8 Dangerous eCommerce Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid this Holiday Season

The holiday season is one of the sweetest, if not the sweetest, time of the year for eCommerce businesses. And it is almost here. A lot of your competitors are already on the move, heavily preparing.

With all the excitement in the air, a lot of business owners commit mistakes which can keep them from utilizing the maximum potential that the holidays bring. The following are some of the most dangerous eCommerce marketing mistakes. We have also compiled of what you need to do to avoid them:

1. Recycling your old holiday campaign over and over again

The first one is a classic: you have a favorite campaign for the holidays so you choose to do it again, especially on account that it worked before so it might work again this time. While that may work, say, for a second time, you should definitely avoid making it a staple.

You are given enough time to think of unique holiday campaigns each year so that you may continue to impress your target audience. If you only recycle last year’s holiday campaign, and then do it again in the next, then you are limiting the potential that you may attain from the season.

You have a whole year to prepare for the next holiday – make sure that you craft unique and creative campaigns that are bound to win the hearts of your audience. Capitalize on what is hot this year.

2. Giving out discounts too early

Some of the most typical strategies implemented during the holiday season is giving out discounts. While this is a proven strategy, giving it out way too early does not put you in the best position. In fact, doing this will spoil the holiday seasons for you.

When you give out discounts way in advance, your customers will feel that there is nothing special about your holiday promotions anymore. With that in mind, it is advisable that you put serious consideration in coming up with a yearly e-commerce business plan where you can strategize the best time for you to offer discounted rates each year.

Again, discounts may bring in a lot of potential sales, but calling on them way too early may defeat that purpose because the perceived value of your promotion is simmered down. So, learn the importance of making them wait, then surprise them with truly exciting offers at the right timing.

3. Failing to establish a presence in social media

Social media is a marketing channel that you should not take for granted as it is one of the most effective channels to date. However, your social media strategy should not be just about sharing content and ads, but also about improving your engagement with your potential customers.

Social media offers an excellent opportunity to connect with your target market. There are many ways to do that. However, a lot of businesses fail to treat this as vitally important and take it for granted. They focus on promoting and promoting, without thinking that one good promotion is forging a great relationship with your clients.

Since it is social media, it makes a lot of sense to highlight the social aspect, especially around the holiday. To ensure that you maximize your engagement with your customers for the holidays, the following techniques may help:

1. Respond to customers queries
2. Listen to customer feedback
3. Come up with engaging marketing strategies

If you can engage your target well, they are more likely to become actual customers. And being able to do that during the holidays can help you maximize your potential sales.

Bonus tip: SEO will never go out of style. At least as long as there is google. To put your best foot forward and to make most of what google has to offer, get a creative SEO service provider. In that way, you can focus on your business without having to worry about any extra task.

4. Not utilizing email marketing

A lot of businesses think that email marketing should be extinct. And this is one of the biggest mistakes that they can commit. In fact, email marketing continues to be relevant today, maintaining effectiveness, which is very important around the holidays.

Email marketing is a strategy that can help you realize a lot about holiday sales, but that’s all depend on how you craft your marketing emails. When executed correctly, email marketing can drive traffic to your e-commerce site, while increasing conversions in the process.

So make sure that you strategize your email marketing, and that you execute them at the right time for the best results.

Remember: Email marketing does matter, don’t make the mistake of taking it for granted.

5. Sending the same message over and over again

A bit similar to the first item is when your campaigns repeats the same message over and over again. While it is true that consistency is required, but there is limit to that too.

Make sure that you craft unique, but well-coordinated messages throughout your campaign. But don’t go on saying the same lines unnaturally across your campaigns, especially if this is not your business’ slogan. There’s a creative way to be consistent with what you say so please go with that.

6. Disregarding market and competition research

Something that a lot of businesses, even outside of the realms of e-commerce, fail to do is to have a full understanding of the arena that you are playing on. A lot of business owners overlook the benefits of knowing your market and your competitors.

If you are aware of these things, you will be able to strategize your campaigns holistically. You will know what works for your customers, and you will also be able to come up with better strategies than those of your competitors. To do this, research is vital.

To do this, research is vital. Execute research with the goal of making your strategies the best ones for your target audience, and better than what your competitors offer.

7. Zero customer support

With similar products, and sometimes identical offers, customer support may be the only differentiator that your business has over other providers. But a lot of businesses do not realize its importance.

Customer support is a marketing strategy on its own right. It pushes forward your relationship with your customers, and also address concerns that are hindering them from successfully transacting with you.

With the right quality of customer support before and after sales, you may be able to beat your competitors, especially around the holiday season.

Some of the things that you can to push customer support forward are:

• Highlighting customer-centric messages in the site
• Offering tools that foster communication with you
• Providing after-sale service

8. Not using analytics or tracking

A lot of businesses see the value in investing in analytics. For them, gathering data and insights is a tedious and costly process. Making decisions just based on a pure hunch, or just simulating what your competitors are doing is a uninformed decision. It might work once if you are lucky, but it is not sustainable.

To ensure that you always come up with the best strategies, make sure that you do an analysis. And the holidays are some of the best time to do this because there is a lot of data for you to capture and make use of.

Avoid these common mistakes and make the most out of the holidays

The holidays are almost here, so be prepared. Preparation with the wrong strategies will only fail you. So be aware of these mistakes, and always do your best to come up with the original and creative thought-of plans. Make the holidays the best time not only for your customers but also for yourself with this guide.

The post 8 Dangerous eCommerce Marketing Mistakes You Need to Avoid this Holiday Season first appeared on KnowledgeCenter.