If you’re looking forward to the holiday season, then you know just how lucrative holiday shopping can be. When you market your products to your target market using gift guides, you give them a hassle-free way to find exactly what they’re looking for. You may be surprised to find that many consumers are actually looking for guidance exactly like this.

During Christmas, people go all-out to find the best gifts for their loved ones. Holiday shopping deals are a huge favorite among consumers, and they play a significant role in improving customer engagement and loyalty.

Most people turn to online shopping when they look for Christmas deals, New Year’s shopping deals, Valentine’s Day deals, and more. It helps people find a curated list of everything they could possibly need – all in one place.

Customers were asked how they would shop during the holidays, and nearly 59% said that they would prefer online shopping, while 36% said they intended to visit stores. Some of these shoppers also combine online shopping with retail shopping.

In 2020, online shopping is set to be the more popular option. And this means you need a strong online marketing campaign to create awareness about your products and boost sales. A gift guide is a powerful online marketing tool that can easily convert a reader into a buyer within minutes.

Shoppers typically don’t invest the same amount of thought and insight into every gift they buy. While they may pay more attention to what they get their near and dear ones, acquaintances and colleagues get more standard gifts. However, this doesn’t mean that they want to appear as if they haven’t put any thought into their gift.

This is where a gift guide can help. In the gift guide, you highlight your preferred products and include what makes them great gifts. Someone who doesn’t know what gift to purchase can find the guide through social media or a Google search. If your content marketing is convincing enough, you’re very likely to get a new customer from the process.

People look for all kinds of gift guides online – from wedding gift ideas to birthday gift ideas. Your gift guides can expand beyond seasonal marketing and become a regular part of your digital marketing strategy.

Pros:

• Increases brand and product awareness.

• Increases reach to a larger target market.
• More customers are expected to spend online, so focusing on online gift guide marketing is more profitable.

Cons:

• Need to create multiple gift guides.
• Is a constantly updating content marketing strategy where you need to create new gift guides as new products arrive.

Even if you create a great gift guide, you need to make sure that it reaches people as well. You shouldn’t expect people to visit your website, find your gift guide, and then read it. You need to actively take your gift guides to your target market. This is where a comprehensive online marketing strategy should help you. Your strategy should include:

• Social Media: Gift Guides are great shareable content, especially around any gift-giving season. It’s a good way for consumers to recommend products to friends and family, and for brands to highlight their bestselling products.
• Email Marketing: Add your holiday or seasonal gift guide to your emailers and newsletters when you send them out. If you segment your recipient list and send them customized gift guides, your conversions could increase more. This also increases customer engagement and loyalty.
• Mailing List: If you use a mailing list, then send out a physical copy of your gift guide to all your customers. Include the season’s bestsellers, and highlight any special deals or offers.
  Your gift guides should always be free. That’s why an online gift guide is an inexpensive way to increase customer awareness about your products. A few physical copies are okay, but focus your gift guide campaign on online marketing.

Pros:

• Inexpensive yet effective.

• Increase customer base and develop brand loyalty.

Cons:

• Need to be consistent on social media.
• Gift guides tend to become irrelevant when the season passes. Then you’ll need to make a new set.

There are two primary categories of shoppers you need to target with your online marketing campaign. The first of these is the early bird shopper. These shoppers start early and plan ahead.

In the week between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, people spent $28.5 billion on purchases in the United States. Most of this came from Early Bird Shoppers. They spend more money and often want to find only the best gifts.

Here is where a specialized gift guide can make all the difference. Some examples of these include ‘gift guides for bosses’, ‘gift ideas for colleagues’ or ‘best gift for him/her’.

Almost 60% of shoppers start their Christmas shopping before November ends. This means that you should constantly be rolling out gift guides during this time, ideally a few every month.

Last-minute shoppers, on the other hand, wait until the Christmas is just around the corner to purchase. They may be waiting for the best deals or trying to find the perfect gift. You can solve both these problems by gifting them a free online resource that points out the bestselling products from your brand.

Create gift guides for different price ranges, early shopping deals, late shopping deals, and more.

Pros:

• Opportunity to showcase new and old products.
• Hype up deals and discounts to increase conversions.

Cons:

• Limit customer choice by selecting curated products.
• Sales of other products may not be at par with listed products.

Mobile searches for gift guides start early. For the Christmas shopping season, the search begins right after Black Friday. It goes on till the week just before Christmas. Similar narratives exist for other seasonal events as well. Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s shopping, these holidays all lead to an increased search for ‘gift ideas’ or ‘gift guides’ in the weeks leading up to the celebration.

Pros:

• Target market with specialized gift guides.
• Boost sales during seasonal holidays.

Cons:

• Limit target market to only those celebrating the seasonal holiday.

The Chinese New Year is the perfect time for seasonal marketing. Chinese consumers spent around $149 billion in 2019, and the number is only on the rise with each passing year.

Online marketing and seasonal advertising ideas will help you take advantage of the season and rake in the same profits that many big businesses already do. Brands like Gucci and Apple regularly use seasonal marketing to reap the harvests of the Chinese New Year.

What is the Chinese New Year?

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, is roughly a two-week celebration that takes place at the beginning of spring.

The strong tradition of gift-giving and merriment makes the Chinese New Year an unmissable seasonal marketing opportunity for any business.

Create an online marketing strategy that’ll help you increase sales during the next Chinese New Year!

