The Internet is swarming with Black Friday promotions and Cyber Monday deals. With the gift-giving season just around the corner, it’s time for e-retailers to let people know ’tis the season of social shopping.
But what about Halloween, President’s Day, Easter… Teacher’s Day?! How can digital internet retailers use social networking to capitalize on these special days?
Promotional Creativity
Social media gives you the ability to take some creative liberties to grab the attention of your audience. Reviews, recommendations and “likes” are a few ways to get consumers to follow your page and make purchases throughout the year. Another way to draw attention to your company is through a creative marketing strategy.
For Halloween, Sears created an original marketing campaign with their Zombie Shopper theme. The company adopted a ‘social shopping’ strategy and embraced the important social media platforms as venues for their tactics. They dedicated a Twitter account to help customers shop and even went the extra mile with a “Fitness for Zombies” video.
This campy video is not only entertaining, but it successfully markets Sears merchandise in a funny and engaging manner. Tying YouTube videos, landing pages and Twitter accounts into a single marketing strategy for special days is a great way to impress your audience and make you unforgettable.
Opinion Matters
Ever visit a brick-and-mortar store on Black Friday? Think about the challenge of finding a sales rep with the time to explain the relative merits of any given product.
Now, imagine that once you have chosen a product you stand around the store asking the next twenty random shoppers what they think about your selection.
Supposing you were satisfied, can you imagine standing outside the store raving about your new TV?
This scenario sounds a little cooky, but it describes how our shopping habits have evolved in the age of the internet. With the advent of social shopping, buyers are a mere click away from in-depth product descriptions and customer reviews submitted by friends, family, and random strangers.
As an ecommerce vendor, you can use social media to participate in these discussions and connect with buyers on a personal level. Consumers gain specific information from sites like Facebook and Twitter where they receive notifications about what their community likes and recommends. This practice, in turn, leads a buyer straight to your company’s page or site.
“Liking”
Facebook users in the U.S. spent over 53 billion minutes on Facebook during May 2011 alone.
This makes a corporate Facebook page crucial because it’s an easy way for consumers to connect with your brand on a personal level.
Regarding the importance of a strong social media presence, Justin Rondeau, Director of Marketing at Templatezone, advised that, “Every company should be worried about Facebook. In the B2C space, social media is a good way to talk about new products and promotions as well as build rapport with your customers.
“In the B2B space, social media is a good way of generating leads as well as a great way to show the more personal side of your company. Social media helps personalize brands, because whether you are in the B2B or B2C space, you are still in the P2P space (people working with people).”
A Facebook page is the beginning, but the most important thing is how you interact with the page and how others interact with it.
In an Exact Target study,58% of Facebook users “like” a brand, not to express their emotional state, but in order to gain a tangible benefit from the corporation. It’s important to keep your shoppers updated about the sales and promotions you have going.
Some companies give a special promo just for “liking” their page, which will instantly ignite interest. But keep your customers coming back for more by enticing them with other special deals throughout the year. The more creative you are the more appealing it can be for a customer.
Keystone
Social media is a means to market your business year round. Customers educate themselves while shopping, connect with your brand on a personal level, and you have the opportunity to creatively market your brand.
Gilliam Weston contributed to this blog post
Do you have any success stories of creating unique marketing promotions for special days? Leave a comment below to share.
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This post brought Allstate’s popular “Mayhem” social media campaign to mind.
Agreed. Those commercials are exactly what we mean by “The more creative you are the more appealing it can be for a customer.”
The appeal is evident in the fact that the facebook community created its own page dedicated to these commercials:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Allstate-mayhem-commercials/186885067989050?sk=wall
Thanks for the comment Sarah!