9 top festive sales tips for small businesses to boost customer engagement

How to create festive offers
(Last Updated On: August 12, 2022)

The Indian festive season is here – a 4-month celebration everyone is looking forward to in the wake of a pandemic. Businesses are gearing up to meet the demands of over 150 million online shoppers, with festive sales campaigns and offers – and so should you.

This festive season will be different. With the pandemic taking over the economy and hitting businesses, shoppers may step cautiously and only purchase what they feel provides value to their buying behaviour – and festival spirit.

According to a detailed study conducted by InMobi, India will see a few shifts in online shopping trends during the festive season. For example:

  1. Over 52% of shoppers will be purchasing online for household and family members
  2. Over 7% of online shoppers will spend more than ₹50,000 on online shopping this, beating last years 4%.
  3. 54% of online shoppers will spend less than 10,000, a lower figure from over 58% shoppers last year.
  4. The most popular online shopping category during the festive season is for clothing and apparel.

Your customers eagerly await your products – not a thousand advertisements with the same messaging.

So, what can you do?

In this blog, we will show you:

  1. 9 marketing tips for best festive sales campaigns
  2. How to set up an online store to kickstart festive campaigns
  3. 3 ways to boost engagement online for customers without spending any money

9 marketing tips for effective festive sales campaigns

  1. Target tier-2 cities

  2. Add a twist to the ‘buy one, get one’ offer

  3. Focus on mobile marketing

  4. Sell something new

  5. Leverage content to inform, not sell

  6. Easy checkout process

  7. Offer loyalty programs

  8. Increase brand collaborations

  9. Take care of social media well

#1 – How to target tier-2 cities to boost festive sales

Snapdeal, an e-commerce giant in India stated that 65% of the orders placed for Diwali this year have been from sellers located in tier-2 cities.

Snapdeal also expects 80% of orders from non-metro cities to be shipped within a day, whereas metro cities can expect a 2-day transit. With the logistics industry getting back in motion post COVID, tier-2 cities are placing more orders than before for products and services via online shopping sites.

Festive sales India - go forrester
Image credit – Go Forrester

Tier-2 cities have seen a spike in online buyers over the last few months. With an increased number of metro dwellers moving back to their home towns, demand has increased for festive offers in these areas, post-COVID. A third of the population has not moved back to metros, due to work from home regulations. Therefore, when considering marketing campaigns for your audience, do not overlook the folks in tier-2 towns.

#2 – Add a twist to the ‘buy one, get one’ offer

This has several variations. The festive season sentiment is strong with Indias, despite the pandemic. And a majority are not in the mood to be bombarded with advertisements.

So, our suggestion is to tread lightly. Here’s what you can do to divert from the cliche marketing and advertising tactics during festive sales –

  1. Stick to short time offers. Keep a 1-day offer for brands, but unlike the terrifying Flipkart one billion sales, stick to small er goals. Offer a small discount or clearance sale on gifts, just for the weekend. This helps you regulate orders too.
  2. Go beyond discounts. Categorise and discount niche items meant only for festive occasions.
  3. Reduce abandoned carts, before sending promotional emails. Here’s an effective way to do that.

#3 – How to use mobile marketing during the festive season

Mobile marketing enables brands to push the right kind of festive sales campaigns for customers.

According to the InMobi study, mobile dominates every stage of the shopping journey, with over 63% of customers using their mobile devices to learn about new products and over 62% completing a purchase on mobile, after seeing an offer from the brand.

Here’s a complete guide to mobile marketing for small businesses in 2020

#4 – How to sell new products for boosting festive sales

Don’t hesitate to launch a new product in the midst of a festival month. During this time, customers want to buy something unique and special for their loved ones, so shift from only selling them products that are 50% off, and introduce new products.

For example –

#5 – Leverage content to inform, not sell

Use content wisely. While several brands are weighing in on sentiments and catchy tagline for the coming festivals, sway from the norm and instead use different content promotion tools that will keep your customers interested.

