The winter holiday season is the most anticipated time for shoppers. This year has brought many changes to every industry, so it’s no surprise that marketers bear the responsibility of creating a convenient shopping experience for consumers. Whether it is new product launches or unbelievable promotions, you can create the buzz that’ll bring new and old shoppers through your digital (or actual) doors with some tools you already have in your back pocket.

Before we give you the how, here is the why – Why is it important to think through a solid holiday strategy?

Six months into the pandemic, a study published on October 4, 2020, by CommerceHub shows that e-commerce will be the primary method used to shop for the rest of the year. This data brings us to the reality that this holiday shopping season will be different from ever before. 

With the global pandemic affecting markets, targeting audiences is more critical than ever. According to the same study, 67% of U.S. consumers now find it more convenient to purchase items online than in-store.  Additionally, of the 2,000 U.S. consumers surveyed, 89% plan to continue shopping online the same amount, if not more, in November. With shopping holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday right around the corner, the opportunity to influence buyer behavior has become a race to online advertisement space. 

Since you may be looking to reinvent your holiday strategy to incorporate the pandemic’s impacts on shoppers, here are our ideas about 2020 holiday season strategies to implement.

Understand Your Audience 

Knowing who your audience is won’t only teach you the most effective tactics for advertising to your shoppers or connecting with them but will encourage you to consider their buying behavior when designing a holiday campaign. 

By finding areas where your shoppers engage, be it on the mobile web or through social apps, you can target your audience to experience your promotions or campaigns anywhere and any time of the day. Southern California News Group (SCNG) encourages clients to use mobile-optimized advertising to reach the fastest-growing internet audience, especially during this holiday season. Mobile users are highly engaged and access news or other content on their devices multiple times from when they wake up until they go to sleep. Searches are the key to unlocking consumer demographics and understanding your audience and their consumer behavior.

With e-commerce sales expected to grow 25%-35% during the 2020 holiday season, far outpacing the 2019 holiday growth of 14.9%, there is an increased opportunity for businesses to utilize the digital space’s competitive advantage to attract new holiday shoppers while keeping their existing customers engaged. To do this successfully, create your shopper personas and list specific attributes, including their demographics, such as age range and income or other information like geographic location and buyer behavior, to appropriately target your audience.

Design Your Offer with Consideration

Shoppers are exposed to digital advertisements everywhere they go, especially now since the pandemic led to a drastic lifestyle change for many. More than ever, the marketer’s goals for this holiday season are evident; Get the brand to stand out and lead the shoppers to online/offline storefronts. 

While designing holiday offers, put yourself into their shoes to understand the different obstacles your shoppers might face and think about how you can alleviate those through your strategy. Does your retail website need to be more user-friendly and convenient to complete transactions? How about the payment process? Do your shoppers know about your holiday discounts and offers before they abandon products in shopping carts? Many brands have enhanced their digital store experience by offering discount codes, time-sensitive deals, and convenient “Buy Online Pick Up In-Store” (BOPIS) agreements. Today’s marketing has grown more than ever by changing the perspective to the benefit of the consumers.

Based on these new developments, Forrester projects that the 2020 shopping season will experience online holiday sales boosts in popular gift item industries. 

In contrast, consumer behavior changes to online purchases may cause in-store sales to decline for those same categories significantly. Analyze your industry opportunities while designing your offers to maximize the return on investment this holiday season.

Go Multi-Channel by Getting Social on Every Platform 

When it comes to reaching out to potential customers, the first thing to do is find out where they view content. By going multi-channel, you take on every line of communication between you and the consumer. Does your team have the bandwidth to create a multi-channel strategy, or should you partner with a team of specialists? When looking to partner, consider a full suite agency that can manage your social media platforms and interactions, develop content such as blogs and promotions, monitor your fans, and optimize potential influencer marketing, such as Southern California News Group. SCNG takes a 360° approach to encompass traditional media and emerging digital opportunities. If you have less experience with various digital solutions, like influencer marketing, this is the perfect opportunity to learn more about using social media influencers to amplify your brand to their followers.

Choosing a multi-channel approach creates higher visibility for your brand while making the shopping experience more convenient. Not only is it essential for generating brand awareness, but you’ll also be able to reach many potential holiday shoppers and influence their buying decision through a multi-touch multi-channel approach.

