The Business of the Brain on the Internet: Rising Above the Holiday Noise

Quick! How many shopping days are left until Christmas? Or more importantly, how many Amazon holiday deal days are left?

During the holidays, everyone is so distracted by the buying frenzy that it’s hard to get people to focus on your business. While money is flying out of everyone’s pockets, it might not be flying into yours. Instead of stressing out over this situation, why not come up with a marketing strategy?

Understanding just a few insights from psychology can help your brand make a lasting impression, even during Amazon-ageddon. Here are some suggestions for helping your business rise above the noise during the holidays and all year long:

1. Repackage Your Products

While we all like to think that customers buy our products and services because of their outstanding quality, psychologists (paging Dr. Pavlov) and retailers (paging Dr. Pepper) know that this is not always the case.

The fact is that when a consumer chooses to try a new product—your fantastic dog grooming kit, say—that buying decision is very likely influenced by packaging. This is also true for customers who have bought your dog brushes in the past and were very satisfied with the purchase. Putting those brushes in a new flashier, prettier package can attract the attention of previous shoppers and remind them that their dogs love your product. Here are some other good tips about the psychology of product packaging.

Repackaging can also mean changing up the way you present your products, to encourage customers to try something new. I love tea and I especially love trying new teas. This (and not my closeted Christianity) explains why I bought an advent calendar from David’s Tea. I’ve been happily enjoying each of my 24 days of tea as I countdown to the start of Hanukah.

A final point about packaging psychology: This advice can be applied to websites too. Think of your website as your brand’s packaging. Is this a good time for a website refresh? If the last time you updated the design of your website, you were still using a flip phone then it’s definitely time for a change. Spring Insight can help.

2. Capitalize on Current Clients

Since you already have a built-in advantage when it comes to capturing the attention of current clients, capitalize on this by offering them a special deal. I really love a particular wall calendar. I buy one every year, hang it on the wall of my home office, and use it to visualize my business goals. So, when the wall calendar company sent me an offer for 30% off, you know I jumped on it.

Consider who you can contact and offer a deal for re-upping by the end of the year. Create an email marketing campaign to target this group of subscribers or better yet, start using marketing automation software to capture relevant information and take your marketing to a new level.

At Spring Insight, we are amazed at the power of marketing automation. If you want to think about marketing about as often as you think about going to the dentist, this is just what you need. It’s like magic and since we’re all about giving our customers a magical experience, look for Spring Insight to roll out this new product offering soon.

3. Rethink Your Marketing Strategy

And speaking of marketing, if all else fails and business continues to be slow for you until after New Years, take this opportunity to organize your marketing strategy. If you play your cards right, you can avoid experiencing the same slump this time next year.

Social Media: If you haven’t already started building a social media following, consider it. Connecting with others by starting the conversation on social media is a great way to expand your brand. But it only makes sense if you create systematic strategy around building a social media presence.

What does an effective social media strategy look like? Think of social media like a room full of people at a holiday mixer where everyone is fighting to be heard. Yelling louder than everyone else is not likely to work. However, if you engage people one-on-one in a meaningful way, you will connect with those who are interested in continuing the conversation with you and others.

So, think hard about where to reach your target audience, then reach out to them in a direct and personal way. Remember that your goal is not to become an Internet sensation; it’s to attract the attention of people who are your end users.

Multichannel Marketing: Don’t aim to reach your audience through just one approach. Make use of all means at your disposal to reach your customers—email marketing, social media, mobile marketing, even good old-fashioned print media. This of course will depend on who you want to reach and what your niche is. The first step in finding a marketing strategy should always be to come up with the clearest possible picture of your ideal client.

Spring Insight has an amazing marketing team and we spend nearly all of our time brainstorming better ways to help our clients standout. If you are tired of spending time and money on marketing that is not giving you the results you want, it might be time for a new perspective. Contact us and let’s talk marketing strategy.

What do you do to make your brand shine during the season of shiny things?

Let me know in the comments below or post to social media (Twitter, Facebook, or Google+).