Follow these quick content hacks to increase conversions to your website/online store:

  1. Focus on your SEO – Ensure that your landing pages have the right keywords for customers to find your store.
  2. CTA buttons – go crazy with easy to understand Call-To-Action buttons on your store/ product page. P.S – You can create pay buttons on Instamojo and redirect customers to your payment page.
  3. Mention any discounts or offers in the product page only. Focus instead on talking about your brand’s campaign. For example – list out how your brand is taking extra precaution this Diwali/Dussehra to ensure safe delivery to your customers.
  4. Publish blogs and guides about your new products, and write a story. Increase customer testimonials during this time.

#6 – How easy checkout increases purchase decisions by 20%

Remember our point about mobile marketing? Now imagine a person wants to place an order via a mobile browser and is almost about to buy the product, but then finds out they need to sign up for the product. They will not spend time to fill in their name, address, email, receive an OTP etc.

They will become an abandoned cart customer. We do not want that.

Therefore, allow customers to pay quickly using a Guest mode. Allow them to leave only their email id and shipping information before they make payments.

#7 – Offer loyalty programs to customers during festivals

Understand and identify your customers’ needs at the beginning of the buyer journey. As a small business, your sole focus should not be to sell your product alone, but your brand message too.

tanishq festive sales

Therefore, reach out to existing customers and offer them exclusive coupons and discounts – not new or prospective customers. Let them believe the festival spirit of showing your loyal customers that you care enough to give them first preference.

#8 – How to build brand partnerships during festive sales campaigns

Do you sell sarees? Collaborate with a jewellery brand to sell your products together as a festive package!

Believe us when we say that 2020 is not the year to indulge in competition, but in community building. And the festival is the perfect way to communicate that belief. Indians are smart shoppers, and they know the tricks of the marketing teams in every company they buy from.

What they wish to be shown is how the pandemic made these brands they are loyal to, change. How did the pandemic shift or help pivot their favourite brands/products?

Communicate that to them.

#9 – How to use social media to boost festive sales

Were you wondering how you would reach tier-2 cities to board them as resellers? Through social media!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Diwali decoration. #swastika ❤️ Can be placed at center of doors/each side of door or at home temples to add colors to your diwali decoration this year. Can be customised in different designs. DM to order. @fevicryl acrylic Colors & @littlebirdiecrafts varnish from @itsybitsycraftstore Dotting tools from @amazondotin Mdf base from @mdfartindia Waterproof and dirt proof. Has double layers of varnish coating done on it. . . . . . . . . . . . #dottingart #dotting #dotmandala #dotmandalas #mandala #acrylic #acrylicpainting #homedecor #diwali #handmade #craft #mandalaart #mandalaartwork #keychains #dottingtools #mandalaartist #dottingmandala #dotmandalapainting #crafts #decor #decoration #diwali2020 #keychain #mandalalovers #handpainted #diwaligifts #vocalforlocal #golocal #dotwork

A post shared by Craft & Art (@craft__n__art) on

Besides offering discount codes, coupons and conducting giveaways, use social media to show you as a brand will be celebrating in the festive season too. A brand humanised is a great way to get customers to believe in the quality of your products or service.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by The Better India (@thebetterindia) on

Create shoppable campaigns on social media. Increase links, swipe up options and keep customers engaged with polls, contests and quizzes.

Social media is running amok with bright festive colours. Help yours stand out by getting closer to your customers.

Festive Offers with the Instamojo premium online store

Set up your Instamojo premium online store to avail the most easy-to-use festive offers, available only to our sellers. With our online store, you can –

  1. Collect dropped-off leads and low conversion customers with the leads manager app.
  2. Send promotional emails via MailChimp
  3. Send SMS and email campaigns promoting festive offers to different cohorts of buyers and sellers.
  4. Allow customers to pay you online via multiple online payment modes
  5. Spruce up the festive decor on your website with over 20+ themes
  6. Add SEO to your online store with festive keywords and allow your customers to find you easily. The video below will guide you to do just that.

Create an online store

2 comments
  1. Thanks for share this blog. this blog is very help for new startup business. this blog is easy to understand.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.