Attracting Customers After the Holidays

Businesses earn a significant amount of revenue during the busy holiday shopping months of November and December. Check out these four tips to help reengage customers throughout the new year.

Build a Strong Digital Marketing Presence

No matter what your small business’ budget is, you can implement an effective marketing strategy to grab the attention of customers. Consistent posting and quality content is vital. Even after the holidays, you can keep your customers coming back by highlighting the value of your products through the right social media platforms.

Keep your clients engaged by offering targeted promotions and personalizing your advertisements. Email can often be a cost-effective way to communicate these promotions to customers. Beyond email, social media is an excellent method to communicate weekly posts about new products, services, sales, or promotions. No matter what platform you use, by posting quality and engaging content, customers will continue to remember your brand.

Make sure to publish a variety of content when communicating with your customers. Consumers expect brands to create content as well as provide and advertise products. Content creation refers to publishing content that isn't intended to sell a product. This form of content creation is designed to educate readers or provide some sort of benefit to the reader.

For example, an appliance repair store can create content on the best appliance brands to purchase or tips on making appliances last longer. This content does not sell any of their products, but it works to create a relationship and trust with readers. This relationship can potentially result in a future sale. Before posting any content, ensure you have thoroughly researched and fact-checked it.

Additionally, your content should align with the industry in which your business operates. Your target audience will appreciate the content that provides beneficial advice and information. By publishing relevant content, customers will see your brand as trustworthy, resulting in customer loyalty that benefits your brand in the long run.

Adjust Prices for Exhausted Shoppers

After the busy season of holiday shopping, it may be beneficial to lower the prices of certain products to attract weary shoppers. To set the best prices, look to the successes and failures of past sales and promotions. Which sales performed the best? How can you replicate its success? Make sure to check out your competition before adjusting your price.

Create a personal strategy for your business to compete with other product providers. No matter how low your competition sets their price, your small business can offer better advertisements. Strategic timing and placement of your promotions is crucial. Utilize both digital and in-house marketing tactics to promote sales.

As customers await end-of-holiday sales, ensure your employees are prepared for holiday deals. Let them know about product mark-downs and discounts ahead of time. Customers can potentially become frustrated by thinking an item is on sale when it was just misplaced or incorrectly marked. To avoid mark-down confusion, encourage employees to keep the store well-organized and up-to-date. After the busy season, your website may need some light maintenance. Update your website to remove out-of-stock items and discount the unneeded inventory. Following a few simple preparation steps, your business' after-the-holiday sales will be a success!

Embrace User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) can include images, videos, or text featuring your product or service; however, this content is not by a brand’s employees. One of the most popular examples of UGC comes from donut shops. Themed food items and festive donut boxes catch the eye of adoring customers.

These customers often post a photo of these themed boxes on their personal social media. The donut shop did not initially post these images; however, these posts are a form of free advertising. Customers are attracted to natural and genuine advertisements – and there is nothing more genuine than real customers enjoying your product.

Your small business can benefit from user-generated content as an organic form of marketing. Consider standardizing hashtags to use with your products to collect this content. Make efforts to encourage customers to post photos of them with their newest gift from your shop. Offer to repost your customer’s photo on your small business’ social media platform.

The most budget-friendly way to stimulate organic UGC is creating a photo destination at your storefront. By providing an aesthetically pleasing sign or selfie destination (featuring the name of your business), customers will be drawn to post a photo. These photos with the beautiful background have a better chance of drawing more customers into your store. Consider offering an interactive New Year’s Resolution board to offer your customers an experience. Customers will be motivated to share UGC when their shopping experience is fun and memorable.

Offer Top-Notch Customer Service

Customer service can potentially be the deciding factor that causes customers to choose your store over competitors. Microsoft reports “upwards of 90 percent of Americans view customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company.” The holiday season will bring many returns and exchanges, which will have an impact on your customer service staff. Returns can often be an unenjoyable task for customers. It is important to unify customer service standards to make the return process quick and hassle-free.

Providing staff training on the proper protocols for returns and exchanges will ensure the process is seamless. Last but not least, check in with any seasonal hires who might be interested in staying long-term with you. Their mindset and productivity may need to be shifted from seasonal work to full-time employment.

Optimizing the return process takes place in-person and online. Is your website clear about the return process? Reduce phone calls and save your business time by providing web pages that outline each step of the return and exchange process.

Provide quick access to customer service information by placing it at the bottom of each web page. You may also think about adding a frequently asked questions page to provide quick and helpful information. In addition, ensure your website is easy to navigate and mobile friendly. Analyze your website analytics and make improvements where necessary. Developing stronger relationships with your target market can be accomplished digitally. Whether it's a customer-friendly website or strategic social media content, utilize digital marketing to increase customer traffic.