Consumers spent $886.7 billion during the November-December holiday season in 2021.

In total, holidays can account for up to 40% annual revenue for retailers.

So with all of that in mind, retailers need to make sure they’re taking full advantage of the holiday opportunities.

Here are 7 ways you can succeed in driving more sales during the holiday season.

1. Start Now

In the current climate, retailers are facing issues with too much inventory and too little economic cash flow. To help combat these issues, many are beginning Black Friday sales as soon as October. Start implementing your holiday marketing now so that you don’t miss the boat.

Examples of retailers beginning Black Friday sales as early as October:

• Target:
  • “Discover new deals each week”
  • Example: 30% off cookware
• Amazon:
  • “Early Black Friday deals”

2. Build Anticipation

Build anticipation for your holiday events like Black Friday and Christmas by teasing your audience ahead of time. Let them know what to expect so that they look forward to it.

In 2021, Mobile Text Alerts platform users sent 57% of their Black Friday messages before the actual day of Black Friday.

Of users that sent pre-Black Friday messages, they sent an average of 3-4 messages before Black Friday.

3. Take Advantage of as Many Marketing Channels as Possible

The more you can put yourself out there, the better. Take advantage of SMS, email, social media, and any other marketing channels that you feasibly can. Consider the stats below:

• 95% of marketers say they know how important multichannel marketing is for targeting
• 72% of consumers say they would rather connect with brands and businesses through multichannel marketing
• Only 14% of organizations say they are currently running coordinated marketing campaigns across all channels

4. Use Effective Copy

Speak your customers’ language as much as you can. Know your customers inside and out through surveys, reviews, testimonials, and interviews, and speak to their desires and pain points.

Example: "Now’s the perfect time to pick up that new pair of premium, ultra-comfy leggings you’ve been wanting. Why? Because all leggings are 30% off THIS WEEKEND ONLY. Stop by or shop online: [link]"

5. Automate as Much as You Can

Most marketing tools will have automation options to help make your life easier. Pre-schedule your campaigns ahead of time so that you can frontload your work, and then focus on actually selling when the time comes. Consider the stats below:

• 82% of marketers use automation to create triggered emails
• Only 44% of marketers use marketing automation for social media management
• Only 25% of marketers use automation for SMS marketing

6. Use the Power of Texting Responsibly

Texting has read rates as high as 98% and therefore is one of the most effective ways to communicate. Use it, but don’t send too many messages. Only send texts your customers actually want to receive.

(Marketing emails have an average read rate of only 21.5%.)

7. Include Trackable Links

Without attribution, you won’t know what’s working and what’s not. Use trackable links in your marketing messages to help track the success of your campaigns.

In a sample of 90 Black Friday-related texts sent by Mobile Text Alerts users, over 70% of them contained a link of some kind.

Another study indicated less than 50% of companies were carrying out attribution on “all or most” of their marketing activities.

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With reported ROI opportunities as high as 2,000%, text marketing in particular is an underutilized and powerful tool to help you really reach customers and get better results for your holiday marketing.