It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right?

‘Tis the season of online shoppers spending over $108 billion on their holiday purchases.

From November to the end of December, retailers can earn upwards of 25% of their total annual sales revenue.

And with predictions of holiday sales set to increase between 4.3% and 4.8%, it really does seem like it’s actually the most wonderful time of year.

However, all of those sales and the huge amounts of potential this time of year means holiday marketing can become a hassle.

The stress of keeping up with the competition while optimizing your own holiday marketing campaigns can make even the most zen marketer want to tear their hair out.

There’s social media to monitor.

Email marketing newsletters that need to go out.

Promotions and associated materials need to be confirmed and scheduled.

With all this going on with your holiday marketing, it helps to have something extra at your disposal.

So, we’re taking a look at the three best marketing tools you can use this season.

With these platforms at your disposal, your holiday marketing campaigns can be both more successful and easier to manage.

It’s time to stop pulling your hair out and start enjoying this time of year.

1. Use Chatbots for Holiday Social Media Marketing and Monitoring

Mobile messaging is on the rise in a big way.

eMarketer predicted that more than one-fourth of the global population will use a mobile messaging app by 2019.

Already, 45.5% of the U.S. population uses a messaging app.

Businesses are discovering that these apps provide an excellent way to reach customers directly, and vice-versa.

As a result, over 2 billion business-related messages are sent through Facebook Messenger.

Now, chatbots make these interactions even easier while boosting your social media marketing efforts.

Self-serve chatbot tools like Snaps let you create a branded chatbot and deploy it on the messaging platform your customers are using.

Here are just a few ways you can use a chatbot during the holidays as a social media marketing tool:

• • Answer customer service questions.

• • Have a personalized conversation with users and suggest products they can purchase right from the message app to boost conversion.

• Direct ads to open a chat with your bot to generate new leads.

Chatbots automate your holiday social media marketing campaigns so you can spend less time monitoring your platforms and more time focusing on higher-priority tasks.

2. Automate Your Holiday Email Marketing

No holiday marketing campaign is complete without email.

You can use holiday email marketing for running promotions or contests, re-engaging customers, and winning back abandoned carts – just to name a few ideas.

Plus, successful email marketing can lead to 20% of your holiday sales and yield 42X ROI.

However, holiday email marketing can often be time-consuming and tedious.

There’s the need to create an eye-catching newsletter design, fill it with engaging content, and then schedule it at the right time.

Take some of the stress out of the process by automating your holiday email marketing.

Email marketing platforms like MailChimp have a feature that lets you schedule an email message based on a certain trigger or time.

For example, Live Love Polish used MailChimp email automation to re-engage the 9% of their customers that enter their email but don’t complete check out.

During the holidays, messages like this can be the key to winning back customers, getting new leads, and upselling.

And, thanks to automation, getting the right content delivered at the right time is even easier.

3. Social Media Scheduling Tools Can Save the Day

Some of the best social media marketing tools are those that assist with scheduling.

You can rely on these social media scheduling tools to make your holiday marketing campaigns less stressful with a simple, set-it-and-forget-it approach.

HootSuite is considered by many to be the best social media marketing tool for managing and scheduling across accounts.

You can create your content then input it into the platform as far ahead as you want.

No more scrambling to throw together a last-minute Facebook post or forgetting to Tweet one day.

Social media scheduling tools like HootSuite can maintain your presence on these accounts during the hectic holiday time period.

Not only does this let you focus less on the nitty-gritty logistics, but it also makes holiday social media marketing campaigns more efficient and optimized.

You can spot any gaps in your content while ensuring you’re reaching customers consistently throughout this important season.

The NYC Government used HootSuite to manage their 280 social media channels.

With a social media scheduling tool at their disposal, they organized their strategy to boost engagement and reach.

Here are the results they saw:

• • Tripled their social media following in two years

• • Engaged in important customer interactions that shaped policy and emphasized the organization’s mission

• Increased digital reach by 85%

Sure, your organization may not have nearly that many accounts.

However, you can still enjoy similar benefits that the NYC Government enjoyed.

Consider using a scheduling tool for holiday marketing campaigns involving a countdown, for example.

Each day, you can have a post that counts down to New Years.

Some of these could be promotional offers, while others could just be a funny or unique message.

This campaign becomes far easier to manage when you’re able to set it up ahead of time with a social media scheduling tool.

Your Best Holiday Marketing Awaits

The holiday season is a busy time for everyone personally.

You have to deal with family in town, planning your holiday trip, and getting the perfect gifts for friends and relatives.

Don’t add even more stress to the holidays professionally.

With the best marketing tools by your side, you can enhance campaigns while making your own life easier.

From automated email marketing to the best social media marketing tools, the above are just three ways to have your best holiday season.

You know what can make your life even easier next year?

Leaving your holiday marketing to the professionals.

Working with a digital marketing agency can be the ultimate way to sit back and finally understand why everyone calls this the most wonderful time of year.

Want to know more?

Get in touch with us today before the holiday mayhem strikes again next year.