5 Holiday Best Practices to Boost Customer Engagement

Inflation is expected to peak at the end of the year. This will impact consumer shopping and spending during the holidays of 2022.  

To save money and make the most of what they have, you can expect people to shop earlier. This will give them a chance to take advantage of sales, and trade loyalty for value.  

So, what can you do to capture early shoppers, convince new customers to buy from you, and keep your customer base loyal during these times?  

It’s all about how you approach your internet marketing in Miami with holiday shoppers. Achieve successful customer engagement during the holidays by setting up a strategy, planning your holiday content calendar in advance, and following these five best practices for customer engagement:  

5 Best Ways to Engage Customers During Christmas Season

Following these best practices will ensure that you can provide your audience with engaging and relevant posts consistently during the holiday season. And, as a result, maximize your campaigns and build up your holiday sales.  

1. Strengthen Your Online Community

Your audiences are your social media followings, newsletter subscribers, podcast listenership, and blog readers. They’re the ones consuming the content you put out.  

A community, on the other hand, is a place where your audiences can connect and interact with one another and with you. Some examples include conferences, Facebook groups, Slack groups, forums, Discord servers, and events.  

If you already have an audience who constantly engages and interacts with your internet marketing in Miami efforts, you must cultivate them into becoming an engaged community of brand enthusiasts.  

Having a sense of community allows your audience to become a part of something bigger and connect with like-minded individuals.  

When people choose to join your community, it means they believe in the vision of your brand on a deeper level. They resonate with it and feel so strongly about it that they can’t help but be vocal in their supportfor your business.  

So, the question now is, how do you turn your audience into an engaged community?

Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Involve your audience in the process of making holiday content. You can ask them directly, run this or that poll on social media, email them a survey form, and ask them what kind of deals they want for the holidays.  
• Acknowledge your community for their unwavering support. Make them feel seen and appreciated by saying thank you, hosting a small get-together event, and dedicating a social media post or blog about them.  
• Give your community a name they can identify with. Just like how Justin Bieber called his fans ‘Beliebers’, you should also call your brand fanatics a name they can wear proudly.  
• Do something together that create a positive impact in the community, like hosting a charity event.  

• Provide your community members a platform where they can share tips and seek inspiration in an exclusive social setting.  
• Host live calls to discuss how you can improve your products, what their feedback is, and allow them to have a say in your product development collectively.  
• Offer exclusive early shopper discounts and product bundles to your most loyal customers.  
• Give away gifts or freebies every time they purchase within a specific amount or period.  

2. Use Live Streaming Videos to Boost Engagement

80% of consumers prefer to watch a live video than read a blog. Live content also tends to get 27% more minutes of watch time per viewing compared to videos on demand.  

This shows that live streaming videos are naturally more engaging to users. Why? Because it allows them to interact with you and with one another in real-time – as if they're talking to you face to face!

Consider incorporating live video into your internet marketing in Miami to engage your audience during the holidays and the weeks leading up to it by doing the following:

• Host a live interview with a celebrity, influencer, or industry leader in your niche. Create a buzz around this event on social media to draw more viewers.  
• Do a live Q&A so your audience can ask you any questions they have about your company, products, and services. This is a great opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise in your field. It’s also an effective way of educating, entertaining, and getting your audience to buy without forcing them to do so. One of the best ways to win over customers!

• Conduct a live product demo, tutorial, or promotion. On TikTok, many clothing and make-up brands do live streaming on the platform to do a demo of their products. They try on the clothes, they swatch different make-up products, and they offer special deals and promos. Consider doing this for the holidays to boost engagement and drive sales.  
• Do live streaming of your product launch. If you have brand enthusiasts across the world that can’t personally attend your product launch, live streaming the event allows them to take part in it and feel included. It also attracts the attention of potential customers and provides a great opportunity to convert them.  
• Show behind-the-scenes happenings. Are you doing a holiday product shoot? Bring your audience with you by doing a live! Give them a glimpse of what it’s like to do product shoots, advertisements, events, product development, and many more.  
• Conduct free virtual training to provide customers and prospects value, and to promote your products and services as well.  
• Do a live selling to bring out people’s fear of missing out. They’ll want to buy what others are buying and they’ll want to compete for limited edition items. It creates desire and increases demand for your products.  