A strong example of this kind of approach is the tech giant, Apple. Their brand invests heavily to understand its customers’ commerce journeys and user experiences, resulting in loyalty and repeat business. The Apple retail stores and e-commerce businesses work together to achieve a majority of their sales. Their stores’ overall experience includes immersing shoppers in the latest Apple products, features, and technology available for purchase and support. With their new streaming services, Apple News + and Apple TV +, shoppers will be using branded products to stream branded content, thus creating a multi-channel Apple experience for loyal Apple customers. 

Digital is the Present and the Future for Marketers and Consumers

Digital transformation is accelerating faster than ever. Uncertainty about in-store experiences is causing businesses to embrace digital avenues. These changes create a necessity to expand website traffic, customer engagement, and online sales. The most effective way to do this is by increasing media consumption from consumers on all available digital channels. 

Having only a user-friendly website may be a great first step, however, embracing digital opportunities is crucial for marketers in 2020. Holiday shoppers are looking for an authentic and personalized digital experience to feel connected to the brands. Which is why

going multi-channel with your outgoing communications is even more crucial now and will amplify your voice and reach on multiple platforms.

There are also many options to synergize your strategies by adding new and innovative products to your brand. Digital advertising with targeted and custom audience features is becoming increasingly competitive for reaching the right customers. Finding new avenues to distribute your message is one way you can utilize your ad space. These methods include banner displays, which are versatile online display ads. These display ads get prompt attention from users and can give immediate access by connecting additional links and content as a tremendous brand-building tool. If you’re interested in admail, try delivering your message right to the audience with email marketing tools and sponsored newsletters. Admail subscribers read relevant news relating to sports, real estate, things to do, and more, in their local area. The possibilities of promoting yourself are as simple as identifying your shoppers and delivering your message wherever they are online this holiday season.

A One-Size-Fits-All Strategy Is Not the Way to Go

Holiday shoppers are looking for the latest products and services to buy this holiday season and marketers have an opportunity to drive sales by localizing marketing efforts. Localizing efforts can mean understanding local cultural values and views to create meaningful connections with shoppers. Understanding audiences is half the battle, and delivering the right message to get their attention builds the brand trust and loyalty needed to have repeat customers.

Social listening is used in localized messaging and can greatly aid marketers in learning how to speak to locals and where to drive their attention. Simply, if you are advertising in Colorado, you might want to focus on local landmarks like hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park instead of surfing on the sunny beaches. Try to keep yourself from alienating audiences by including messaging inclusive and relevant. This effort is how localization strategies can better understand both the shoppers and strategy solutions.

Your business and audience are both unique – so your marketing strategy should be too. There is no one-size-fits-all model for any business, so taking a creative approach to your content and delivery methods will separate you from competitors. Generate sales during the holiday shopping season by taking advantage of all the digital marketing space available to you right now. What’s great about partnering with a full-suite marketing agency is that you have the freedom to create the kinds of promotions that work best with your business. Create content that speaks to each shopper by addressing who they are. Then try to distribute your content where your audience will see it. 2020 has been an unpredictable year for every business and shopper, and with the holiday season right around the corner, are you ready to make your impact? 

About Skyline:

Skyline is Southern California News Group’s in-house Content Studio. We provide our clients with a full campaign support team to develop messaging, build-out creative direction and design, identify formats for content and distribution, and assembling media schedules for promotion. Our suite of services includes Custom Content, Branded Content, Influencer Marketing, Media Planning, and Creative Services.

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Social media marketing is an integral and essential part of any business marketing strategy regardless of the industry.  An important benefit of social media marketing is building brand awareness and increasing website visits. A business that does not have social media accounts that they regularly update are costing themselves potentially hundreds or thousands of website visits. This is especially true during this pandemic period when people are consuming a lot more on social media.

However, not all social media marketing is the same and there are going to be different tactics that are best suited for specific types of businesses. For example, a startup or small business is likely not going to have a huge marketing budget to work with. Therefore, they are going to need to find some cheap digital marketing solutions to find advertising that fits their budget. Luckily, there are plenty of inexpensive ways to do social media marketing, with the following options being the most cost-effective ones that are all but guaranteed to provide a great ROI.

