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Stories are the New Form of Window Shopping

Gone are the days of consumers lackadaisically peeking into stores for gift inspo. Shoppers, especially during the holiday season, are demanding more convenient and seamless shopping experiences. While global eCommerce continues to grow, brick-and-mortar retail stores continue to thrive as consumers still purchase in store for two main reasons: to see products in person and for the emotional benefits. That being said, before going into stores, people are looking for gift ideas on social media. We’ve been talking about the significance of Stories, so if you’ve been waiting to get started, now’s the time!

Facebook’s 2019 Holiday Marketing Guide outlines some key statistics to keep in mind during your holiday marketing planning:

  • 69% of people find Stories on Facebook and Instagram to be a great way to discover and become familiar with new products or services.
  • 62% of people become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories.
  • More than a third of Millenials and parents said videos created by social media influencers helped them choose what to buy.
  • 48% of global holiday shoppers message businesses to find out more details about a product.
  • 43% of global holiday shoppers message businesses to purchase a product.

Stories present a huge opportunity for your business, so make sure you’re utilizing them. Below are some Stories best practices to help keep your business at the top of the consumer’s mind:

  • Post to your Story at least once a day to make sure you’re staying in front of your customer. Use location and hashtag stickers to increase your discoverability.
  • Stories can (and should) be more authentic, organic, and unpolished. Try “behind the scenes” and Live content. People love to see the “human” side of your business and it will help build a connection.
  • Use Stories to showcase what you have going on in the store- post products, limited-quantity items, and event or sale info. Around the holidays, suggest gift ideas to get your followers thinking about your business for their holiday shopping.

Most importantly, have fun with it! Stories are a great tool to connect with your followers. Posting consistent, relevant content will help keep your followers engaged with your business so that come holiday gift-buying time, they turn to you! Share in the comments how you utilize Stories!

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Tips to Draw in Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 76

Christmas Eve is next week, can you believe it? We’re in the homestretch of the 2018 holiday season. If your customers are anything like some of the Social Edge HQers, they’ve waiting until the last minute to get their holiday shopping done. So, we’re sharing some quick tips to help optimize your social content to draw in those last-minute shoppers. You want to do what you can to make sure their shopping experience with you is as easy as possible.

Watch the full episode:

Tip #1: To draw last-minute holiday shoppers, you want to make sure you post gift-guides or gift ideas for the people who are most important in our lives like spouses, parents, friends children, co-workers, host/hostess, etc. Share your top-selling items or most popular customer favorites. Also, if you’re running low on inventory share that information to create urgency. The best way to do this is in a live video.

Tip #2: Another way to draw in last-minute holiday shoppers is to include the price, your store info, sizes available, if they can put the item on hold, and any other important information on the post. Make it really easy for them to know what they’re getting and how to get it. You want to help ease the stress of last minute gift shopping.

Your life might be a little crazy right now, but the little bit of extra effort you put into optimizing your social media content this week can have a big return in your overall sales. You want people to love what they’re buying from you, and to be a returning customer in the future.

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Replays will be available on the blog each week.

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Create a Consistent Brand and Experience: The Modern Marketing Show, Episode 69

Branding isn’t just for big-box retailers. As a brick-and-mortar retailer, you should be working towards building your brand too. Below are the top three reasons why having a strong brand identity is important for your business.

Watch the full episode:

Reason #1: A strong brand improves recognition. Everything from your fonts, colors, and logos should work together to help people online know immediately what they’re seeing is coming from you.

Reason #2: A strong brand creates trust. In a recent study from Facebook, 87% of people said trust and security were the two main motivators for a local purchase. By nature, people are more likely to purchase from a business that they trust. A part of building that trust is by always providing a consistent customer experience. When we know what to expect when shopping at a business, we’re more likely to return again and again.

Reason #3: A strong brand can lead to new customers. When your current customer base is satisfied they’re more likely to refer friends, family, and even that stranger they met in line at the grocery store to your business.  Word of mouth marketing is powerful – think of happy customers as your own personal viral sales soldiers.

People shop from businesses they know, like and trust and branding is essential to making that possible. Now your challenge is to take a look at your business’s brand and ask yourself, “Is my brand consistent online and offline?” It’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to break through the holiday noise and get in front of customers, old and new, in November and December.

You can catch new episodes of The Modern Marketing Show every Monday at 10 a.m PST on our Facebook Page. Never want to miss an episode? Click here to join our list!

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“Tis the Season to be Successful” RDI Webinar Replay- 11/19

Thank you to those who attended our Holiday Marketing webinar on “Tis the Season to be Successful”. To access the replay to the webinar, it is available below.

We are gearing up to the busiest part of the year, so using these tips in any free time that you have can create a majorly successful Holiday for your business.

Do you have your Thanksgiving posts ready to go? How about Small Business Saturday? They are fast approaching! For those of you who haven’t joined Social Edge yet, it may be the perfect time. If you join now, you are able to take advantage of our Holiday Marketing Bundle: done-for-you holiday posts, graphics, templates and campaigns for these holidays and more to simplify your end of year social media.

As an RDI member, you get $250 off our yearly membership. If now is the time for you, click here to sign up. At checkout, make sure to use our coupon code: RDIDiamonds for your exclusive discount!

Any questions on anything, please feel free to contact us at info@crystalmedia.co. We are committed to your growing success!

Let’s rock the holidays!