With holiday shoppers accounting for as much as 20% of a small business’s annual sales income, YOU need to get your business ready for success by planning in advance.

Facebook is the leading social network and their advertising platform (Facebook for Business) will give you a great ROI as long as you prepare, and know exactly how to target holiday shoppers.

SHOPPING TRENDS

Throughout 2016, we have seen more, and more shoppers turning to mobile commerce to connect with a brand online, and spend money throughout the holiday season.

After doing some research, Facebook found the following.

1. BUYING BEGINS EARLY

40% of online shopping for the Christmas season last year had started by the end of October. Being able to action a plan to capture these early shoppers is crucial.

2. INSPIRATION SEARCHING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Millions of Social Media users are utilising search capabilities as a source of present/gift inspiration. With Facebook and Instagram being a huge source of this inspiration, you need to be using adverts to target the on-the-go shoppers using their mobiles.

3. BLACK FRIDAY

An average of 26% people who shop online worldwide will spend money on Black Friday. This is no longer an American tradition; the rest of the world including the UK are spending money on Black Friday.

4. SELF-GIFTING

Over 50% of people who shop online, actually buy gifts for themselves. Everyone deserves to self-indulge and buy themselves gifts and this is becoming more and more popular amongst affluent customers.

5. TREAT MOBILE SHOPPING DIFFERENTLY

Someone purchasing a product/service via their mobile phone will have different wants/needs. 72% of mobile shoppers will consider delivery time over and above anything else.

FACEBOOK FOR BUSINESS PLANNING GUIDE

Facebook have created a planning guide to attract as many holiday shoppers as possible in 4 simple steps which I want to share with you today.

1. BUILD BRAND AWARENESS

Facebook believe in building momentum in the months leading up to the holiday shopping season and I have to agree. Raising awareness before you start marketing is a great way to get your business in front of your target customer. If it takes a potential customer on average 7 “touches” of your business before they buy, you need to use this first step to get as many “touches” as possible.

Here is how to meet your objectives, according to Facebook for Business:

• Timeline: Start Now
• Targeting: Core Audiences
• Campaign objectives: Brand Awareness, Video Views
• Key tools: Run adverts across Facebook and Instagram; Video retargeting
• Advert formats: Image, Video, Slideshow, Carousel, Canvas

2. FINDING NEW CUSTOMERS

After you have taken action on step 1 and have started to build brand awareness, you then need to finds way to increase the amount of customers you are reaching. Using a lead advert for lead generation purposes is a great way to upsell when the time comes to do this.

Here is how to meet your objectives, according to Facebook for Business:

• Timeline: September – October
• Targeting: Lookalike Audiences
• Key tools: Facebook pixel, Lookalike Audiences
• Advert formats: Carousel, Lead adverts, Video, Image

3.DRIVING SALES

Right now is the time you should be driving sales. You might be late to build brand awareness, but if you’re not this should have already happened. This means you have got your business in front of new customers, generated leads which you can then market your products/services to, as well as create Custom Audiences which you can target to through a carousel advert inside of Facebook.

Here is how to meet your objectives, according to Facebook for Business:

• Timeline: October – December
• Targeting: Custom Audiences
• Key tools: Facebook pixel, Custom Audiences
• Advert formats: Carousel, Lead adverts, Video, Image,Dynamic adverts

4. REMARKETING

When you are successfully marketing your adverts to those who are interested in buying your products, you then need to remarket to your most valuable customers to capture more sales. This is what I like to call a customer retention strategy. You can achieve this by using a Custom Audience based on website visitors, then retarget to them with an advert featuring products you think they might be interested in.

Here is how to meet your objectives, according to Facebook for Business:

• Timeline: November – December
• Targeting: Custom Audiences from your website visitors and mobile app users
• Key tools: Custom Audiences from your website, Retargeting
• Advert formats: Carousel, Dynamic adverts, Image

I hope the above 4 step holiday shoppers planning guide by Facebook for Business will help you achieve more sales around the Christmas period.

Do you already have a Facebook advertising plan?