It’s officially November, which means that the holidays are right around the corner. And while marketers are salivating over the inevitable purchasing rush, it’s important that we understand what our consumers want, versus what we want them to want.

A recent poll by growth marketing company, YouAppi, took data from over 530 smartphone using consumers and 210 marketers from the US, which showed that consumers and marketers are often not on the same page when it comes to the holidays.

The first marketing misstep is timing.

While we marketers have been thinking about the Q4 push since late-summer and are ready to launch our campaigns as soon as possible, we really need to practice some patience. Over 50% of consumers polled said that they are only interested in holiday themes and offers after Thanksgiving. Compare that to the 68% of marketers polled who said that they start their awareness campaigns well before that. By holding off your media spend until after Thanksgiving, you can then put even more money behind a campaign push later into the holiday season when consumers are actively looking and interested in holiday deals and themes.

The second marketing misstep is pushing in-app purchases.

While you may have spent quite a bit of time building and honing your company’s app to streamline purchasing, consumers really don’t care. In the poll, 60% of businesses preferred in-app purchases, while only 5% of consumers preferred to purchase items in the app (Ouch!). That being said, 46% of consumers said that they “definitely will” use a mobile app to help them with their holiday shopping and another 39% said that they “probably will.”

So if it’s not in-app purchasing power that consumers are looking for in apps, what do they want? Forty-five percent of those polled just want the dang thing to work, 36% want a flow that is easy and makes sense, and 35% look for speed. Additionally, 40% said that coupons would be the most likely to get their attention when shopping with an app during the holidays.

This brings us to the third marketing misstep: YouAppi’s poll found.

Fifty-four percent of consumers polled said that they would watch a mobile video if they were offered a reward such as a coupon after doing so, yet only 20% of marketers plan to utilize the tactic. This is a simple campaign idea that can provide even more exposure to your brand. An optimal video is only 15 seconds in length and can be utilized to bring attention to new products, brand messaging, and more.

So while marketers (should) have been working on their holiday campaigns for quite some time, we need to wait just a little bit longer before releasing them onto the world wide web in order to reap the best ROI. In the meantime, take this extra time to listen to your consumers, fix all the bugs in your app, and maybe make a simple 15-second video. Your consumers will appreciate it.

If you need help with your holiday marketing campaign or anything else digital marketing, contact us! We will be more than happy to help.