In everything we do, we need to do it on time or earlier than the usual to avoid the rush. If you are running a business, you might be aware that the Holiday season is fast approaching! We must prepare early to gain an edge against our competitors. If you want to get ahead of this year’s holiday season, there’s no time to waste. Whatever business you’re in, you need to get your industry’s equivalent of the holiday wreaths, lights, and ornaments ready to roll out in a strategic way.

If you’re still not in the holiday fever, let’s run down through some statistics that will send you planning with your marketing team!

• Last year’s holidays was indeed a happy season for e-commerce sites with a 20% increase in online holiday sales.
• Is your website accessible across all devices? Why your website must be responsive? Did you know that 50% total holiday traffic for mobile devices? Expect these figures to go up this year as more people are using mobile phones instead of their desktops for many functions.
• What’s the point of preparing early? Let these figures speak for themselves: 47.9% sales came on or before Cyber Monday and 25% of shoppers start purchasing before Halloween. That makes up around 72% of shoppers purchasing items even before the holidays!
• A word of caution though, if your site isn’t prepared for the holiday rush as early as now, you might miss out the demand. 40% of shoppers leave the site that took more than 3 seconds to load,

See? Shoppers prefer to shop online for its convenience; they can shop anywhere they are at any time of the day! 92% of shoppers went online to check or purchase a gift for the holidays. Online shopping also provides better price most of the time from the maker or seller without a third party. They can even have more varieties without transferring to different malls. Sending gifts is, even more, easier and price comparison is even made easier online. That’s why promoting your business online could play a crucial impact to your sales. And if you are wondering which holidays to market your business on, look no further, we’ve compiled the important holiday e-commerce marketing dates for you to prepare sales, promotions, and email marketing campaigns around. So save these dates in your marketing calendar!

Important Holidays in E-commerce Marketing

October 1st – Buy British Day

Buy British Day manufacturer introduce their products to the market to educate people why British products are pricey, showcasing the high quality of goods produced in the U.K. and letting the quality speaks for itself justifying how it becomes so expensive and high-end at the same time.

If you’re a British marketer, this is an important day for you to prepare, and if you want to participate in this event you can find information and support from Best of Britannia.

October 9th – Canadian Thanksgiving Day

Like the United States, Canada also gives thanks for its good fortune every year and population also prepare a feast for the get-together of the family. The holiday might not be as big as the celebration in the United States but the Thanksgiving weekend is a popular time to gather with family, so more people are traveling on that weekend. It is of great importance for an online seller to post their products earlier for the benefit of the shopper this is also the best way to give gratitude to your past customers by giving them discounts and promotions.

October 31st – Halloween

During this holiday, people usually entertain spooky items like fangs, scary toys, and decorations, horror movies, and songs, props for treats and treats etc. Selling scary or spooky products would actually mean a big sale on the part of the marketer. But even if you sell graphics, this is a big date since people are looking for great posters, flyers, and scary fonts. And those elements will fit perfectly into your email marketing campaign.

November 11th – Singles Day

Single’s Day is an entertaining festival widespread among Asian countries to celebrate the fact that they are proud being singles. This is when single people — people without romantic relationship or significant other — celebrate being single by partying and engaging in intense buying. November 11 was chosen because (11/11) is all number 1 which resembles individual that is alone. During this festival, the online shopping day in the world reached its records highest spending in Alibaba alone to over $ 14.3 billion US dollars. If your product reaches Asian markets, this might be the perfect day to soar high.

November 23rd – Thanksgiving Day (United States of America)

The United States celebrates their Thanksgiving Day later than Canada to celebrate the National Day of ‘’Thanksgiving and Praise’’. This is traditionally a day for families and friends to get together for a very special meal that often includes turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, pumpkin pie, and veggies. This is the time where families and friends spend time with each other. The festivities also mark the opening of the Christmas shopping season and as an online marketer, we must be ready for this. Once again it’s a big day for graphic sellers as Thanksgiving is a big day for selling promo materials. And of course, those elements can be a part of your email marketing campaign.

November 24th – Black Friday

The day following the Thanksgiving Day in the United States is Black Friday. Since 1952, this day is regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and most major marketers open very early and offer promotional sales. Being a four-day weekend, there is an increase in the number of potential shoppers and describe it as the busiest shopping day of the year. On a sales report for 2016 prepared by Practical Ecommerce, they discovered that “consumers spent $1.93 billion online in the U.S., an 11.5 percent increase over last year but below Adobe Digital Insight’s $2 billion projection.”

November 27th – Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the marketing term for the Monday after the Thanksgiving Day in the United States. The term “Cyber Monday” was created by e-commerce marketing companies to encourage shoppers to shop online. This was first introduced by Ellen Davis and Scott Silverman last November 28, 2005, in Shop.org press release entitled “Cyber Monday Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the year.” According to a report by Adobe Digital Insights, Cyber Monday has set a new record with its whopping 12.1 percent increase in sales from 2015, amounting $3.45 billion spent online. Email marketing is at it’s highest peak in the whole year.

