflow issues – which is where a small business loan or working capital loan can come in handy. It allows you to focus your energy on where it matters most.
What Marketing Strategies Should Brands Use To Boost Sales During the Holidays?
To effectively capitalise on holiday shopping trends to boost profits, brands should adopt good marketing concepts and SME marketing tactics. These are some small business marketing strategies to help businesses improve their brand image and boost sales:
1. Reflect On Previous Campaigns.
Historical data makes up the foundation of marketing plans. Businesses must reflect on previous outcomes and conduct market research to guarantee the success of future campaigns. Asking relevant questions such as “What worked well?” and “What didn’t work?” can provide companies with valuable insights for growth and development. With this data, businesses can make better-informed decisions for their marketing strategies and alter their tactics for future campaigns. Google Analytics is one such platform that provides this useful information.
2. Start Early With Holiday Marketing.
Retailers should plan their festive marketing well in advance, as the festive period leading up to the end of the year is a significant shopping season. Planning your marketing campaigns early can be cost effective as it can save businesses from unnecessary spending and missed opportunities for profit.
3. Diversify Marketing Tactics.
Businesses need to understand current trends in order to cater to the needs of their customers. To do this, they can conduct online and on-the-ground research on holiday shopping. Additionally, businesses should diversify their SME marketing tactics such as utilising various channels, promotions, and tools to effectively communicate with their consumers by putting out messages that resonate with them.
One effective marketing strategy is to capitalise on the power of social media and influencer marketing and encourage UGC on digital platforms. With this, your business can increase its digital visibility, while building trust and brand credibility with customers. Another easy and effective way is to create a Google My Business (GMB) profile and gain customers’ reviews to build brand trust. Brands can observe which business marketing tactics generate the most engagement and garner the most attention, so as to adapt their strategies accordingly. However, social media and influencer marketing may not be the most cost effective as influencers with a high follower base tend to charge higher for their content.
4. Appeal To The Consumers’ Emotions.
The Yuletide and Chinese New Year season is often a period of heightened emotions. It is the time for family and friends to gather together and celebrate the spirit of giving and family reunions. Brands can tap into these emotions to invoke the feelings of delight, nostalgia, and other emotions that can encourage them to make purchases.
For example, Coca-Cola’s festive marketing strategy centers around Santa Claus, who was first depicted enjoying a cup of Coca-Cola in 1930. This image, along with the Christmas truck introduced in 1995, has become synonymous with the brand and the holiday season. Coca-Cola’s marketing emphasises storytelling, emotional connection, and brand visibility through community engagement. Despite already being a household name, Coca-Cola stands out further with an effective tactic of capitalising on the festive period.
Another heartwarming campaign closer to home is “Don’t Worry, Be Hoppy” by Singtel. It is the fourth installment in a series of films featuring two families, the Ang and Huangs. The films aim to bring a different marketing message each Chinese New Year, creating a memorable story for their target audiences using humor, local context, and trends.
5. Go All In On The Visual Display.
Festive seasons is typically theme driven. Businesses should align their physical and digital presentations with the holiday theme in order to meet customers’ expectations. Charming holiday-themed windows not only present brands in the best way possible, but also capture the attention of window shoppers who may be persuaded to make impulsive purchases because of effective visual marketing.
Take Advantage And Capitalise On The Festive Season To Effectively Grow Your Business.
While influencer marketing and UGC can be expensive, there are other cost effective strategies. However, marketing expenses should not be scrimped on as effective strategies can boost your brand awareness and image. This is especially crucial for growing brands and businesses.
If your business requires additional financing solutions to adopt effective small business marketing tactics, Poss is here to help you with that! We offer fast and flexible borrowing requirements, with transparent fees and no early repayment penalties. Click here to find out more on how you can get Quik with Poss today!
