Tag: Holidays

B2B Strategy – Holiday Style

Posted on | by Emi Lesser | Leave a Comment on B2B Strategy – Holiday Style

Graphic: b2b holiday season

Here comes the Santa Clause of your business sector with goodies for your prospects, customers and business associates. While reaching out to your business prospects during this holiday season, there is more than just sending a Merry Christmas card. In fact, this holiday season, your team should utilize a B2B marketing campaign which cuts across multiple channels.

Rejuvenate Social Media

The canvas of social media platforms is flooded this holiday season but there is always a way to be innovative. Bring out all the raving reviews and video testimonials from your customers and business associates and share them proudly. Over the past year, whatever you have accumulated, splurge on your social media pages of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others. Remember that B2B marketing strategies have faired well with prospects trusting recommendations from peers and other businesses.

Tradition Wins

During the holiday, there is always an underlying current of traditions; your team must play along. In your holiday marketing strategy, make sure to have a theme associated with your business sector and stress the application of traditional values in the festive environment. In all your physical and virtual decorations, engagements and reach-outs, local, geographical and social traditions help reach out to fellow businesses.

Reinvent Traditional Ways

In addition to reaching out through the internet, traditional methods are essential in a B2B marketing strategy as well. Your team needs to have a list of business prospects and current contact persons ready and should reach out in a traditional way such as, calling, visiting (although harder in our current times), or even just sending a postcard. Remember, a miss can cost you money in the coming year through unhappy clients who feel as though you don’t value them.

Personalize Your Approach

There is nothing better than developing personal relations over the festive season. Including business prospects while cementing the already made bonds with customers and business associates. It is a proven fact that there develops an emotional and familiar undercurrent of recognition which subconsciously affects your business deals and business relations.

Dive Into Communities

This festive season your team should break the barriers and share on all relevant platforms. Check out all virtual world sites where you can tap into a wide audience of relevant prospects. With your high values content and a commanding leadership tone, your experts can attract all the prospects who frequent such B2B information hubs, which serve their industry and provide solutions to their problem.

Wishes With Gifts

Your Festive Wishes, when sugarcoated with an offer or two will hit the mark. Your team can churn out different goodies you have been offering over the year and repackage them. Offer them as this limited time offer. Anything like an e-book, an expert advise time slot, a free sample or just an upgrade – all work wonders – depending on your business sector. If your business sector is facing a particular crisis or a hiccup, and you have a product or solution to offer, a very limited time offer of it can do wonders to spread the word.

Activate CRM & Funnel

With a year behind you, the time is right to top the funnel and activate a CRM tool (provided free with an Infofree.com subscription). The CRM will definitely play a major role as you move forward and utilize optimized details from your curated prospect lists. Need more prospects to get your CRM and sales funnel started? Check out FreeSalesLeads (free to use) or Salesflower.com (cheap monthly subscription), where business databases have 95% accuracy.

From Foes to Friends

Overall, just relax and take everything in a holiday spirit. If there was any misunderstanding with any customer this is the time of the year to rebuild a stronger relationship. During this festive season, all is forgotten and forgiven, so take advantage and mend any broken bridges.

Make your business stand out to consumers during the holiday season

Posted on | by Emi Lesser | Leave a Comment on Make your business stand out to consumers during the holiday season

Image with title: Stand Out During the Holidays

With every business competing extra hard during the holiday season it’s critical that you make your business stand out. With a little extra holiday cheer you can compete with top businesses. Here are a couple simple but effective ways to make your business stand out.

Holiday Drive

The best way to engage with the community while giving back to it is through a food, winter clothing, or toy drive. Choose a holiday drive you want to participate in and market it to your community. Getting the community involved in helping out others in need is sure to make your company stand out and show you care. Make the drive something personal to your company or your community.

To make your drive even more popular, you can also throw in a discount on items with a donation, such as 20% off your entire purchase with a donation. An example of a discounted drive that Credit Unions participate in all the time is for each can of food donated, they wave one overdraft fee. Customers feel as though they’re giving back to the community as well as gaining something from a business they’re a part of. It shows the company wants to do good in their community. Social responsibility plays a big part in consumers’ decision-making processes.

Send Out Holiday Wishes to Clients

Sending a note to clients during the holiday season can show clients you value them. It shows that even during the busiest season, you’re thinking about them and appreciate that they choose to do business with you. It humanizes your brand and builds loyalty between you and the client. The holiday wish can be as simple as an email saying happy holidays or as personal as a written letter thanking them and wishing them a happy holiday.

Give a Holiday Gift

Along with holiday wishes, holiday gifts are also a good idea to win over customers. Adding a little something extra to your holiday wishes brings even more delight to a customer. You can also choose to add a gift with purchase. It not only entices current customers to buy, it might also bring in new customers who love a good deal. Adding something extra to your already great deals will surely make your business stand out among others.

