There’s no better time to think of how to optimally plan your content marketing plan for the fast-approaching holiday season than now. As brands gear up to devise an outlay that can make a difference, we’ve taken a moment to centre down on one aspect of effective marketing that often get’s overlooked – personalization.
To be personal is to be mindful. When a marketer sits up and takes notice of what’s working and what isn’t for his campaign – beyond a robotic-ally placed CTA or free shipping, he can responsively pay heed to what his audiences are actually asking for. Today’s audiences have seen just as much evolution in the sphere of online marketing as the sphere of marketing itself. The buyers are just as aware as the sellers, and being ordinary just doesn’t cut it.
This is where adding that personal approach to holiday marketing plans factors in. Being impersonal and attentive to what your consumers are actually looking for works far more profitably in the long-term for businesses, more than just building a plan that meets sales-targets and profit margins.
In this article, we take you through these very facets of a well-intended marketing plan and why it ‘s truly a brilliant holiday marketing idea for the season.
It helps you avoid false urgency and creates an actual reason to buy.
Online shopping has seen it’s inception and evolution starting from the 90’s, which makes it more than a decade since it’s here. Likewise, the audiences have gotten used to the good-old ways of traditional holiday marketing as well. The contemporary scenario demands a more insightful shift into devising content that leads the way for these audiences – which is content that truly conveys a message and drives action.
Branding isn’t limited to just your name or logo, but it goes out as an extension of how your brand feels to the audiences. In a time where content can be a brand’s biggest tool, and if not used optimally can also be the biggest downer for a brand’s equity – marketers cannot afford to produce content that’s just show but no feel.
Your branding is an all-encompassing measure of your web presence, communications, and the product or service you offer. So simply equating it with a good looking marketing strategy doesn’t match up to a good feeling one.
Some good ways in which brands are siding with this need-creation approach through their campaigns today are – personalized user experiences, gift guides, shopping assistants and more interactive mediums like contests, polls, and quizzes which let the audiences take more active part in the brand’s campaign.
A good example of a brand bringing their A game to the sphere of personalization would be Stitch Fix.
The clothing brand brings in a refreshing take by treating it’s buyers as not just buyers, but as individuals – governed by their own likes, preferences, and feedback. Shoppers can take the liberty to pick what suits them best by splurging from the brand’s personalized style recommendations and curated wardrobes.
Makes more space for a content-driven approach.
When brands make way for content that is more audience – centric and can actually be of use to it’s consumers, it creates more scope for a ‘customer-first’ attitude. This approach goes a long way in letting your buyers know that you’re listening.
A good example of brands making effective use of their social media and web content to get more interactive with the audiences would be – Rover, for it’s well defined web outlay and an even display of everything that it has to offer for pets and their well being.
Using content-driven strategies as part of their holiday marketing campaigns especially will make us see more of brands that take their audiences’ personas and needs in actual consideration, and not just for generating a bunch of leads.
Expert Tip –
”Personalize Your Advertising. Make your e-Commerce platform as personable as possible. Use copy, content, and colors that rekindle your physical store’s aura. Provide large, clear, and vivid photos of your products with a background that accurately depicts the items’ real-life sizes. More importantly, feature photos of your staff interacting with customers front and center on your website and social media channels. Use more raw video content. It feels more genuine than ultra-edited clips. “
– Jon Torres,
Digital Marketing Expert
It enhances the overall user experience.
A well-thought of user experience shows.
For instance, holiday-inspired CTAs (call-to-action) work brilliantly in getting your customers in the holiday spirit. Similarly, adding holiday themed banners and boldly-highlighted greetings also play a part in encouraging the buyers to browse through the deals of the day.
Festive messaging which uses the right colors and a well balanced text-visual ratio in ad copies have also proven to do wonders in getting the audiences be a part of the festive spirit. Brands like – Slack and Rover are well known for making good use of the right imagery, design and interactive tools to create a more thoughtful shopping experience for their users.
With the right kind of imagery, initiating holiday-giveaways is another great way to create a more interactive space for the audiences. This not only helps to create hype for the brand’s initiatives but also stir excitement, and generate better engagement opportunities for shoppers.
Another great example of a brand making ample use of personalisation to amp up their user experience is Spotify.
The music streaming giant’s ‘Discover Weekly’ playlists are a curious amalgam of an algorithm that creates a user’s ‘taste profile’ based on their listening behavior.
YOU get to choose how to represent your brand.
Representation matters.
It is said that great branding is the most important currency a company can have. People purchase a brand’s products for not just it’s face value but also the story and emotional value attached to them.
Most of the top-tiered brands today convey their values and core ideologies through nearly every aspect of their marketing campaigns.
Travel brand Secret Escapes for instance, has made a remarkable name for itself in the sphere of creating personalized experiences for it’s audience – in nearly every medium they choose to share their brand through. The site collects a user’s typed keyword history and search behaviors to personalize it’s on-site experience based on the same patterns. Not just this, the copy and images on the site are then customized to match the purchase intent of the user.
Creates a long-standing influence over your audiences.
Audiences keep in mind brands that keep them in mind.
When a brand makes it known that it cares about what the buyer is looking for, there’s a special connect that the audiences form with the business – which is beyond just business.
During the immensely profitable holiday marketing season, it only makes sense to convincingly market a newly adopted brand voice, or special offers right in time – to avoid having a disjointed customer experience.
Nike’s signature – “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” goes a long long way in establishing a unifying, powerful emotional connect with the audience it caters to. Not only do such brands capitalize on the emotional aspect of buying a product, but also makes a compelling case for why it matters to create marketing campaigns that inspire, not just sell.
Wrapping up, it’s quite evident to learn how essential a little tinge of personalisation can be, for building a marketing campaign that stands out.
We hope these insights have proven to be helpful to you, and you keep us in mind while devising your up-and-coming holiday marketing campaign for 2021!