10 Seasonal Marketing Ideas for the Chinese New Year

Your seasonal marketing ideas for the Chinese New Year must be carefully drafted not to affect the cultural sensibilities of the Chinese citizens. To do this, you must integrate the traditional customs of the Lunar New Year with your own seasonal marketing strategy.

Here are ten good marketing ideas for the Lunar New Year:

The Lunar New Year is all about tradition and family. Your content marketing strategy should make use of these feelings of home and warmth to market to the audience. Apple does this very well. Every year, they release a digital advertisement that focuses on a story the people can resonate with.

Pros: 

• Keep customers happy.
• Showcase brand awareness about the Lunar New Year.
• Specifically target people looking to purchase products during the Lunar New Year.

Cons: 

• Potential to hurt sensibilities if done wrong.
• Collaterals from digital marketing campaigns can only be used once.

When people travel to their homes during the Chinese New Year, it’s known as ‘Chunyun’. It typically takes place a few days to a few weeks before the Chinese New Year begins. This is a time where you can take advantage of the increased spending in retail shopping, especially among expats.

Pros: 

• More people who celebrate Lunar Year are online, increasing the number of the target audience.
• Potential to increase brand visibility.

Cons: 

• People are busy and looking through multiple options.
• Less lead conversions despite heavy traffic.

Integrate the animal the year is themed after in your branding. In 2020, it was the ‘Year of the Rat’. Brands were quick to bring in the famous Mickey and Minnie Mouse to celebrate the year, a great example of seasonal marketing ideas that are relevant and enhance the customer experience.

Pros: 

• Potential to create viral content.
• Increases engagement with customers.

 Cons: 

• Unless you have a deep knowledge of the zodiac animal and Chinese traditions, it’s best to stick to simple concept designs.

During the Lunar New Year, families gift younger members with ‘lucky money’ in red envelopes. Red and gold are considered the symbolic colors of this festival. A simple way to include the Chinese New Year colors into your marketing campaign is by introducing a ‘limited season only packaging’ with red packaging for products. You can even add the option of a gold bow or other decoration. This will really enhance the customer experience.

Pros: 

• People will immediately associate the colors with the Chinese New Year.
• Is advertising in itself as it shows consumers that your brand is also celebrating the Lunar Year.
• Improves customer engagement and builds brand loyalty.

Cons: 

• Can be confused with Christmas if you only use red packaging. A gold accent can make all the difference.

The Chinese youth are also known as big spenders. In recent years, healthy lifestyles and sustainable living have become popular. Not only that, the youth enjoy gifting themselves as well. This is different from older generations who retain a more conservative and community-oriented approach to celebrating. Understand your target market so you can sell to them better.

Pros: 

• The younger demographic spends more on themselves.
• They also tend to be more loyal to brands they like.

 Cons: 

• Missing out on the other demographics.
• Gift buying in bulk for large groups of people absent.

According to the China Internet Report, China has over 904 million internet users. That makes the country and its citizens largely digital. Introduce international shipping, as well as free shipping above a certain checkout amount, to encourage more people to buy from you.

Pros: 

• Gain new customers.
• Compete against local Chinese brands.

Cons: 

• Low return on investment unless the order value is enough to justify free shipping.

Your social media strategy shouldn’t be restricted to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When it comes to China, the platforms WeChat and Weibo are the most important. At the same time, Chinese nationals living in other countries often use Facebook and Twitter. The Lunar New Year is also a major celebration in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, and many others. That’s why your social media strategy should be two-pronged – one for those celebrating inside China and another for those celebrating outside the country.

Pros: 

• Communicate with millions of Chinese customers.
• Specifically target Chinese customers.

Cons: 

• Good knowledge of Mandarin as well as Cantonese Chinese required. Mainland China speaks Mandarin, and places like Taiwan and Hong Kong use more Cantonese. Your digital marketing campaign should come in two sets – one  Mandarin and one in Cantonese. Remember to hire a qualified expert if you don’t speak these languages.

Luxury brands make serious profits during the Lunar New Year. People don’t just like to spend money – they prefer to spend on quality items. Searches for ‘gift deals’ or ‘CNY deals’ are more common than discounts. Focus your online marketing strategy on showcasing deals and bundle packages. Personalized packages are also popular during this time.

Pros: 

• Products will sell faster.
• Good opportunity to clear out old stock.

Cons: 

• New and in-season products make less sales.

Introduce games and events to increase engagement and enhance customer experience. These could be in the form of tagging your brand in pictures with your products to get a prize, for shoutouts, giveaways, and more. You can also introduce products and offers specifically for the Chinese New Year. A bakery could introduce bread or cakes shaped like the zodiac animal of the year. These really increase social media engagement and help brands build a loyal customer base.

Pros: 

• Opportunity to present quality digital marketing content.
• Enhance customer experience through direct engagement on social media.
• Generate brand awareness through content.

Cons: 

• WeChat may be an unfamiliar platform.
• Communicating in a foreign language.

You should roll-out your digital advertising campaign for the Lunar New Year by late-October to early-November. Many people prefer to shop earlier, especially the younger generation.

Pros: 

• Sell stocks earlier and gauge what people are interested in.
• Time and opportunity to modify the online marketing calendar if advertising campaign isn’t working.

Cons: 

• People may get confused with other year-end celebrations like Christmas and New Year’s.

The Lunar New Year is one of the most abundant sales periods and is unavoidable when it comes to seasonal marketing.

Data shows that consumer spending between 2011 and 2019 during the Chinese New Year witnesses a continuous upward trend. Use these seasonal marketing strategies to take advantage of the upcoming Lunar New Year.