Organic Advertising

Organic Advertising is the most cost-effective social media marketing strategy because it is completely free. Once a business has their basics down, they can start advertising organically through their social media platforms based on their goals and ideal audience. Basics include A corporate account, social media posting calendar, and some follower base. It is best practices to also invite your staff and colleagues to like and follow the company’s social media pages.

Organic advertising posts should be almost indistinguishable from regular social media posts.

The key ingredient to a successful social media marketing campaign is deciding the right platform to use based on the company’s target audience. For example, if a business is trying to target other business owners or executives in their early 50’s or beyond,  they may focus on social media platforms that are more respected among older professionals such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. However, a business that is seeking a much younger audience may want to take a look at using Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook for organic advertising.

Once they create a corporate social media account on their chosen platform, they can then start their organic advertising campaign by creating a series of posts that strategically promote their brand. The important thing is to choose content and posts that bring value to your target audience. In fact, if done properly, organic advertising posts should be almost indistinguishable from regular social media posts. This is the best way to get users to stop scrolling and actually read and click on the advertising post without even realizing that is what it is.

 Before a business expects any significant results from their organic advertising, they need to make sure that they build a sufficient online following first.

As mentioned before, doing this in-house does not cost the business a single cent, however it may be time-consuming to stay consistent with creating good content. If you have the budget for it, a great way to minimize work, save time, and guarantee better results can be to hire a digital media company to create and advertise posts. However, before a small business dives headfirst into using this tactic, they should keep in mind that its reach capabilities are limited. Although organic advertising can be very useful if done properly, it almost never has the same level of benefits that come from paid advertising on social media platforms.

Before a business can expect to see significant results from organic advertising, they must put their efforts towards building a sufficient following first.

Include Videos

Here is an example of a video Skyline managed, shot and curated for our client, Frontier Communities.

Including media is critical at gaining attention when it comes to social media marketing. To create momentum and a loyal following, businesses should consider creating video content. Because of its dynamic nature, video outperforms blogs or posts with images and keeps the attention of a potential customer for long periods of time.

 The best types of video content to go with are explanatory or informative videos that answer questions

Some of the best types of video content to go with are explanatory or informative videos that answer questions about the business’s various products or services, frequently asked questions, or product/service launches. According to Video Marketing Statistics 2020: The State of Video Marketing”, Wyzowl Dec 2019, People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content.

These are effective tools in getting prospective customers to spend a bit more time looking at the business’s content, which makes them more likely to convert into paying customers.  In the same study, 87% of video marketers say video has increased traffic to their website, 81% of say video has helped increase the average time their visitors spend on-page, and over 80% say it helped increase leads and increase sales. 

Creating good video content may not be something that costs a lot of money, it just takes time to do it with purpose and strategy. If a business is willing to dive into video content with a budget, there are many great opportunities to connect with videographers and studios like Skyline that can strategize, create video content and execute effective advertising campaigns on your social platforms.

Live Stream Events

Live Streaming has become a huge part of our work culture since the pandemic hit. Many marketers smartly and timely jumped on the bandwagon to create and distribute content seamlessly to newer audiences.

In some ways, live streaming is just another form of video content, but most marketers know that it is so much more. As mentioned above, a huge barrier to creating video content is the amount of time, details, and energy it takes to shoot the material to tell a story. However, this issue is eliminated when it comes to live-streaming. An added bonus to live streaming is that it is cost-effective.

Depending on the content, subject matter experts, or panelists, this way of content distribution is cheaper than hosting a physical event, and also guarantees higher attention spans from viewers since they have signed up to participate in your content.

One of the biggest [benefits] is […] companies can read customer questions or feedback as soon as it comes up and instantly give them an answer.

There are plenty of other benefits that companies receive from live streaming. One of the biggest ones is that live streaming provides an opportunity for companies to engage with their customers on a real-time basis. Rather than receiving a comment on a post or a review on their site and replying to them a day or two later, companies can read customer questions or feedback as soon as it comes up and instantly gives them an answer. This open dialogue helps to create a stronger bond between the business and its customers.

Live streaming gives people the opportunity to show some more of their personality, which is something that customers can really connect to.

