'Net Features : holidays

Five Mother’s Day Social Strategies

Allison Howen — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Sunday is Mother’s Day, which not only means that you still have time to pick up gifts for the most important ladies in your life, but also that brands have put their Mother’s Day marketing campaigns into full force across all social networks.

In fact, every holiday, event and change of season provides marketers with a timely promotional angle. And naturally, all brands take a different approach in their holiday-related campaigns. For example, a retailer typically promotes products as gift ideas, while content publishers create relevant content or contests to increase engagement. Yet, the best and most complete strategies combine multiple techniques in order to cater to every fan and followers’ preferences.

Website Magazine located five stellar Mother's Day social examples to offer inspiration for this holiday and future ones, too. Remember, Father’s Day is just around the corner…

Goal: Get People Talking

Brand: Seventh Generation

Social Network: Facebook

Strategy: Seventh Generation took to Facebook to ask a feel-good question and remind us how important moms are in our lives. The company’s use of an image to assist in asking the question “What is the best advice your mom has ever given you?” certainly grabs fans’ attention better than a text-based post and most likely leads to better engagement rates. Additionally, these fan interactions help Seventh Generation foster better relationships with its customers, as well as helps to increase brand awareness.

Goal: Generate Conversions

Brand: Sephora

Social Network: Pinterest

Strategy: Retailers and Pinterest go together like peanut butter and jelly, as this social network has proven to drive valuable traffic to e-commerce websites. Beauty company Sephora is taking advantage of this influential social network by creating an entire board devoted to Mother’s Day gift ideas. Not only do these featured items take visitors directly to product pages on Sephora's website when clicked on, but many of the images also include the hashtag, #mothersday, in order to increase the product's and Sephora's visibility on the pin boarding social network.

Goal: Boost Follower Numbers

Brand: ExtraTV

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Giveaways and contests are always a good tactic for increasing your social following, so why not combine these promotions with a timely event? Not only does this strategy from ExtraTV help the brand obtain more followers, but since the company asks for retweets, it also increases their visibility. Plus, this strategy will ultimately leave the two winning followers very happy.

We're giving away 2 @bfflco gift bags for #MothersDay! Follow @extratv & RT this message for your chance to win! bit.ly/MDWin
— ExtraTV (@extratv) May 7, 2013

Goal: Increase Brand Awareness

Brand: Google

Social Network: Google+

Strategy: Another feel-good strategy comes from Google, who has chosen to use Sunday’s holiday as a way to shamelessly promote its very own social network. That said, this video is very relatable (almost a tear-jerker), and truly shows how technology can be used to connect with the most important people in your life.

Goal: Improve Visibility and Engagement

Brand: Beats By Dre

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Advertisements are always a good way to increase your brand’s visibility, but Beats By Dre takes this strategy a step further by using an interactive and timely Promoted Tweet to reach new audience members. In fact, once someone clicks on the link to make a #Pillconfession (Pill is the name of one the company’s wireless speakers), they are directed to the company’s website where they can explore products and interact with the #Pillconfession campaign by posting a Mother’s Day confession either on Twitter or Facebook. Additionally, visitors can view the confessions of other consumers at the bottom of the webpage, which features an interactive collage of tweets and posts.

Got a #pillconfession? Make yours on beats.is/PillConfessTW. Apologies to moms everywhere! twitter.com/beatsbydre/sta…
— Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre) May 2, 2013

Five Post-Holiday Strategies for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:16:00 GMT

It's safe to say, the 2012 holiday season has proved to be profitable so far, as consumers spent $33.8 billion online as of Dec. 16, which is a 13 percent increase compared to the same time last year according to comScore. Moreover, the last week had four individual days that exceeded $1 billion in spending.

But all good things must come to an end, and although merchants should stay focused on the last stretch of the holiday rush, it is also time to start preparing post-holiday strategies.

This is because the period directly after the holidays can be a great time to sell excess merchandise, entice people to redeem their gift cards, attract consumers to shop who are at home and haven’t yet gone back to work, as well as start preparations for the 2013 holiday season. Discover five ways to make the most out of the post-holiday period below:

Entice Consumers with Email

Many retailers launch end-of-year sales on Dec. 26, and while email is a great way to spread the word about these sales, merchants should also leverage this channel to target specific customer segments.

For example, merchants can start sending bounce back coupons to consumers that made purchases during the holiday season. These coupons will entice customers who have made previous purchases to come back and make additional purchases after the holidays. Furthermore, merchants can send coupons to customers who made wishlists on the merchant's website earlier in the year. Sending an email with a message that states – “We hope you received everything on your wishlist, but just in case Santa forgot something, use this coupon for 20 percent off your next order.” – will surely bring in some customers who didn’t receive everything they wanted this holiday season.

Switch Up Advertising Campaigns

Don’t be one of the merchants who forgets to turn off his or her holiday campaigns. Instead, it is best to prepare ahead and have end-of-year sale campaigns ready to take the place of holiday campaigns.

