During the 2014 holiday season, marketers will run more campaigns on Facebook than any other social network, according to “The 2014 Holiday Marketer Report” from Experian.
Worldwide, 49 percent of marketers who run social-media campaigns will use organic Facebook posts, and 34 percent will use paid ads or boosted posts, the report notes. Additionally, Facebook advertising will be more popular in North America than anywhere else in the world—46 percent of marketers are planning paid campaigns in North America compared with 34 percent of all marketers globally.
“Facebook has become a major marketing channel globally because of its ability to influence holiday shopping and research,” notes Bill Tancer, general manager, global research, Experian Marketing Services. “The focus on Facebook isn’t impulsive; it’s generating clear results for marketers. For example, during the 2013 holiday season, we found that there was a 39 percent increase in traffic to retail sites from Facebook.”
Other results of the Experian survey include:
- 91 percent of marketers surveyed will deploy email marketing strategies in their holiday campaigns.
- 40 percent of all marketers—and 68 percent of marketers running cross-channel campaigns—plan to integrate email in their cross-channel campaigns.
- 71 percent of adults are influenced to take action by promotional emails and 40 percent are influenced to spend money by these emails.
- Only 25 percent of global marketers will use “free shipping” as a tactic in 2014, compared to 38 percent of North American marketers.
- 78 percent of marketers globally, and 77 percent in North America, will use promotions to persuade consumers to buy from them.
- One in five marketers report that they can’t identify their best customers across channels.
- Nearly half (48 percent) of the marketers worldwide say they have a siloed customer view and can only identify best customers within each channel rather than across all channels. “Ultimately, this affects their ability to successfully integrate campaigns,” according to Experian.
Experian has some tips to help companies have a merry and bright holiday season:
- Don’t underestimate the power of targeting your best customers. Use your loyalty program members as the determining factor to reap some of the benefits for this year’s campaigns, and make it a point of focus for next year.
- Make your messages mobile. Remember that screens come in all sizes and consumers expect the best experience regardless of device.
- Be smart about using deals and offers in your holiday campaigns. They can be effective, but know your audience and your brand.
But to do that, companies must embrace big data and analytics to enhance the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, according to McKinsey & Company.
For example, marketers can take the data from the Experian survey and blend it with analytics to determine which customers and customer segments are most likely to respond to which types of promotions.
Next Steps:
- Try Spotfire and start discovering meaningful insights in your own data.
- Subscribe to our blog to stay up to date on the latest insights and trends in Big Data and Big Data analytics.
