Christmas is coming! And as you many be aware, Christmas is the busiest time of year for both ecommerce and eLearning. Consumers will be spending more on money on food, drink and presents. Many will also be spending more on digital based training, eBooks and training video – simly because of the growth in tablet devices, higher speed internet connections and the fact that they will be having time off.
HSBC reports that from research, “Brits plan to spend an average of £526 celebrating Christmas this year…” with most consumers choosing to turn to the Internet to do their Christmas shopping. An estimated 16% of consumers will only use the Internet to do their shopping.
Britain itself has the highest demand for online learning in the whole of Europe, according to e-learningcentre.co.uk. A recent report from them shows that the popularity of the UK’s e-learning industry is far ahead of other countries in Europe. Statistics show us that there is a 17% decline in the need for training simply as a result of tight budgets and wanting to work our way out of tough financial times for many businesses – manager simply can’t release people for a full day of training. Here are my top 3 Christmas Marketing ideas to capitalise on this demand
Dress Your Shop Front
Use festive or seasonal graphics to help people to get onto the Christmas or winter spirit. Think about how you can add snow to your logo, insert a Santa or a Snowman into your website design. Think about how you can lift your email marketing to make it look more festive. This will evoke a positive emotional response for many and make them feel more ‘jolly’ when they are reading your emails and buying from your site. Don’t over-do it though. You don’t want the Christmas tree to fall over!
Prepare Christmas and New Year Offers
With many of my ecommerce clients, I have been talking Christmas since June/July this year. Preparing the sale items, offers and suggested hero products to be promoting, have been the conversations and strategies. If you haven’t done this, look at what you can offer as sale items or special offers for the busy online shopping season. A huge tip that I can give you, work up some packages if you can to add huge value, then discount this package rather than discount your standard costs.
Don’t Be Scared of Email
Email marketing has proven to be a consistent an reliable source of generating sales and income for all businesses, yet many are fearful of sending too many. One email a month seems to be the normal strategy for those in business.
For business to business: Try one every two weeks, even one every week in the run up to Christmas. As long as you are providing value and not just selling in every email, people will look forward to your insight, knowledge and offers.
For ecommerce: Try a once a week email promoting fortnightly offers. In the first week of the month, promote a ‘hero’ product and 3 relates products that is on offer for 2 weeks. In the second week, send “Final couple of days” reminder email with just the hero product on display. Rinse and repeat.
The spend on “human” training has been down since 2008 and with technology at our fingertips, there is a massive shift for many to put their knowledge into online training programmes and web based teaching.
Source: businesszone.co.uk
