Fourth Quarter Marketing Yields An Abundance of Opportunity

Fourth quarter marketing yields an abundance of opportunity not only for retail stores, but small business owners, entrepreneurs, work from home parents and anyone looking to create an income online.

The fall weather not only brings a change to the scenery and crispness to the air, but for consumers a change from outdoor family activities to indoor online activities.  Halloween is in the air, yet retail stores have already broken out the Christmas decorations, trees and lights in preparation for exceeding previous years sales.

Fourth quarter marketing yields an abundance of opportunity will share insight on how you, as a marketer, can set yourself up for a successful year end even help carry you through the first quarter of next year!  How the right strategies, education and marketing platforms can help increase consumer awareness and ultimately lead to sales and conversions.

In this two-part series of Fourth Quarter Marketing Yields An Abundance of Opportunity we will cover the ‘Strategies‘ available that you can start implementing right now! Followed by the education and marketing platforms available regardless of product, service or niche.

Fourth Quarter Marketing Strategies

Your fourth quarter marketing strategy should already be in full force or imminent if you are serious about exceeding your previous year’s sales.

Implementing a marketing strategy during the month of October and early November will allow you to fine tune and scale your campaign when online consumers are tuned in the most – Black Friday to Christmas!

Creating a buzz around you or your business and what you can offer your consumers early in the quarter is what you are trying to accomplish.

“…We predict that Black Friday sales (combined Black Friday and Thanksgiving spending) will surpass $12 billion dollars online this year” – BlackFriday.com “Black Friday Predictions For 2019” October 15, 2019

Sales and customer retention are every marketer’s focus, however Brand Awareness and planting those seeds for growth is critically important as consumers re-acclimate themselves to what they missed during their time off-line during the summer and prepare for holiday shopping.

Regardless if you are a small business owner, shopify store owner, ebay seller, Amazon Affiliate, or an Entrepreneur just starting your journey online – NOW is the time to market yourself to the millions of consumers that are going to be online over the next 8 to 9 weeks.

“Fourth Quarter Marketing Strategies To Dominate Any Market, October 2018″ shares a detailed specific marketing strategy that you can implement right now.

Determining which strategy to implement can be somewhat of a challenge depending on your fourth quarter marketing budget.

Whether you target traffic from display media, social media, cpa media or influencer media one critical tool your business needs to use is a sales funnel! The ability to capture your potential consumers email address is vitally important for not only your year-end sales but also building your list for marketing in the coming new year!

Your pre-Black Friday and holiday season marketing campaign’s main objective should be building your potential customer list.  Traffic to your website or offer does give your Brand Awareness and exposure, however if your consumer doesn’t purchase on the spot, you are not gaining the full value of the traffic you paid for.

Special Holiday Promotions

Every advertisement should have some type of special offer that will entice your consumer into giving you their email address.   Regardless of the product or services you offer, create an irresistible offer that your visitor cannot afford to pass up!

Promotional offers from “secret access to our Black Friday ad” to “20% OFF Your First Order” and even “Free Priority Shipping and Handling” are just a few “Enticing” ways you can attract new consumers and customers.

If your business does not offer a tangible product that a consumer would typically order or utilize before Christmas (i.e. insurance, consultancy service) you can still run a special holiday promotion.  A holiday themed advertisement with a special discount/incentive for responding before the year end is a great way to increase sales during this time of year.

The average consumer is not typically looking online between Black Friday and Christmas for insurance, however the right lead magnet can create a different result. Giving the gift of a more secure future (i.e. insurance) is always a gift in itself.

Every additional bonus you can offer your consumer that potentially will save them time and or money online is a win-win strategy.  Having your auto-responder instantly send the special offer as soon as they opt-in to your funnel will ensure that your consumer will add your company or email to their whitelist.  Pre-written emails in your auto-responder can keep your company in the forefront of your consumers thinking as Black Friday and the Holiday season rolls in.

Remember your sales funnel gives you the opportunity to guide your consumer through the sales process without having them get lost or leave before you make that one-to-one connection! Guiding your consumer to the one service, product or promotional offer they need most to make their life easier or better! This is the simplest way that allows Your Fourth Quarter Marketing Strategy to follow up with your consumer even after they have left your website or offer!

Knowing who your competition is and how they are marketing is a strategy that retail giants Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Macy’s and other retail and department stores use.

Why is that important? How can you as a smaller business owner or entrepreneur capitalize on that strategy?  Education is the key to knowing how to find and tap into these resources.  Yet most smaller business owners and entrepreneurs overlook investing their resources and time into educating themselves for a more systematic and strategic approach.  (Internet Traffic Mastery-The Game Changer –June 19, 2018) (ITM) Module 6 Display Media Traffic covers this very topic)

Contests And Giveaways

Awareness of where and how your competition is marketing their products allows you to take a different creative approach that will set yourself apart during this critical time of year.

