5 steps to get you ready to run Facebook & Instagram ads this Christmas
The last quarter of the year is always a manic time for ecomm businesses like yours.
And, if you haven’t started thinking about your Christmas ad campaigns yet, then there’s no time like the present.
Check out the five steps you need to take so that you have your best Christmas selling season yet.
1. Conduct a stock audit
This is so important. How can you forecast how much you could make if you don’t know what stock you currently hold?
Once you know this, take a look at your data. Which items were your bestsellers, which items were frequently bought together and which items received the most reviews (good or bad)?
It may seem obvious, but double down on your winners. If you know you have products that themselves, make sure you have high stock levels and invest in ads to promote them.
Check your Shopify dashboard to see which products sell well together then create a product set in your cataloge and run ads with these products shown together?
2. Old stock check
Part of your stock check will probably highlight how much old stock you have leftover. This is a problem a lot of retailers have (both online and brick and mortar).
Can you run a sale in September to clear this inventory? How about capitalising on the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend and offer this stock at a discount then?
Another option is to feature these items as add-on items at check-out. Customers may be encouraged to buy them if it helps tip them over the line for free delivery. This tactic will also help boost your average order value.
3. Crunch your numbers
Christmas is a lucrative time of year for online sellers, but it’s also a competitive one.
By knowing your margins, you’ll know which offers and promotions you can afford to make to entice your customers to buy more.
Can you bundle smaller items together as stocking fillers? Or maybe you could offer value by including a handwritten gift card for free (these still have a material and time cost).
Or how about including fancier festive gift wrapping as a complimentary extra when customers spend over a certain amount? The possibilities are endless.
4. Imagery audit
If you sell products online, your imagery needs to be good.
People can’t pick up and look at your products so the images need to be clear and appealing.
A mix of flat lays, studio shots on a blank background and some lifestyle shots are a good place to start.
It’s also worth testing some less polished images. These can do well because they look ‘native’ in the feed. What does that mean?
Well, it means the images look as though someone took them on their phones and shared them with their mates (which is usually the case).
Psychologically, people are nosey and want to see what others are up to, so they’ll instinctively stop to look at these photos.
Encourage your customers to send in photos of their purchases so you can share them organically or in your ads. If they send you videos, even better!
Incentives such as a percentage off can really help get more photos for your ads.
5. Customer reviews
Customer reviews – aka social proof – are what makes selling on social media so powerful.
Word of mouth marketing can transform your business.
Not only can you use reviews as quotes in ad imagery and ad copy, you can also post them on your organic profiles to build trust in your brand. Video testimonials work best because they’re harder to fake.
And here’s one final pro tip for you – always subtitle your videos so that they can be enjoyed by people with hearing impediments and the 85% of social media users who watch them with the sound off!
Conclusion
There are so many ducks to get in a row before you advertise in a busy period like Christmas.
But, by thinking ahead and preparing beforehand, the process will be a lot less stressful and much more lucrative!
If you want to advertise for Christmas, I will be open to new clients until the end of October. Contact me today and let’s get started.
