3 Instagram Reels to help small businesses prepare for holiday sales
The holiday season has officially begun. Is your business ready to make the most of it?
The holiday season has officially begun. Is your business ready to make the most of it? Consumers are planning their holiday shopping early. In a Meta study, 40% of people surveyed start shopping in November and 21% in October.1 Planning and posting your content in advance can get you ahead this holiday season. Below, we walk you through what you can work on today to help set your business up for success.
1. Create content now to get ahead of the busy shopping season.
Get ahead of the holidays by planning your content now. To start, identify what you want to accomplish during this time period. Be clear and focused on the big things you want to accomplish versus trying to do it all. Then, use your insights to understand the type of content that resonates most with your audience. Use poll, quiz and question stickers on Instagram Reels or Stories to find themes on what your audience wants to see. Searching keywords and hashtags will also help show what similar brands are sharing and what’s trending in your industry.
Insights, plus your goals, will give you a good idea on where to start building a content calendar. We recommend that you use Marketing Planner in Meta Business Suite to plan your multi-content marketing efforts by sketching out the content and timing, assigning tasks, allocating budgets and finalizing publishing. Also, If you’re creating content across Facebook and Instagram, you can better manage all of your assets by using File Manager in Meta Business Suite to create posts and stories. If you need inspiration and content ideas, check out the creative resource web page where you can see content ideas from businesses like yours. Speaking of video…
2. Create mobile-friendly video ads to help reach holiday shoppers on the go.
Create mobile-friendly videos to help capture your existing audience's attention and drive discovery from potential holiday shoppers.2 Mobile-friendly videos are typically short form (less than 15 seconds long) and/or vertically oriented (4:5 or 9:16 aspect ratio). Campaigns that add mobile-friendly videos to existing campaigns can help drive sales, reach and followers at a lower CPA.3
More people are spending time watching short-form videos. Video overall makes up 50% of the time that people spend on Facebook,4 and there has been a 30% increase in time spent on Reels across Facebook and Instagram.5 Here’s a big tip: save time (and money!) by using existing assets to make new video ads with Ads Manager's Video Creation Kit. Don’t forget to add a clear call-to-action that indicates what you want your audience to do next.
3. Create a great customer service experience.
A positive customer service experience can turn a potential customer into a loyal one.
Just like you’d want to be welcomed in a brick-and-mortar store, set up automated greetings in WhatsApp and Meta Business Suite. You can include things like updates to holiday shipping, hours of operation and when they can expect a reply. Remember, an automated message should still express your brand’s voice—add some emojis or a holiday pun to give your message personality. Effectively and efficiently communicating with your customers can help increase customer loyalty, ease concerns and even close sales.