Consumers know that they are going to be spending, but at the same time saving and getting the most for their money is a priority.

The holiday season is a time for giving and what better way to set yourself apart from your competition than by having a contest or giveaway!  In addition to special promotional offers, contests and giveaways are the icing on the cake.

Placing an order can give your consumer an entry into the contest or giveaway, but having them share your promotion on social media will give them an extra bonus entry!  A win-win for you as well as your customer. They receive additional chances to win and your company gets double, triple and even more exposure!  With facebook, instagram, pinterest and many other social media platforms your exposure can continue to grow.

Famous for their door busters during the holiday season, Target also utilizes the bonus gift card as a way of separating themselves from Walmart and Best Buy.  The consumer not only saves on the item they want, but also has the afforded luxury of the gift card for purchasing something extra at no cost.  Targets policy requires the consumer to use the gift card for a separate purchase.  Thus requiring the ‘guest’ to make an additional separate purchase.  A win-win for the ‘guest’ (they save money) and Target (requires the guest to purchase more).  Targets research and statistics more than likely show the consumer will spend more on an additional purchase – because they are saving ‘x’ amount with the gift card.

Benefiting Charity

The holiday season is a time for giving.  Regardless if you are a business or a person spreading good-will towards others, it is something everyone should do.

If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, you can donate a certain percentage of sales towards local charities.  Letting your consumer know that you give back to the community does make a difference in where they choose to purchase from.  Allowing the consumer to choose from multiple charities during checkout will empower them to make a direct impact on the charity of their choice.

Larger companies typically have a year-round campaign towards donating to charities.  Target is widely known for giving 5% back to communities.

“Target donates around 5 percent of its pre-tax operating profit… to the communities in which it operates. It also gives a percentage of charges from its Target Visa to schools designated by the cardholders. To date, Target has given over $150 million to schools across the United States through this program. Target’s corporate by-laws state it must give 5 percent of its pre-tax profits to charity.” – ‘How much money does Target give to charity each year‘ – April 26, 2017.   Other large retailers make donations to charities, however Target puts an emphasis on letting their customers know that they are not just making a purchase, but making an impact – which in itself is great PR.

As a business owner or entrepreneur developing a long-term charity program is recommended regardless of the time of year!  If you have not yet started a program, this holiday season would be an excellent opportunity to start a program and let your consumers know that a percentage of their purchase will benefit others in need and they will be a part of the kick-off campaign!

Holiday Specific Products and Your Return Policy

Fourth quarter marketing yields and abundance of opportunity for any business to assemble Holiday Specific Products with what is currently trending.  Colors, Flavors, Holiday Themed Gift Cards and even gift wrapping are easy ways to create your own ‘Holiday Specific Products’.

From years in purchasing and in sales – every business owner never has time for that outside (annoying) sales representative that always seems to show up when it is convenient for them and not for you.  Yet because of the season, business owners know that there is something extra from that sales rep, at this time of year.  Their untimely visit is to thank them for the business over the course of the year.  What better way than a company logo coffee mug, t-shirt, pen’s, yearly planners, cookies, gift cards, and the traditional fruit basket.  The key here is to be creative, even if your product or service isn’t a tangible item.  Your ‘holiday specific product’ can be!

With many consumers shopping earlier and earlier each year the Return Policy becomes a great marketing asset!

Typical store returns are 30 days with more retailers extending up to 60 days to cover the time between now and Christmas.  Extended returns till December 31st is an option and albeit an extensive return policy – 90 days should be considered.

Giving your consumer piece of mind that their willingness to purchase from you now will ensure that their gift (purchase) will be backed by your return policy.  Keep in mind having stipulations protecting yourself from mark-downs, flash sales, door-busters and clearance pricing is ok to incorporate into your extended return policy.

Fourth Quarter Marketing is the time to pull out all the stops and use your creativity and rise above your competition!

Staying current with relevant marketing strategies is what separates most from their competition. The typical marketing techniques used in college and university educational programs often is not current with marketing trends which seem to change almost weekly.

The 2nd part of Fourth Quarter Marketing Yields and Abundance of Opportunity will cover education and how to tap into free resources as well as an array of platforms to utilize for additional marketing exposure.

As a marketer the seeds of inspiration have been planted so that you can set yourself up for a successful year end that will even help carry you through the first quarter of next year!

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Part two “The Education and Media platforms” coming soon…(now live 11/08/2019)

As always, my best to you in your search for success and happiness in life!

Rick

CEO Worksmarter4u / Worksmarter4yourfuture.com