By Selina Bieber, Senior Regional Director, GoDaddy

With Christmas rapidly approaching, time is running out for businesses to capture festive season activity ahead of the big day. After a challenging year for most small businesses, you won’t want to miss out on the opportunity to help drive holiday interest and boost your growth during this festive season for shopping. Here are a few digital marketing tips that can help you be top of mind.

Use the power of video

Video can be one of the most powerful and engaging media for communicating with your customers. You don’t need glossy production values to use it effectively. You can do something as simple as an unboxing and initial setup video shot on your smartphone, to showcase the features of a new product. Or you can use a tool like YouTube’s Video Builder to create simple videos from static assets.

You can post videos on YouTube, then easily embed them in your product pages on your website and in your blogs and share them on social media. There are many ways to use video to bring your offerings to life – you can ask a customer to endorse your business in a testimonial, do a behind-the-scenes look at how you’re planning for the holidays or put together a -tips video showing how people can use your products. 

Reach out to your existing customer base

Your existing email database is one of your most valuable assets during the festive season. You can use email marketing to let your existing customers know what you have to offer for the season in terms of new products or promotions. Making them feel like they have the inside track on your best deals or latest offerings can help nurture loyalty.

However, it’s also important to ensure your mailers are full of worthwhile offers and content for this time of the year. With so many retailers having sent emails for the recent Black Friday promotions, some customers are a bit email fatigued. You’ll need to break through the noise with a compelling subject line and good deals, and make your customers feel special. 

Make it look and feel like Christmas

During this festive season, be sure that you’re choosing high-quality images and visuals that will catch your customers’ eye. You can add a festive touch to your website, perhaps a spring of holly in the corner or Christmas-themed colours like greens and reds. You’ll also want to consider including some on-brand images to help support your social media campaigns.

A tool like Over by GoDaddy enables you to create effective, eye-catching content. You can use a vast library of hand-curated, professionally designed templates and layouts to make professional ads, branded content, logos, and stunning stories in minutes — no design experience needed and available on your computer and as an app on your mobile.  

Get into the festive spirit with promos and giveaways

Ahead of the final Christmas push, you can draw up a calendar of promotional offers to build goodwill and draw customers in. Some ideas to consider include:

·         Promotional codes like R100 off for spending R1000, 10% off, or free shipping are as popular as ever. They can attract new customers.

·         Buy one, get one offers can encourage customers to buy a discounted second product as a gift for someone else.

·         Bundling two or three products at a discounted price can be a great way to get customers to buy more than they may have planned.

·         Hosting competitions can be a great way to encourage participation and gain more visibility for your offerings.

·         Charity donations (with percentage of specific sales donated to a charity) can be popular among holiday shoppers in a charitable mood.

Stay top of mind                                                                       

Since your customers are inundated with promotions especially at this time of year, this is a time to set yourself apart from other good offers, discounts and content. A strong holiday marketing campaign can help you stay on the radar before, during and after the holiday season.