84% of consumers plan to shop small this holiday season, signaling opportunity for major growth

According to new research from ActiveCampaign, consumers plan to ditch large brands and prioritize small business shopping for their holiday needs, revealing SMBs need to prioritize the customer experience above all

CHICAGO, Oct. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The holiday mindset is in full swing for brands and consumers alike, which is why ActiveCampaign, the leader in Customer Experience Automation (CXA), released data on current consumer preferences and a 2022 Holiday Toolkit to set businesses of all sizes up for success. With 84% of consumers saying they plan to shop small, it's crucial for SMBs' holiday marketing efforts to focus on strategic growth.

To support businesses through the holiday season and beyond, ActiveCampaign collected its best tips, tools and resources to help them start planning now. Using this guide, they can create an amazing purchase (and post-purchase) experience for all their new and returning customers. The toolkit includes everything from how to get more leads to little-known tactics that will set businesses up for more growth than ever before, turning new holiday customers into repeat customers next year. For nonprofit organizations, ActiveCampaign designed a 2022 GivingTuesday Toolkit tailored to their unique fundraising needs.

• What's trending and what's not: The tactics for "making the sale" have changed. Instead of a business making their brand or shop as attractive as possible, shopping is now more focused on a business being hyper-relevant to its customers. The toolkit sheds light on those trends businesses should pay attention to and those that are passing fads.
• Necessary preparation for the 2022 holiday season: Holiday season marketing can be daunting, as can the phrase, "building a strategy." ActiveCampaign's holiday toolkit includes five steps that will enable businesses to create a winning holiday marketing strategy: review past holiday marketing campaigns, outline goals and objectives, identify the target market, use an omnichannel marketing approach, and analyze top competitors.
• Tips on how to get more leads: Getting more people into an email list is critical if businesses want to be successful and grow this holiday season. In fact, for every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is typically made in return. Businesses can generate more leads by offering lead magnets—a value exchange offered to potential customers to get them to share valuable zero and first party data—and by recovering revenue from abandoned carts, which is done by targeting these leads and encouraging them to complete their purchase.
• The best campaign ideas for the 2022 holiday season: It's imperative that businesses run personalized campaigns across one or more channels. Businesses can no longer stake their success on past laurels or customers seeking them out. There are a plethora of campaign options available to businesses, from social media posts to a holiday newsletter, and the toolkit compiles the best ideas so businesses can finish the year strong.
• How to boost holiday marketing results with underused tactics: The answer to successful marketing lies in underused tactics that will take holiday campaigns to a whole new level—while also saving time. These underutilized tactics include investing in brand identity, unifying the brand across all channels, customizing landing pages for campaigns and more.
• The first steps to take right now: Given how fast shoppers click 'buy'—or don't—today, it can be overwhelming knowing where to start. The toolkit includes actionable next steps that can be taken right now, including getting a calendar in order, setting a vision and goals, and getting people in email lists now instead of waiting until inboxes are flooded.

"The holiday season is the busiest for many businesses, and an important time to gain long-term customer loyalty. For those who have smaller teams, it can make optimizing their marketing strategies even more critical," said Sameer Kazi, president of ActiveCampaign. "We built our 2022 Holiday Toolkit with those businesses in mind to help them understand where to start and how to find success. They can easily navigate the tools and resources within to not only stay afloat but grow and thrive ahead of the new year."

"Not only are ActiveCampaign's annual holiday toolkits extremely helpful when setting up my business for success, but their responsive customer support team and continuous counsel on helping my business grow is second to none," said Danielle Hu, co-founder of ANDA, an ActiveCampaign customer. "Its customer experience automation platform helps me provide 1:1 experiences at scale, saving me so much time during busy periods and increasing the positive experience customers have with my brand."

"To win your customer's loyalty, your organization must build personal, lasting relationships throughout the year. Customer Experience Automation is a must have to ensure that you are providing the right value at the right time to create seamless experiences throughout the buying journey," said Cory Snyder, VP of Partnerships at Sendoso. "We have personally seen more excitement around sending and gifting than I had ever imagined with our partners. Not only that, they are creating an immense amount of value for their customers by sending through CXA. They are setting their customers apart from those just going the normal routes."

ActiveCampaign's category-defining Customer Experience Automation Platform (CXA) helps over 180,000 businesses in 170 countries meaningfully engage with their customers. The platform gives businesses of all sizes access to 850+ pre-built automations that combine transactional email and email marketing, marketing automation, ecommerce marketing, and CRM for powerful segmentation and personalization across social, email, messaging, chat and text. Over 70% of ActiveCampaign's customers use its 870+ integrations, including Microsoft, Shopify, Square, Facebook and Salesforce. ActiveCampaign is one of only 17 products with over 10,000 positive customer reviews on G2.com, scoring higher in customer satisfaction than any other solution in Marketing Automation, CRM and E-Commerce Personalization and is the Top Rated Email Marketing Software on TrustRadius. Pricing starts at just $9/month. Start a free trial at ActiveCampaign.com.

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SOURCE ActiveCampaign