Increase your sales potential this holiday season

Build your audience with an awareness campaign

Awareness campaigns are powerful tools for introducing your company to new customers. In such a competitive digital marketplace, making your business stand out from the pack can be tricky, but it’s not impossible. You’ll just need to be strategic and creative when designing your ads.

Before you launch the campaign you’ll need to establish your target audience. You likely already have a pretty good idea of who that might be, but Mailchimp’s client relationship management software can help you get specific audience data—such as age, location, and engagement patterns—from previous customers. Double down on that data with analytics from your social media profiles and Google Analytics so you can have a clear picture of who you’re trying to reach.

When developing your awareness campaign ads you’ll want to focus on communicating your business’ differentiators, which could be your brand’s story, how your products are made, or the unique benefit you provide for customers. Regardless of what they might be, Mailchimp’s social media ad builder lets you craft static ads, carousel ads, and GIF ads that will help you creatively express your brand’s value.

Analyze campaign data and make adjustments

Once you’ve run your awareness campaign, it’s important to take a look at the data so you can see what worked, who engaged with your ads, and how to plan a potentially lucrative retargeting ad campaign. Once you’ve started an awareness ad campaign with Mailchimp, you can view Facebook and Instagram ad reports as soon as 24 hours after the launch.

Depending on your brand, you might measure the success of your awareness campaign differently than another business owner. Ad reports in Mailchimp feature a variety of useful information, such as number of people reached, impressions, clicks, comments, shares, likes, and more. However, there are an array of other metrics you might want to consider. Email signups, page subscriptions, and social media follows are all valid measurements of awareness campaign success, but no matter which you deem valuable, be sure to take note of the ads that got the most engagement and what made them effective.

Drive traffic and conversions via retargeting

After you’ve established leads with your awareness campaign, it’s important to follow up with a conversion-driving retargeting campaign. Many people who visit your site for the first time may leave without buying anything. You can encourage them to come back. Retargeting campaigns enable you to find previous site visitors on social media and remind them of your products and services.

Retargeting is a long-term marketing strategy for businesses that already have a following. Retargeting ads are great to run during the holiday sales season because most shoppers are browsing many sites, comparing products and looking for the best deals. That makes it an opportune time to promote your bestselling products, introduce new collections, and promote surplus inventory on social media.

When crafting your retargeting ads, Mailchimp’s ad builder allows you to select “Website visitor” when selecting your audience. From there, you can create ads from products, images, or GIFs you already have in Mailchimp, thus streamlining the process.

Build off successful retargeting campaigns

Depending on the success of your retargeting campaign, you might want to run another campaign shortly after. Driving repeat customers is easier than attracting new ones, and their repeat purchases increase their lifetime value.

By promoting similar products to the ones a customer bought, you have better chances of building customer loyalty and, possibly closing more sales. Take a look at which products were most popular during your previous retargeting campaign and use this information to create a new campaign.

Email marketing and paid social media may be able to help you build a larger audience, increase customer engagement, and drive new leads to your site. This powerful digital marketing combo creates a streamlined funnel for teeing up customer lifetime value; as paid social media familiarizes users with your brand and promotes sign ups, email takes on-site traffic and nurtures users into your brand, which may help you establish a long-term, personalized relationship.

Paid Search

Web searches are still a huge source of web traffic and discovery of brands. If you feel like your site is fully optimized but you’re still not seeing the organic search results you want, investing in paid search might be the next step. Here are some tips to get going:

Step 1: Create a keyword-driven paid search campaign

Similar to organic search, a paid search campaign will revolve around a set of targeted keywords. Google’s advanced location, age, and interest-targeting features can help you attract customers very effectively. Google’s Keyword Planner tool can help you pick the most relevant keywords to target, so you can avoid wasting money on ads that miss your target audience. When you’re ready to launch your campaign, Google Ads’ intuitive ad design tools will allow you to craft engaging ads with powerful calls to action.

Step 2: Set a budget

It’s important to have an idea of how much you’re willing to spend before you start your Google Ads campaign. Google doesn't have a minimum spend when it comes to ad campaigns, but your budget should be tailored to your business and its needs. We recommend starting with a small budget and increasing it over time, as you’ll likely uncover key insights that can better inform future campaigns.

Step 3: Track and adjust your Google Ads campaign

A huge advantage of paid search is the ability to track and optimize your spend. Google Ads’ conversion tracking feature allows you to measure key conversion metrics, so you can make informed decisions when planning your next campaign. Google currently has 5 conversion tracking categories: website actions, phone calls, app downloads/in-app actions, offline imports, and local actions, so it’s up to you to decide which is most relevant to your business. Keep an eye on your analytics during your campaign to see what’s working and what isn’t. When it’s over, you’ll be able to adjust your ads, budget, and keywords according to the data.

Step 4: Launch a remarketing campaign

After you’ve run your initial campaign, circle back with a remarketing campaign to re-engage with your new leads. Google remarketing ads help recapture the attention of visitors who have already browsed your website or landing page. They can be displayed on an array of webpages, mobile sites, and apps, increasing your odds of attracting customers back to your site.

Inside Mailchimp’s ad builder you can design and preview responsive ads before you send them off. After the campaign is complete, check out the reports page to see how many customers you successfully retargeted.

Whether you choose paid social media, paid search, or both, investing in a paid digital advertising strategy is highly recommended for advanced e-commerce business owners. Both strategies can prove highly effective in regards to building your audience, and Mailchimp’s tools make it easy for you to get started.