The world as we know it changed in 2020 – redefining the way we work, the way we shop and the way we celebrate with loved ones. With the third wave now upon us, many of these new behaviours will remain the same.
We continued to blow out birthday candles virtually and watch friends get married via Zoom. And while we are gathering wonderful digital memories, the inability to celebrate physically together is inspiring us to find other ways to let people know just how much we are thinking about them.
With time on our hands and no urgency to rush out and find something at the last minute, we are seeing people turn to online platforms and put more thought and effort into the gifting process – from personalised selection and packaging to delivery options. Global searches for “online gift” increased by 80% in 2020 compared to 2019. Gifting has become more significant in the last 15 months, due to our physical distance, and represents an opportunity for retailers, whose foot traffic has taken a knock, to generate much needed revenue online.
A look back at recent online activities over Mother’s and Father’s Day respectively offers great insight into how to optimise your online presence for the next round of holidays or special occasions.
According to Google’s Retail Gifting insights, Mother’s Day gifting search queries showed growth of +13% year on year while Father’s Day gifting search queries grew by a whopping +106% year on year.
With Christmas less than 6 months away, here is how online gifting businesses can maximise their return and get the most out of the online gifting frenzy. Leverage The Power of YouTube
With 24.1 million South Africans logging user visits on YouTube each month – you need to be playing on this platform. With popular searches like ‘make Mother’s Day special recipes’ to ‘Mother’s Day ideas during quarantine’ and ‘Father’s Day gift ideas in lockdown’ it’s clear that consumers are looking for inspiration and ideas on Youtube – and there-in lies the opportunity for your business to find them in their moment of need.
Ensuring your business’s visibility ahead of big holidays and events is important. YouTube’s new events audience targeting option delivers high reach and access to a high accuracy audience, ensuring that potential customers will find you in their moment of intent. With SearchKings™ new technology and ability to build YouTube-ready videos at affordable prices – we are here to help you capitalise on key calendar events. The best time to leverage this channel is now. Make it feel like a holiday
In the days just before a particular holiday, and of course during, you should look to increase your visibility online and take advantage of customer demand. Targeting seasonal buyers with paid search and promoting items on Google Shopping is an effective way to do this.
Another way to capitalise on gifting seasons is by updating your creative ads to reflect the excitement and sentimentality of the holiday using specific promotions to entice conversions and sales. At SearchKings™ Africa, we have a fully functional design team ready to create new digital assets for you, that capture the season and festive mood. Give that data legs
Once the hype and fun of the holiday dies down (and you have sold a ton of stock because you followed our advice) look to re-engage your website and YouTube visitors with things like bumper ads on YouTube and audience-specific Google Display banner advertising. We can help you unpack the data, see what has worked and what hasn’t in the past, and prepare you to take advantage of the next big holiday that comes around.
With the festive season just around the corner, get in touch with us today to ensure you are visible in the right place, at the right time this year to unlock your full business potential during the holiday season.