3. Use Holiday Brand Storytelling to Appeal to Customers

Stories bring people closer together. They have a unique ability to boost feelings of trust, compassion, and empathy towards a brand.  

Having the right narrative influences people to see your brand positively and motivates them to work with you.  

This holiday season, connect with your audience on a deeper level by telling them your Christmas story. Give them your brand’s version of holiday spirit.  

Is it giving? Showing compassion? You don’t have to make your audience cry.  

Tears aren’t the only option. Connect with them through joy, friendship, family, or humor. Whatever it is, make sure it's aligned with who your company is and its values.  

Checkout H&M’s holiday short film:

4. Do A Holiday Giveaway or Contest

Christmas is the perfect time to do a giveaway or run a social media contest. It creates a buzz around your company, builds excitement, and grows your following overnight!

Prepare a prize that you know your audience finds valuable or something they appreciate. It could be your very own products, gift cards they can use to buy holiday gifts, or spa services.  

People will naturally want to compete over winning an awesome prize, especially if your mechanics are simple and easy to follow. Just make sure that your method of entry is tied to your specific goals.  

For example, by asking people to follow you across all your social media accounts and tagging two friends in the comment section of your giveaway post, you can grow your followership and boost brand awareness.  

Let your audience know through email and post about it across your social media accounts and groups.  

You should also know that you can continue engaging your audience even after your giveaway or contest has ended. Here’s how you can maximize running social media contests and giveaways:

• Share information about the winners.  
• Thank users for participating.  
• Share user-generated content.  
• Do follow-ups.  

5. Create a 12 Days of Christmas Email Drip Campaign

The holidays are the best time to give back to your customers. To show them your love and appreciation, set up an email drip campaign with 12 days of irresistible holiday gifts, offers, and interesting content.  

Drip campaigns are email marketing campaigns wherein you prewrite emails and set them up to launch based on a user’s actions. It allows you to engage with your recipients consistently and provide more relevant and timely emails, to which they're likely to respond.  

In fact, they generate 50% more quality sales-ready leads. Companies that use drip campaigns to nurture leads also get 80% more sales at a lower cost.  

Here are some content ideas for your holiday email drip campaigns:

• December 13: Say 'Thank you to your current and past customers. It's also an opportunity to target last-minute shoppers with your best holiday deals before Christmas.  

• December 14: According to Marketing Trends, 60% of people take advantage of holiday sales to buy something for themselves. Remind your customers that they deserve to spoil themselves at least once a year. Present a Christmas gift guide based on a customer's previous interaction with your website and purchase history.  
• December 15: According to Klarna, a third of consumers shop during the last 10 days before Christmas. Give away gift cards they can use to buy holiday gifts.  
• December 16: Offer free shipping if they buy on this day.
• December 17: Offer your customers’ favorite items on a time-limited sale.  
• December 18: Christmas is just one week away! Build urgency and motivate them to buy from you by giving them a freebie for every purchase they make on this day.  

• December 19: Send them a video of your and your team greeting them happy holidays. Add your twist and make them unique!
• December 20: Build urgency in your subject lines. Remind customers of your best holiday deals.  
• December 21: Today is the shipping deadline. Remind your customers to place their final orders if they want their package to arrive before Christmas. Make their lives easier by packing their orders in holiday-themed gift wrap.  
• December 22: Include a free printable calendar, and planner, and remind them about your deals in-store as Christmas approaches.  
• December 23: Share a Christmas Story of your customers who found joy in using your products or services.  

• December 24: Offer last-minute online gift cards they can send to long-distance loved ones or for their picky teenage niece and nephews.  

Curate your email drip content based on your business and what’s valuable to your audience.  

Seeing you in their inbox every day can get annoying, but as long as you let them know in advance of your internet marketing Miami campaign, they for sure won’t mind opening your emails to see what deals and gifts are in store for them every day.  

Take Your Miami Internet Marketing to the Next Level

Plan your content and create them early to make sure you can provide your audience with relevant and engaging posts consistently for the upcoming holiday season. Doing this will help build up your holiday sales and maximize the results of your campaigns!

At Digital Resource, our internet marketing specialists in Miami will work with you to create a custom holiday marketing plan to attract new customers and boost your sales before the year ends.  

Want to see your business grow? Contact us today to get started!

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