The best way to do this is to create strong promotional campaigns around sale and clearance items that merchants want to push off their shelves. By doing this, merchants are publicizing in-stock merchandise so customers won't be disappointed with ads that contain out-of-stock products. Additionally, this strategy also entices deal-seekers to come browse products both online and in-stores.

Stay Engaged with Social

Many consumers are still at home recovering from the holidays during the last week of December and the first week of January, which means that this is prime time to engage with these consumers via social networks.

Not only should merchants use their most popular social profiles to promote end-of-year sales, but they should also engage consumers with interactions, content and contests. One of the most important things merchants can do is respond to customer questions and comments via social media during this time period. This is because these interactions at best can lead to sale opportunities and at worst lead to a stronger relationship with the customer – which makes this a win-win strategy. However, merchants should also consider using social media to launch flash promotions after the holidays, such as “the first five check-ins of the day receive a free gift,” as well as contests and giveaways that will keep customers active with the brand.

Attract Traffic with Daily Deals

Although the daily deal industry isn't as popular as it once was, merchants can attract traffic both online and in-stores by launching a post-holiday deal. Running a daily deal can not only help retailers acquire new customers and increase conversions, but merchants can also build deals around excess inventory, which will help them clear the shelves for new products in the spring.

Clean Up and Organize Data

After the holiday dust settles, it is time to evaluate all of your campaigns and get organized for next year.

In fact, merchants should analyze the performance of merchandise, advertisements and promotional campaigns for every channel, including the traditional Web, social, mobile and email. Once this data is sorted through, merchants will be able to build on the best performing campaigns and throw away lackluster strategies for the 2013 holiday season. By completing this step right after the holidays are finished, data will still be fresh on a merchant's mind, which will lead to better organization and preparation for next year.

Facebook Ads a Sure Bet for the Holidays

Allison Howen — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:45:00 GMT

If your business has been contemplating launching a Facebook adverting campaign, this upcoming holiday season could be the perfect opportunity to do so.

This is because a recent study from digital ad management platform Marin Software reveals that many consumers turn to Facebook during their hunt for deals around Thanksgiving time. The “Online Marketer’s Guide for the Holidays” study gathered holiday trend data from Marin Software’s more than 1,800 advertisers, with the results showing that Thanksgiving weekend produces five of the top six shopping days of the year for online advertisers.

According to the study’s data, in 2011 online advertising revenues surged during the days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. In fact, Black Friday obtained the highest return for marketers who acquired 300 percent more revenue from paid search ads compared to 2010, followed by Cyber Monday which received a 260 percent increase. These increases indicate that more consumers are looking for holiday deals through online search, which also proves how important it is for retailers to coordinate their campaigns with the holiday season.

However, the study also shows that Facebook holiday shopping trends in 2011 were similar to the paid search statistics – with Facebook-originated ad revenues also increasing during the Thanksgiving weekend. This means that in addition to search, consumers are also turning to Facebook to find holiday deals. Additionally, it is important to note that one of the study's most surprising findings revealed that Cyber Monday actually returned a higher level of revenue than Black Friday for Facebook advertisers in 2011.

"The pressure is on for retailers heading into the holiday season. Based off of what we saw last year, the stretch between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday will be critical to retailers' success as shoppers become increasingly attuned to promotional events during the holidays," said Matt Lawson, vice president of marketing and partnerships at Marin Software. "Similarly, Facebook is an advertising channel that smart marketers should not ignore as our data shows the social site taking on search-like characteristics during the holiday season."

Sync Inventory to Save Time and Money

Allison Howen — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:00:00 GMT

The holidays are quickly approaching, which is why Vendio just launched new software to help merchants increase efficiency and profitability during the year's most popular shopping season.

According to the Vendio Spring 2012 Survey, merchants would like to save money, save time and have added control over their items on the two biggest marketplaces – eBay and Amazon. This is why Vendio’s Fall Seller Release 2012 aims to help merchants save money with discounted USPS postage, save time with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and catalog match and publish, and improve control with enhanced inventory sharing across marketplaces and online stores.

The Vendio Fall 2012 Seller Release includes:

Enhanced Inventory Sharing – Inventory quantity is automatically adjusted across selling channels when an item is purchased.

FBA Support – This enables merchants to manage inventory simultaneously from the Vendio interface wherever items are listed.

Enhanced Amazon Match and Publish – Merchants can match items from eBay, an online store, or from a spreadsheet to the Amazon catalog in bulk and publish them to the Amazon marketplace.

Discounted USPS Postage and Integrated Label Printing – Merchants can purchase discounted postage, print labels, insure packages, communicate tracking numbers to buyers and automatically sync information with eBay and Amazon.

Mobile Optimized Scrolling Gallery – This scrolling gallery is automatically optimized to render on mobile phones, hand-held devices and tablets.

"Today's most successful merchants ensure they promote their products to consumers wherever and whenever they shop online,” said Mike Effle, CEO of Vendio. “Vendio's fall release enhances seller profitability by simultaneously offering products across a seller's website, eBay, Amazon and Facebook. Further, our Rules Engine takes product offers down automatically when no more quantity is available to prevent unintentional overselling, thereby increasing buyer satisfaction and improving buyer feedback."