The holidays are always a busy time for shoppers, especially as they look to find the perfect gift for friends and family. Research shows that 54% of shoppers start researching gift ideas in October or earlier. With the right marketing strategy and tools, you can help them discover your products—and make your holiday sales goals.
The first step in creating a successful gift guide is to understand your audience. To do this, segment existing customers based on their purchase history, product type, and other factors to create gift guides that cater to their needs. For example, you can create a gift guide for women who love fitness or a gift guide for men who are hard to shop for.
Once you know your audience, it’s time to brainstorm ideas and content. For example, creating a “10 Products Your Wife Will Love You For” gift guide can be a good way to inspire your audience and narrow down their choices. In addition, a gift guide that features “The Best Christmas Gifts For Dad” can help buyers quickly pick out the ideal present for the special guy in their life.
Aside from helping shoppers narrow down their selections, your gift guide can also be a valuable tool for inspiring shoppers to buy from your brand. This can be achieved by offering a gift guide discount or promotion on your best-selling products. Alternatively, you can offer a bundle of complementary products that will add value for the recipient while increasing your average order value (AOV).
While the earliest shoppers may be done with their shopping, there’s no doubt that some last-minute procrastinators will still be searching for gifts. This is why it’s important to keep your gift guide visible throughout the holidays, so that it can serve a variety of customer needs.
To attract these last-minute shoppers, you can promote your gift guide on social media and through search engine optimization (SEO) strategies such as keyword targeting. Lastly, you can promote your gift guide using email marketing. Emails featuring gift guides can generate a 48% higher transaction rate than other promotional emails.
In addition to promoting your holiday gift guide, you can also use it to cross-sell and upsell your most popular products. This can be accomplished by creating a gift basket or bundle for each category of your gift guide. For example, if your beauty store’s face cream has been a bestseller, you can include it in a holiday gift bundle with a cleanser and wash cloth.
Lastly, you can also use your gift guide to sell experiences instead of tangible goods. This is because research shows that consumers are increasingly trading in their tangible purchases for travel vouchers, subscriptions, and other experience-based gifts. To tap into this trend, you can use your gift guide to feature a selection of locally made or sustainable/eco-friendly gifts and also include a section that showcases women- or BIPOC-owned businesses.