With this Christmas expected to be the busiest for retail sales for five years, retailers can still take the lion’s share of online sales this festive season by complementing their offline activity with aggressive integrated digital marketing.
We’re officially on Christmas countdown, there’s only four shopping weeks left until the big day and both our e-retailer and bricks and mortar clients are ramping up their online marketing activity to drive customers to their sites and through their doors.
Why now, you may ask? And, what impact can online have in such a finite period of time?
The beauty of online is the speed in which campaigns can run and take effect. Provided advertisers have their assets ready, rich media campaigns for example can be up and running in 72 hours. There is no other medium during this crowded and competitive time, where ads can be placed and launched so quickly. Again the force put behind these campaigns can vary depending on what other factors are going on behind the scenes and what budget is available but generally this concentrated period of time now is earmarked as ideal for securing crucial share of voice online.
General online activity increases at this time of year too with many consumers either buying gifts online or researching best prices and delivery times. Targeting them with online ads which are not only well targeted to their demographic but creative and engaging too will either encourage them to make an on-the-spot purchase or help build brand with them for when they’re ready to buy.
We work with a number of fashion brands who are targeting specific product lines and increasing activity now so they enjoy the lion’s share of Christmas party dress sales, they utilise a number of tactics within their ads to not only capture their audiences’ attention through engaging video, creative and audio content but via bespoke signposting to drive visitors to their website and social channels.
This year we are seeing a much more cohesive approach to online. This welcome move illustrates how brands and marketers are considering how their integrated marketing works, so, their online activity fits around their television and print advertising schedules to ensure the customer is regularly touched by the same brand message across a number of different mediums. Brands are also massively increasing their investment across tablets and mobile too so again when moving from device to device the customer can still be reached.
In this final hour there are still great strides to make online. Those brands who are hungry to win sales and eyeballs now and build brand for 2014 are aggressively targeting customers online. And who can blame them? With UK Christmas sales expected to hit an all-time high for the past five years, there is an excellent opportunity now to garner customer loyalty particularly as consumer confidence increases.
By Ian Vint, Managing Director at Regital.
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