‘Sales’ - the term that rings in the mind of business leaders and management professionals during the festive season in India. It is a multi-faceted street - brands come up with lucrative promotions, e-commerce platforms launch extravagant sales, and even banks offer purchase benefits to card-holders. All these combining factors lead to an increase in the purchasing power of end-consumers.
Here are some vital factors to consider while planning out festive sales activities this Diwali season -
The Impact of COVID-19
The role played by COVID-19 in transforming not just sales, but entire business processes as a whole has been well-documented. The initial stages were dark, however, resilient brands are seemingly adapting to the new normal, with most traditional norms obsolete now. At first, businesses with an online presence noticed a spike on these platforms, while the lockdown has resulted in growing e-commerce spikes of $52 billion.
Another intriguing fact is that the Indian online market is expected to acquire 300-350 million new users by 2025 with the Gross Merchandise Value to also rise to $100-$120 billion in that period. The upcoming months will notice a deeper focus on experience-driven eCommerce since cut-throat competition will lead players to innovate.
Related Article : Diwali: The Golden Season of E-Commerce
Prepare Your Marketing Blueprint
The festive season in India is a great time to explore marketing avenues and to test the waters. This period is a great opportunity to plan new product launch campaigns on digital platforms to create a buzz when spending capabilities are at an all-time high.
Similarly, based on what you have planned, it’s a good idea to integrate these marketing activities into your social media calendar as well as paid media ad structure well in advance to ensure smooth execution.
It is equally important to make sure that all your resources in the marketing and sales department are well-aware of all the festive processes and campaigns that have been planned out to make the most of this period.
Provide A Seamless Mobile Experience
Optimising your website with targeted banners, landing pages, and keywords for an array of platforms is a must. Creating personalised content - geared for the mobile phone since it is the preferred medium for users will help a great deal in converting users. An effective and sale mobile platform is the key to providing a frictionless platform.
The content should be AMP optimised. AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is an open-source standard supported by Google. The aim of developing this standard was to optimise the loading speed of the webpages on mobile devices. AMP framework serves the mission “to provide a user first-format for web content”.
Increase Visual Experience
With new developments in technology on a daily basis, it is no surprise that methods of content creation are transforming as well. It is estimated that online videos account for more than 70% of India’s total digital consumption, with streaming platforms and social media channels the popular mediums. Video-first strategies are proven methods to tap into customer intent and drive real, measurable results.
Leveraging video content can help users intent through search queries, consumer buying patterns & journey, and targeting the right audience. Visual content can also be leveraged to augment e-commerce pages in the case of product information/tutorials. These elements are likely to facilitate users’ decision-making process.
Leverage Dynamic, Data-Driven Videos
Short, targeted, and informative video ads are dominating the paid media sphere. These highly relevant video ads if planned properly can be the trigger users need to make transactions. Similarly, brands can use live & contextual data triggers like in-store traffic via social ads to increase awareness & engagement.
Personalised video content in the form helps build brand identity and engagement as it adds an emotional and personal touch to marketing strategies. Repeat-sales and customer loyalty can be maximised with a one-on-one personalised video approach.
For example, Diageo created a unique personalised video experience for their customers, by enabling them to record their own bespoke video message for the recipient of a bottle of whisky.
Work On Digital Interaction
While e-commerce has obviously become the norm today, most players are leveraging AR and VR to augment user experience by offering personal and life-like situations during the buying process. This helps recreate the charm of in-store shopping visits. Innovations such as AI can also be leveraged to automate image-detection, video-cropping, and stream adjustments while incorporating the upload & delivery performance.
AI also supports product recommendation functions as well as in the optimisation of personal portfolios. These personalised recommendations show relevant products to the relevant audiences hence making sales efforts more fruitful.
Adopt a 360-Degree Marketing Approach
An amalgamation of affiliate marketing and paid media helps in executing banner ads of special offers or promotions for an instant boost. In the wider scope of paid ads, social media and search engine efforts should be planned out well in advance in terms of budgets, tech support, and content requirements for smooth and timely execution.
Social media channels with quirky and contextual graphics and copy help in user engagement and brand awareness - key supplements to sales during the festive period. Similarly, fan contests boosted by a micro-site can augment your festive efforts as well.
Lastly, it is of great importance to make sure that each social media is aligned in terms of content with the same offers, tone, and call-to-action.
Driving sales during the festive period is obviously the number one priority for all - however, to truly succeed, brands will have to explore different technologies and digital capabilities to make the most of e-commerce. A well-planned and integrated marketing approach covering elements such as social media, website optimisation, paid media, email marketing, amongst others is critical to elevate sales numbers.
Related Article : Boost Festive Sales With AI
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