More than just baubles
Whilst we can get caught up in the foray of Christmas shopping, what we need to keep in mind when working in digital marketing is exactly how important this time of year is to our clients. £6.8 billion was spent online in December last year, an increase of 18% from the same period in 2009. Christmas is definitely more than just baubles.
The months of November and December can account for a large proportion of a client’s yearly revenue. It is therefore essential that we capitalise on the period, learn as much as we can of the buying habits of consumers and ensure we are more than ready to deal with the influx of potential growth.
The three main shopping days in the lead up to Christmas that should be key in every marketers calendar are:
1. Black Friday
2. Research Sunday
3. Cyber Monday
Brought over by our American counterparts, evident from the naming conventions, these three days are seen as the start of the Christmas shopping period.
Black Friday this year took place on the 25th of November and is so named because it is the day when retailers can return to the black. Shops open early, close late and discounts are the main draw for the consumer. In the US, internet sales totaled $816m (£524m), a 26% gain on last year, according to Comscore. 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Friday and purchases made on mobile devices accounted for 9.8% of all online sales, compared with 3.2% last year.
Research Sunday is due to take place on Sunday the 4th of December which is when the peak of retail search queries takes place before the buying spree of Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is traditionally the first Monday in December, and is seen as when most online consumers make their Christmas purchases. Amazon.co.uk, which received orders for 2.3 million items on the first Monday in December 2010, forecasts shopping will peak at 9pm on 5th of December. However, this year Cyber Monday might have passed on Monday the 28th of November. Visa predicts UK online sales peaked with 4.8m transactions worth £303m on its credit and debit cards. The company processes £1 in every £4 spent in the UK, and predicts that online shopping will be up 12% on this time last year.
In the lead up to Christmas it is essential to know what each of our clients targets are and what metric they deem most important. Whether it be a high ROI or an increase in traffic Christmas is a time when we should aim to improve on this as much as possible.
To achieve this goal as someone working in paid search would be asking Santa for the following items this Christmas:
A good site
A good site is key to conversions. If a consumer can find what they are looking for quickly, gain accurate information and find the product at a good price, they will buy. Not all client sites have this luxury however, but here at I Spy Marketing, we have the resource from our conversion specialists to advise website owners of how best to turn browsers into buyers.
Exciting promotions
Exciting promotions and sales were cited by Google as the top reason why consumers shop on Cyber Monday, they start their shopping early and begin to enjoy the festive season. Savvy shoppers know that the January sales will start as soon as Christmas is over, so many might wait to grab the best bargain. If websites use this knowledge and give a discount prior to Christmas, they are tempting these consumers to part with their money early.
Schedule of all brand communication
All channels of marketing, pr and advertising should be working together to achieve as great an impact as possible and so gaining this knowledge from our clients is so vital. Whether it be television, billboard or display advertising and other forms of direct or offline marketing we need to know what is happening and when. With paid search it is impossible to expect the user to search for a query if they have no previous knowledge of it. However, if a client does not have these resources at hand, here at I Spy we can create display, social and mobile campaigns to raise awareness for our clients. We have the ability to work together to achieve results.
Business Information
Knowing which products are selling well is also a crucial insight our clients have. In paid search we can see which keywords are driving sales, but in some instances not what products the user is buying. By having this information fed through to us, we can upweight campaigns seen as potential revenue drivers and aim for a higher presence for key products. We must therefore aim to access this information by ensuring our clients know exactly how important these insights are.
Budget fluidity
Structured budgets are a good idea year round, but at times when demand and traffic can be utilised, they need to be flexible. If a website has the ability to make more money, for a slight increase in spend then this needs to be made available. By giving forecasts we can hopefully implore this thought to the client who can aim to make budgets more fluid when demand is high and lessen it at low seasonality periods.
But wait…..
There is one more day that marketers must be aware of and that is Christmas Day itself. Whilst we imagine that people are sitting around the dinner table feasting on a turkey, a vast amount of online sales are taking place. Last year, on Christmas Day 2010, £150 million was spent online. Hitwise data shows that whilst footfall grinds to a halt, the slack is taken online.
This can be, in some part, accredited to the increase in tablet computer purchases. Tablet users are more valuable to a website then a pc user as they spend 50% more. In research compiled by Google, 41% of tablet buyers cited shopping as the main reason for purchase. Mobile impressions are also up 751% year on year from 2009 to 2010. Therefore ensure that budgets aren’t going to deplete on Christmas day and that scheduling of ads is done beforehand ensuring no nasty surprises!
So as the scouts might say, Be Prepared. Christmas is important, and not just to see how many mince pies we can scoff.
Merry Christmas!
