Holiday season is about to start, in fact, it has already started and this calls for creating your Christmas search marketing strategy. Christmas is the most anticipated and awaited festival of the year; it is a time when people from all walks of life go a step beyond in making the day truly special for them and their loved ones. You have the chance to make the most of this holiday season through implementing an extraordinary Christmas search marketing strategy.
In this regard, you need to acknowledge the latest and biggest trends that are currently influencing Christmas search marketing. The reason being that these trends will largely influence or rather dominate buyers’ preferences this year and you will be missing out on a potentially big chunk of consumer sector if you remain unaware. Believe it or not but this year holiday sales are expected to soar by 4% in comparison to last year’s percentage. This means, consumers might be excessively price conscious.
This is why you need to update yourself about the newest tricks of the trade. People have already started marketing in utterly innovative ways. There are strategies targeted towards enhancing the local reach of holiday campaigns and there are tactics for converting consumers to new products such as Local Inventory Ads. Hence, marketers and retailers are already gearing up for launching their holiday search marketing strategies and you cannot afford to stay behind. So, let’s check out the top Christmas search marketing trends for the year 2019.
People are Preferring to Shop Online:
In 2018, online holiday shopping reaches an all-time high with a 16.5% increment from 2017 as people shopped for a whopping $126 billion. This trend seems to dominate the Christmas search marketing trends this year too and Cyber Monday is the time when people shop online the most while last year the online sales touched the lowest mark on the eve of Christmas.
Buyers are searching for Holiday Gifts Earlier than Expected:
If we examine Google Trends, it becomes apparent that this year holiday gifts searches have started way earlier than marketers expected. Evidently, people are thinking about holiday shopping quite seriously, which is a good trend provided that you are ready with your Christmas search marketing strategy.
Research suggests that holiday search keywords started increasing as early as September. It is worth noting that on Google, holiday shopping searches tend to decrease considerably post 15th December. This means, you don’t have infinite time left to run your holiday search marketing campaign.
To further benefit from their holiday search marketing, retailers are offering exclusive online promotions and discounts so that eager-to-spend buyers find it difficult to resist shopping from them.
Retailers are using Google’s Local Inventory Ads more this year:
Retailers are choosing to upload their inventories on Google and apparently, Google is earning higher revenues this year if we assess the company’s year-by-year performance. People search for items using Google and the company mines websites to provide buyers instant access to their required products. But, this year is different because there is a sudden and rapid dominance of Local Inventory Ads.
For your information, it is a local addition of Google Shopping. Using Local Inventory Ads, retailers can easily upload store-level inventory into Google search and redirect shoppers looking for specific products to their storefronts. A similar outcome is achieved through using Products option in Google My Business where retailers can upload pictures, prices, and details of their offered products. Although it is important for retailers to retain local presence on Google throughout the year, but it becomes mandatory when it is time for Christmas search marketing.
Time to Test New Google Shopping:
The New Google Shopping offers a unique experience for the buyers but it’s viability in the holiday season is yet to be tested since the service was rolled out recently. Perhaps, this year we will get to see the performance and outcomes of the revamped Google Shopping experience as merchants and vendors are eager to use it to enhance their holiday sales. But what’s new in Google Shopping?
Well, as per the reports and announcements made by Google, the upgraded version of Google Shopping offers many new options for both buyers and sellers. Such as it notifies shoppers about their preferred products and even personalises suggestions. Moreover, buyers receive price alerts and can directly purchase from the seller using the Google checkout system.
Additionally, local stores can be identified and located through a simple search for the desired brand or product. This means, the new Google Shopping offers shoppers an exclusive, customised, and quick shopping experience. This is why retailers are eager to see the results of their Christmas search marketing on the new platform because nowadays, consumers want personalised and hassle-free shopping experience both physically and online, which Google Shopping definitely offers. Hence, you might find many of your favorite brands and merchants’ stores on Google Shopping this holiday season.
Personalised Shopping- Using Different Approaches for Christmas:
Gifts giving habits of people are totally different for different festivals and occasions. This trend is particularly observed when people shop for Christmas. This is probably the first time that this aspect is noticed and retailers are trying to design their Christmas search marketing strategies quite differently. Retailers need to understand and evaluate the gift giving patterns of people and identify the key differences in order to create dedicated and attention-grabbing marketing strategies.
As per the findings of Microsoft Advertising, it is much easy to convert Hanukkah shoppers than Christmas shoppers since around 70% of the Hanukkah shoppers got converted the same day while 70% of Christmas shoppers took several days to place their orders. Therefore, retailers need to give Christmas shoppers a longer window for conversion during their campaign and boost their visibility through in-market audiences to attract Hanukkah shoppers.
Gift Guides Glorified….. Finally:
Gift guides have always been there but their productivity in turning leads into customers has only been recognised of late, which is why it is currently an upcoming category in search marketing. Nowadays, shoppers intently check out the lists of gift ideas as they get to know what sort of products are available and whether the store offers something for every member of their family or not. This trend is totally logical and it makes complete sense that it is gaining momentum as the holiday season has started because people want to do easy and quick shopping.
The primary reason why people choose to shop online rather than in-store is to make shopping comfortable and convenient. However, the main problem they face is to manually search for available options by checking out all the categories and the products listed on several pages. This makes their shopping experience problematic and time consuming. On the other hand, in a brick-and-mortar store, they can quickly take a glance and identify if the store has what they are looking for.
However, gift guides tend to eliminate this complexity by providing shoppers a clear idea about what are their options and which products to choose. These days, a majority of marketers are uploading their online gift guides with bespoke links and ad copy.
