How to Survive (and Win) the Post-Christmas Lull

 There’s always a sting in the tail with the annual Christmas ecommerce frenzy. Things are just about as peachy and positive as it gets for a couple of months, after which comes the inevitable lull. 

One of the biggest (and most common mistakes) made by smaller businesses is focusing too heavily on leveraging shoppers’ appetite to spend over the festive period. And in doing so, losing sight of the importance of compensating for what happens next.

Consumer spending always dips massively in January and February – a fact and a reality there’s nothing you can do about. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty you can do to survive and even thrive during this post-Christmas lull.

A few suggestions on how to make January and February slightly less painful for your online business:

1. Launch a Sale

It’s a pretty old-fashioned concept in this day and age, but consumers still cannot resist the prospect of the classic ‘January Sale’. They’ve already overspent during November and December, yet are attracted to January discounts like moths to flames. Don’t forget that your closest competitors are probably planning major January sales of their own, so it’s worth doing likewise.

2. Leverage the New Year Attitude

New year, new start, new opportunities etc. – the New Year attitude that temporarily motivates the masses. At the very beginning of the year, people become determined to improve their personal productivity, clean and sanitise their homes, improve their health, do something charitable and generally become ‘better’ people. All of which can and should be leveraged in your sales and marketing strategy for the New Year.

3. Launch Something New

Most businesses time their new product and service debuts for the spring and summer. They instinctively avoid times of diminished spending, for reasons rooted in logic. However, this also means there’s a glaring gap in anything new and interesting hitting the market at the start of the New Year. If you’ve been sitting on something you think your audience will get a kick out of, why not take advantage while your competitors are hibernating?

4. Get Serious with Email Marketing

Ideally, every single sale you made over Christmas will have resulted in another email address making it onto your list. In which case, there’s no better time than right after Christmas to start working on a serious (and appropriately segmented) email marketing strategy. Too soon to start bugging those who only recently shopped with you? Not at all – it’s always best to reach out to satisfied customers while they remember why they shopped with you in the first place!

5. Stay Active and Communicative

Last up, don’t make the mistake of going quiet and temporarily vanishing into thin air. Due to a combination of fatigue and the fact that business is slow, countless brands go dormant and largely inactive after Christmas. In doing so, they overlook (or are oblivious to) the fact that social media use skyrockets during the darker and gloomier months of the year. Hence, there’s really no better time to engage your audience and take your social media marketing strategy a step further.

October 2020 Latest Digital Marketing Statistics

The time has come for us to once again share a few interesting and important facts and figures regarding the world of digital marketing. This time, there are snippets in their regarding livestreaming, personalisation, the travel industry and more. 

So we’d like to think, something for everyone…with a bit of luck! 

Here’s how things are looking right now in a few key areas of digital marketing:

Live streaming is growing in popularity

First and foremost, new research suggests that live streaming engagement is in the midst of something of a meteoric rise. Compared to the same period last year, the number of social media users engaging with live streaming content has jumped by around 8%. More than ¼ Internet users stated that they have now engaged in at least one live stream on social media.

72% of consumers turn to Amazon to research products

Despite the fact that it may not be used for quite as many purchases, evidence suggests that Amazon has become the number one resource for researching products. In fact, almost ¾ (72%) of people stated that they use Amazon to research products before purchasing them. While 51% stated that they use Amazon to compare prices, around 26% use the information available to compare similar products, read reviews and so on.

Personalisation generates 50% higher email open rates

Once again, there’s strong evidence to support the importance of personalisation when it comes to marketing emails. Even when something as simple as the subject line is personalised, click-to-open rates have been found to increase by a full 58%. Which would seem to suggest that those who are not using personalised e-mail marketing could be letting significant amount of time and money go to waste.

Live TV is on the decline

While the issue itself is far from a new development, it’s becoming clear that live television is experiencing an even faster decline than before. The CTA reports that more than half of all millennials are now watching recorded or streaming television services rather than standard live TV. For over 35s, around 35% prefer this time-shifted content.

Millennials respond better to sales outreach via social media

A study carried out by Bambu found that a growing proportion of millennials respond better to sales tactics in general that are performed using social media. A 35% stated that they would be more likely to make a purchase when product information or industry news are shared by representatives via social media – the total percentage preferring this kind of outreach having increased to 45%.

Only 9% of people use high-street travel agents

Last but not least, it would appear that the long-predicted and somewhat inevitable death of the traditional travel agent has taken a significant step towards becoming a reality. According to a recent study carried out on UK consumers, just 9% of those actively planning and booking holidays now visit traditional travel agents in any way, shape or form. As far as younger audiences go, the figure falls to an even lower 4%. Nevertheless, the same study found that if traditional travel agents were to fully embrace modern technology like virtual reality, close to half (48%) said that they would be more likely to revisit them once again.