Marketing Tips for October – part 1: Trend Research

Get your shop going for Christmas: There are just about 10 weeks left for you to prepare your shop for the biggest event of the year. You should use what is left of October to analyse your customer’s needs and requirements, and to get your shop in line with these. It’s a good idea to find out about your (potential) customers preferences first. The following two questions are vital to figure out what your customers want:

What products and designs are your customers looking for?

And which products are best suited for Christmas gifts?

The easiest means of analysis is to answer the question: Which products did your customers order last year prior to Christmas? Which of your designs did well in this period? Last year’s sales figures will give you a very clear indication on which designs and products you should put the main focus on for this year as well.

Also, it’s vital to find out which trends and topics are important to your customers and your peer group. Research the media to learn what’s hot and what’s not. Big and small online portals, blogs, papers and magazines have their ears on the tracks of time. Get an overview (for your niche) and use a few topics and themes to create designs for your products.

Social networks give you an insight into your peer group’s preferences. Use Pinterest to find out about popular Christmas gifts: which tee designs sell, which accessories get pinned and re-pinned the most, and which get the most likes? Get to know interesting tools designed to help you analyse these data best, and check out the third part of our Pinterest tutorial.

Facebook works best to see your followers’ preferences. But this doesn’t mean that you can simply post dreary product pictures and wait for people to like them. It’s more about raising interest and fostering activity that you will then need to maintain.

You could start a poll: “The perfect Christmas gift is sometimes not that easy to find. Who gives you the hardest of times to find the perfect gift for? And why?” or “What was your worst ever Christmas present?” or “Which present would make your Christmas Day?” Animate your followers to post images of their favourite product or design from your shop.

Having a sweepstake is always a great idea. Encourage your followers to get creative: “If the world would come to an end on 21 December, what slogan would you wear on a t-shirt?“ The most original idea and/or the suggestion with most likes wins a surprise package. Of course this package should contain a few of your products (drinking bottle, scarf and/or the winning t-shirt) and some odds and sods and nuts and bolts (whistle, hankies, torch light, chocolate bar…). What is important, though, is that you will then proceed and add the winning slogan to your products on offer, either with plain text or your own design. A good idea would also be to ask the winner of the surprise package to send you a picture of him wearing the t-shirt with his/her slogan. You could then use this for further promotional activities.

Suggest products from your shop as gift ideas for different peer groups. Maybe there are some friends or family who would like lending you a hand with promoting your Christmas products? There are a few ways you could draw interest to a product, just think of e.g. taking a funny picture of somebody wearing a cooking apron with your design.

All Facebook campaigns should tell a little story, and a picture paints a thousand words. Photos showing real people doing real activities are best suited to attract attention.