Give Holiday Discounts

During the holidays, consumers especially are looking for deals. Even if it’s just a small discount or added incentive, make sure you’re participating in the holiday season specials. Consumers will hold out looking for the best company with the best deals. With holiday discounts you’ll gain more customers than you’ll lose in profit. Holiday discounts are also a way to get consumers into the store enticing them to buy even more than just one discounted item. It also gives those who wouldn’t normally buy your product a reason to try it out.

Be Available

You’re obviously going to close down the office or store a couple of times during the holiday season and you should but be sure that you’re not restricting your hours so much that customers get frustrated. Customers want to be able to order at any time and receive customer service during normal times.

The holiday season is the one time a year you should be even more available than normal. Extend your customer service hours during the holiday’s to plant trust in your customers. The more a customer can trust a company to be there and meet their needs when they need it most, the more loyal that customer will become. The holiday season is a very stressful time and having a company that is there to solve their problems at the click of the button is something every customer wants.

If you’re an online store you also want to make sure your business is available without hiccups 24/7, being sure to fix any glitches as quickly as possible.

Charitable Contribution

Going along with social responsibility, a company’s contributions to charity also helps make them stand out. Ask your customers for ideas on what charities to donate to. Asking for their opinions will make them feel like a part of the decision, allowing them to help give back to a charity they strongly believe in. Making donations during the holidays is always a big deal and something people are proud to participate in. Customer’s knowing that their support in your company leads to you giving back to others will make you stand out during the holiday season.

Get started now on your holiday efforts to stand out among others and check out Marketing Ideas for Your Holiday Sales for even more holiday ideas including, holiday-themed offers, discounts, and content.

Marketing Ideas for Your Holiday Sales

Posted on | by Emi Lesser | Leave a Comment on Marketing Ideas for Your Holiday Sales

Image with holiday items and title

When it comes to the holidays, we are all looking for that special offer or bonus to go along with our shopping. As a business this is the best time to pull out all the stops. To reap the benefits of the holiday season, businesses have to pull out all their best offer saving discounts and go total marketing on them.

As a business you’re going to want to take advantage of the holidays. Here are several ways in which you can rock the holiday season and boost your company’s sales.

Once November 1st hits let the holiday marketing begin. We suggest not going full blown Christmas quite yet though. Start out with thanksgiving themed marketing, leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales before heading into Christmas.

  1. Offer and Discount Ideas

    • Offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and promotions. Black Friday is huge and for online only businesses and services so is Cyber Monday. Capitalize on this opportunity.

    • Give out holiday-specific discounts or coupon codes such as entering code TURKEY30 to receive 30% off the order.

    • Offer time-limited sales to convey a sense of urgency. Example: Save 40% on Cyber Monday.

    • Offer free or low-cost shipping. Many people are turned away with the added cost of shipping. Close more deals by shipping for free or giving a discounted shipping price.

    • Create holiday gift packages – packages you can’t get any other time. Put together a package that includes items customers usually buy together or different items you offer that customers could then try out.

    • Offer a free holiday themed gift with a purchase. This will give buyers an extra incentive to buy and entice hesitant buyers.

    • Offer 2-for-1 products. The buyer gets to keep one for her/himself and give the other one as a gift.

    • Send out discounts on future purchases for all items bought during the holidays. Set yourself up for post-holiday success.

    • Team up with another business to create Christmas gift bundles. Combine your product and their product into a gift package.

    • FSL + Infofree offer

    • Send small gifts to your loyal customers. An inexpensive gift like a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine can show you care and puts your business at the top of their minds.

    • Offer flash deals and expedited shipping for last-minute shoppers.

    • Run a 12 Days of Christmas holiday promotion. Offer a different sale or discount or promote a different product each day leading up to Christmas.

    • Hold an advent calendar campaign. Offer a discount on one product per day throughout the entire Christmas season.

  1. Promote your holiday offers repeatedly. Don’t be afraid to share your sales and deals more than once. You want to make sure your promotions reach your potential customers.

  1. Content Marketing

    • Provide holiday-themed information to your target market. Direct social media posts and blog posts to holiday-themed information.

    • Create a holiday landing page where you can display gift ideas or discounts.

    • Update your social media covers to show some holiday cheer.

    • Thanksgiving FSL Header

    • Capture the holiday related search engine traffic by publishing content optimized for the season on your website.

    • Make your email template holiday themed.

    • Send holiday promotion emails with all your discounts. Send one right before Christmas too with last-minute gift ideas.

    • Send emails with your holiday offers including one promotion per email. Space these out accordingly.

    • Find gift guides in your industry and ask for your products to be included.

    • Include a holiday countdown ticker on your site. This will let visitors know exactly what day they need to order by to receive their products in time for Christmas.

    • Send your customers Christmas or New Year cards via mail or email.

Start planning and implementing your holiday marketing now! With your extra holiday efforts you’ll be selling like crazy.

Need more inspiration on how you can stand out to customers during the holiday season? Check out Make your business stand out to consumers during the holiday season for ideas!

Thanks to Kim Garst for the holiday themed ideas!