November 28th – Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday or hashtag Giving Tuesday for purpose of hashtag activism, refers to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It is the movement for an international day of giving at the beginning of Christmas and holiday season. This was started last 2012 by the 92nd St. Y and the United Nations Foundation as a product of commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season (Black Friday and Cyber Monday).

December 11th – Green Monday

Green Monday is an online retail industry term quite similar to Cyber Monday. The term was pioneered by eBay too for its best sales in December this is also referred to as the second biggest day for online holiday shopping.

December 15th – Free Shipping Day

During this day, big or small participating online stores offer free shipping charges for any purchase. This was created to cater people who don’t want to spend their precious time shopping in crowded malls and paying high shipping charges for online purchases. Through this, you can be sure that your gift will be delivered by Christmas time to your loved ones free of charge.

December 25th – Christmas Day

Christmas day is one of the most celebrated holidays in many Christian countries around the world when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. This is the best time of gift giving and one of the busiest times of the year. Some establishments are closed during Christmas since it is not wise to spend the day shopping than spending the holiday with families and friends. And don’t forget to get some great looking Christmas fonts for your emails.

December 26th – Boxing Day

This is the holiday celebrated the day after Christmas Day. It originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in different countries that were previously a member of British Empire.

January 1st – New Year’s Day

It is the beginning of every year that people usually celebrate. It is a bounty feast with lots of food and loud sounds can be overheard. Definitely, an important day to greet you loyal consumers and let them know you remember them at the start of the year.

February 4th – Super Bowl Sunday

It is a championship game that is played annually by the NFL or the National Football League. And as they said in the US, NLF is the highest level of professional American football.

February 14th – Valentine’s Day

The 14th day of the second month of the year marks the romantic holiday that showcases different couple and their love for each other. It is important to send your costumers to lift them up and elevate their moods.

Guide to Running a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing is the foundation of all the successful business out there. It engages and attracts new potential customers online. This email marketing is the primary tool and since this platform can help you in crafting engaging contents, personalizing your messages and much other more, the most important part of it is the maintenance of core customer relationship.

Choose the Right Service

In order to achieve the success of your email marketing campaign, you should know first the services that are appropriate and the things you need to acquire. Always remember that the key to your success is based on the right approach you will do. Some of the basic text-based email editors that you are able to find are fully designed HTML or JavaScript templates that a package can provide as a feature.

Know Your Audience

It is important to know your audience first because it is where your format in making an email would depend on. Knowing your target audience is also necessary, in some ways, especially on considering what kind of techniques or how you should construct your email which includes the manner on how you should write the headline and what are the different functions that you should and should not put inside of your email. You can get these insights from your Analytics dashboard; you’d be surprised at the range of interests and demographics of your audience.

Add Personal Touch

Adding a personal touch to your email campaign would be a great idea. Consider making one using your hand or a video and add a personal message to your audience. This will make them feel special and remembered. Aside from these holidays, make the most out of it with birthday discounts. You can also curate their wishlist and update them whenever a discount that coincides with a holiday sale pops up. This will help build anticipation on their part and give them the sense of urgency to claim the limited-time discount that you offer.

Change Content Constantly

It is important to change the email content constantly. Imagine if you receive an email that contains a message that you have been hearing over and over again, isn’t it boring and too plain? Your customer might feel the same way over time to the point that you no longer interest your customer. Your emails should include updates to new promos and discounts, or new product arrivals and bestselling products you want to promote. Make it a point that it’s something fresh and informative!

Take Advantage of Important Holidays in E-commerce

When you’re in the e-commerce industry, your marketing calendar should always be up to date. This should be like clockwork on your schedule. You’re going to miss out on a big opportunity if you haven’t prepared well for the sudden influx of customers on the holiday season.

The best thing to do before the influx sets in is to benchmark all your data to properly gauge how your preparation has affected your performance during the holiday season. Email marketing is a powerful tool to lure your customers in. Yes, it is indeed important to acquire new customers, but a big chunk of your sales will still depend on your returning customers. This is where email marketing comes in — to remind your past customers that you have still something more that you can offer up your sleeves, especially this holiday season.

To wrap this up, let us not forget to celebrate and appreciate the true essence of these holidays despite the busy schedule. It might be important to keep on doing your job to make money but make sure that you make time to stop for a while and feel the true meaning of the existence of holiday season.

Author Bio:

Kenneth Sytian is the head honcho of Sytian Productions Web Design in the Philippines. His no-nonsense approach to design coupled with his vast creativity is a winning combination for his clients.

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