5 Actions to Start Now to Put a Pretty Bow on Your Holiday Efforts You should have most of your planning done by now, but here are some small details that should help you get more customers and make them happier.
By Jess Ekstrom
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
For many brands, the holidays can be like the Olympics. You spend so much time getting ready and preparing, and you have a short window to show what you're made of. Most preparation happens months in advance, such as buying the inventory and sending out pitches to magazines.
But here are some last-minute details to wrap your holiday marketing in a pretty bow:
1. Step up your packaging.
When your customer gets your product in the mail, does it feel like Christmas? Or does it feel like a robot in a fulfillment center just dropped the product in a box and clicked send?
Related: 3 Holiday Retail Trends Entrepreneurs Need to Consider
At my company, we send all online orders in little burlap bags with our logo printed on them. We find that people not only post a picture of the item they received on social media, they post it with the bag (and our logo gets more exposure).
Kick your packaging into high gear for the holidays to make it feel more like a gift and less like a transaction. It could be just a touch of tissue paper, a bow, a handwritten card or anything else that enhances the delivery experience.
2. Pitch to digital gift guides.
All print gift guides have been done for months now, but there's still time to secure a spot in digital gift guides. Put together a catalog of your items on white backdrops with its name and price. Search for websites and bloggers that you feel best represent your target audience and send them a pitch. Some sites require a fee for product postings, and others you can just supply them with the product.
Subscribe for HARO alerts to see if there are any product calls for gift guides.Once you get one secured, double check that the outlet has your website to hyperlink to so you get traffic.
Related: The 6 Musts of a Successful Holiday Marketing Campaign
3. Host a trunk show.
Depending on your product, it might be useful to host a trunk show at a local shopping center with high foot traffic. See if you can team up with a store and sell your products in person on a busy Saturday. Give customers some sort of incentive that will persuade them to buy in person instead of waiting to buy online.
4. Try promoted pins.
A lot of shoppers use Pinterest for gift shopping. Put together an awesome pin (or pick one of your past most pinned posts) and promote it to get more exposure. If you want to add text to it or make a fun collage, you can use an app such as Canva.com.
5. Establish an "order by ..." date.
When is the last day customers can order from your site to get it delivered by Christmas? Make sure you have this spelled out very clearly so there's no confusion. Moon and Lola provides a great example of how to display deadlines. Take into account that mail service can be slower around the holidays due to volume.
Related: A 6-Step Checklist to Get Your Online Business Ready for the Holiday Season
