Digital Marketing: Tips for the holiday season — already

For retailers of all kinds, the holiday season starts earlier, lasts longer and requires more digital marketing savvy than ever — just to stay in the game.

According to Google, 2015 will be the most connected holiday shopping season ever, topping even last year when 78 percent of consumers used the Internet for holiday research. This year, the number of ways to market your business online has grown dramatically.

Safe Travels: The Mobile Journey

Not surprisingly, all roads lead back to mobile computing this holiday season. Consumers are researching on the go, comparing and sharing, expecting comprehensive information to appear at their fingertips.

In addition, not only do shoppers want to consume information via mobile, they increasingly want to complete their transactions on their mobile devices, securely and easily.

Google projects e-commerce sales will grow 13.9 percent in 2015. Secure payments and efficient, easy financial transactions will be money in the bank this year.

Invest in Creative

The upsurge in mobile computing demands powerful creative that conveys messages at a glance. Make sure images are mobile friendly and that each image has alt tags for better search engine optimization (SEO).

Slow-loading pages are a leading cause of abandonment, so be sure to test your page load times.

Update the creative on your website several days or weeks leading up to major sales and specials. If you are promoting a major sale, particularly if it is a Black Friday or Cyber Monday sale, be sure this information is front and center on your website.

Keep in mind that consumers don't just access your website via the homepage these days. They are just as likely to land on a services page or landing page, so include your holiday messaging on any relevant pages.

Targeted Marketing, Retargeting

Finding the right audience for your products can increase conversions dramatically. While good SEO is vital for organic traffic, targeted ads allow you to drive the most qualified traffic to your website.

With targeted ads, you can segment traffic a number of ways — demographic, behavioral, location and contextual among others.

Often visitors don't convert on their first visit, so that's where retargeting comes in. With this technology, businesses can drop a cookie on a visitor's browser that allows them to continue to serve relevant ads to the consumer once they have left the website.

Retargeting campaigns yield above-average engagement and allow businesses to reach consumers more likely to respond favorably to the ads they are being served.

Social Media, Social Selling

When it comes to your social media updates this coming holiday season, focus on consistent branding, integrated marketing and share-worthy, 'snack-able' content. Plan and make sure your sales and promotions are integrated across your website, paid ads, social ads and other traditional advertising channels.

In a retail twist, 2015 saw some social media platforms — Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram — add tools that allow users to execute purchases directly from their sites. Just last week, Facebook announced a new 'shopping' section where users can browse certain products without ever leaving the site.

Retailers using this feature will have the option of allowing customers to purchase directly within Facebook or to transfer customers to the retailer's website.

This year, consumers quickly will move from finding and assessing product content, images and reviews to making buying decisions.

Tailoring your digital marketing messages to meet the demands of these highly connected consumers will make the difference between winning and losing this holiday season.

• Regina Gilloon-Meyer is a content marketing specialist for Fusionfarm, a division of The Gazette Company. (319) 368-8530, regina@fusionfarm.com, @Regiimary