Another big benefit of live streaming content is that it provides a business with an opportunity to show the faces that are behind the products or services. Unlike a lot of explanation videos, live streaming gives people the opportunity to show some more of their personality, which is something that customers can really connect to. Therefore, the more often that a company live-streams, the more likely they are to connect with their user base. In these times, connections are highly important to business longevity.

 In a constantly changing environment, staying at par with the trends of the market is crucial to the success of a business’s social media strategy. Even though there are many cost-effective ways, there are content studios and agencies to consider if businesses have limited bandwidth and some budget to spend.

About Skyline:

Skyline is Southern California News Group’s in-house Content Studio. We provide our clients with a full campaign support team to develop messaging, build-out creative direction and design, identify formats for content and distribution, and assembling media schedules for promotion. Our suite of services includes Custom Content, Branded Content, Influencer Marketing, Media Planning, and Creative Services.

Don’t miss our next blog on Content Marketing. Subscribe here:

Virtual events have existed for quite some time and Skyline is no beginner when it comes to hosting and co-creating virtual events for small to large businesses. 

We recognize the escalating importance of doing virtual events correctly and successfully. When designing a virtual event, keep your customer’s needs at the forefront of your design. Here are some considerations to keep in mind as you design your next virtual event customer experience.

Choose Your Audience Wisely 

When thinking about hosting a virtual event, there are certain key ingredients to ensure a successful and engaging experience.  One of those key ingredients is your audience who you’ll want to invite.

Create an ideal attendee persona – map out their demographics, behaviors, and pain points. Determining who your ideal audience is for the event will lend itself to the types of content you curate, the speakers or experts you invite, and the kind of engagement you desire. Remember, the subject matter experts you choose to collaborate with for your virtual event also bring their network, possibly impacting the influence on your audience — make sure it’s the right influence for your event. 

Connect Them to WHY You Do What You Do

Don’t just jump on the virtual event bandwagon because your competitors are doing so — choose it because you want to engage your audience in a unique, creative, and powerful way.

Connect your audience to YOUR Why. Simon Sinek said, “people don’t care about WHAT you do, they care about WHY you do it”.

Before your audience takes any action or makes any decisions, they must first ask themselves what’s in it for them. Your actions and decisions must always align with the value you bring to your audience.

Succinctly state the value your virtual event will bring to your audience. If they aren’t compelled to learn from you, they will not engage with you.

Consider ALL the Logistical Components

As quickly as you can birth an idea about a virtual event, it can go to the “back burner” even quicker if you don’t consider all the different logistical components tied to the virtual event.

Following is a list of items you need to assign and execute:

• Create a clear and concise virtual event strategy.
  • Choose your audience and subject matter experts to collaborate with
  • Craft a theme and curate content
• Research different mediums to conduct virtual events, and choose the right one for you.
• Develop an event promotions strategy and registration timeline.
• Implement analytics and insights to measure success.
• Schedule the date, time and length of your event

Select the Right Platform and Partner 

Setting up a solid infrastructure for your virtual event is critical to its success. Many organizations/businesses are running low on time, know-how and resources to host virtual events successfully. 

Therefore, finding the right partner like Skyline, who can help strategize content, sponsorships, engagements and other logistics is integral to your virtual event strategy. The right partner can help alleviate your stress around logistics, so you can focus on providing an exceptional experience to your audience.

Beyond just the logistics, choose the right platform for your event. Revisit your WHY, the value to your audience and your overall strategy to determine the platform that’s right for you — e.g. A Live Webinar, Website, Zoom Meeting, etc.

Set Your Event Up For Success

The success of your event isn’t just in the number of site visitors or viewers, but also in the engagement and conversions. 

Many businesses fall short on creating Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (S.M.A.R.T.) goals for their virtual events. 

Keep your SMART goals in mind when designing, curating and creating your event. Map out the customer journey within your virtual event. Be intentional about the subject matter, speaker(s), creative, atmosphere and overall experience you are choosing for your audience. 

By ensuring a rich and thoughtful virtual event experience, your brand can really shine through and elicit successful long-lasting relationships with your audience.

Skyline Virtual Event Inquiry Form

Please fill out the form below and let us help you in your next Virtual Event!

Shane Greer from Campaigns & Elections chats with Kyla Rodriguez of Skyline to talk about branded content and how campaigns are using it.