18 Nov Make the Most of Your Marketing This Holiday

In today’s increasingly competitive holiday shopping market, it is important that brands amp up their strategy and focus on consumer insights to ensure they bring out their best this holiday season.

Thanks to a recent report by PunchTab, we can see predictions about the 2014 Holiday Shopping Season, and gain some insights on brands can be more lucrative this holiday season.

PunchTab wants to make sure brands ask the following questions during the holidays

• Who are my most active, valuable, influential customers?
• What triggers drive acquisition, engagement, and purchase?
• How engagement can move the needle?

Here are a few of the study’s highlights you should know:

1) Millenials are ready to spend

First, you should know that 77% of all consumers plan to spend more this year than last year, and millenials lead the pack with 15% saying they plan to spend more.

Brands should know young shoppers plan on shopping later (71% in November and December), and their 2 biggest shopping days are Black Friday (63%) and Cyber Monday (70%). So, it’s not too late to ramp up your holiday campaign to target millenials.

2) Online is a game changer

Holiday shopping no longer requires pushing and shoving your way through the mall. In fact, 90% of consumers plan to shop online this holiday season. What’s more, social media will be a huge player in influencing shopping of Millenials and Gen X, particularly Facebook, Pintrest, and YouTube.

3) It’s not too late to grab market share

People are loyal to stores they love, but that doesn’t always mean they aren’t looking for the next best thing. 58% of consumers said they are undecided or will purchase less from the stores they shopped at last year.

That means almost a whopping half of the market share is still up for grabs.

How can you capitalize on it? Well, you might consider that 80% of shoppers say coupons and discounts are important to their holiday shopping decisions.

SUMMARY:

• Know your consumer. Make sure you focus on targeting the right consumers using the right channels. Remember that Millenials and GenX will be more online driven, while Boomers will be more focused on in-store shopping. Plan your marketing strategy accordingly.
• It’s not too late! Most shoppers shop in November and December, so amp up your marketing now!
• Focus on how you can attract market share by targeting the right channels, promoting the right messages, and swaying customers to your brand with special holiday promotions.
• Be smart with social media. Look at the channels that have the most impact and push your marketing through those networks (i.e. Facebook, Pintrest, etc.)
• Make online shopping easy. With the popularity boost of online shopping make sure your customers know you are an easy, one-stop online shop.

Happy Holiday Marketing!

Sourced from PunchTab’s 2014 Holiday Shopping Season Report.