Holiday marketing is creating marketing campaigns specifically for certain holidays. These campaigns are generally released at the end of the year or around Christmas time. The purpose of holiday marketing is to increase sales during these festive periods.
To capitalize on holiday spending, marketers should create campaigns that focus on customers’ seasonal buying habits.
Holiday marketing has the potential to boost sales for a variety of reasons:
More customers are interested in buying products during the holiday season, making it easier for marketers to promote their products.
Since holidays are focused on a certain time period, holiday marketing campaigns also have a time limit. This creates a sense of urgency that encourages people to make purchases.
Capitalizing on your consumers’ joyful mood during the holidays by using emotion-driven holiday marketing initiatives is a great way to boost sales.
What Makes a Great Holiday Marketing Campaign?
1. Look at Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns from the Past
Though it may seem like there’s nothing left to learn from the past, there is always more that can be gleaned.
Look at your old holiday marketing campaigns and compare them to your data. This will help you see which strategies were effective and which ones need to be improved.
Try to create new strategies that are similar to ones that have worked in the past but with a modern twist.
There is also a lot to be learned from campaigns that were not successful. By taking another look at your campaign and identifying areas that need improvement, you can avoid making similar mistakes.
You can look at other brands’ campaigns for inspiration, not just those from your own company.
Aside from your performance stats, try to check your customer data to see if there have been any changes in the last year. Consider the most important demographics, such as their priorities, when making your decisions.
If you want your holiday message to be well-received, take some time to understand the people you’re targeting. Knowing things like their age, gender, income, and interests will give you a much better chance of crafting a message that hits home.
2. Determine Which Holiday Marketing Strategies are Appropriate for Your Target Market
No two holiday marketing campaigns are the same.
It is important to create your own unique marketing campaign rather than copying what your competitors are doing. Knowing your target audience is key to developing a successful holiday marketing campaign. Without this knowledge, it will be difficult to create a message that resonates with your consumers on an emotional level.
3. Create Automated Scheduled Campaigns
During the holiday season, it is more important to work smarter instead of harder. Find content syndication solutions that can save you both time and money while also giving your clients a more consistent experience.
Elements of a Successful Holiday Marketing Strategy
1. Plan Ahead
You should plan your Christmas marketing strategy well before the holiday season.
To be successful in holiday marketing, it is important to have a well-thought-out and intentional strategy. This means that each brand should determine which marketing channels will be most effective, who to target them to, and how to create a message that speaks to their audience.
2. Choose the Most Effective Marketing Channels
The holidays are a time when people focus on spending time with loved ones and reconnecting with their emotions. This makes it very important for businesses to use marketing platforms that are human and personable.
A cross-channel approach that encompasses all aspects of Holiday marketing is usually the most effective.
Sending email marketing messages to people who are already interested in your company is beneficial during the holidays.
SMS marketing allows you to reach your clients immediately, while social media platforms provide you with a way to reach a larger audience.
If you have the budget for it, consider investing in paid ads on platforms like Facebook to increase your reach.
3. Gather User Data
You should gather as much useful data as you can to give clients more personalized and focused deals.
If you want to create an effective holiday marketing campaign, start by gathering data ahead of time. You can collect relevant information by customizing your subscription forms. Once you have the necessary data, you can use it to craft the perfect message for your target audience.
4. Create a Schedule
It is essential to prepare a campaign schedule in advance, including what you want to achieve and when you intend to do it.
Here are some important steps to consider for your Holiday campaign:
5. Increase Awareness
You should start your seasonal promotions before your customers have even started thinking about their Christmas buying.
A teaser campaign can help create interest in your brand and products.
6. Promote Your Deals and Offers
As soon as the Holiday season arrives, start promoting your deals with targeted ads on your chosen platforms.
7. Stay Top of Mind with Customer Follow-Ups
Don’t let your guard down just because your sales are done for the holidays! It’s great to gain new customers during holiday promotions, but it’s just as important to keep them.
You will need to demonstrate some loyalty to your new customers and encourage them to buy from you again. For instance, you could achieve this by giving them a discount on their next purchase.
8. Create Your Campaign’s Messaging and Content
Now you get to create your campaign’s messaging and content, which is the exciting part. Build your content around the schedule you’ve planned and the channels you’ve chosen. Then, tailor your messages to different customer segments and campaign stages.
A landing page is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized search result or an online advertisement.
A good landing page will have a unique design and contain relevant, targeted information for the person who clicked on the ad or link. Creating a dedicated landing page for your seasonal offers is a good way to make sure that people who are interested in your offer can find all the information they need in one place.
9. Personalize Your Website for Holiday Marketing Campaign
The holiday season can bring in nearly a third of a business’s annual sales, so it’s the perfect time to give your revenue a boost. Therefore, preparing your website for holiday shoppers is the best way to market your business during the holidays.
A new home page design and Christmas holiday themes can make your website more engaging, enhancing the user experience. Adding certain elements that always benefit from a fresh look, especially around the holidays, can help you improve your website.
Tips to personalize your website for holiday marketing campaigns
Highlight calls to action that are inspired by holidays to get your customers in the shopping spirit. Make sure to take the time to optimize your calls to action by using the right copy and color to get the most transactions during the festive season.
It is important to have clear messaging on your website so that potential customers knows the benefits of your product or service.
Use holiday-themed greetings and eye-catching images on your live chat widget to grab the attention of website visitors and encourage them to browse through the holiday deals.
Design banners and pop-ups that advertise a major site-wide sale or a significant sale on an entire product category.
A single second delay in loading time could result in a 7% drop in conversions. The speed at which a page loads affects the experience of website visitors, especially during periods of high traffic, such as the holiday season.
10. Give Early Access to VIP Customers
Offer your subscribers early access to holiday deals to get a head start on the competition. This will help entice customers to buy before the holiday rush. Your subscribers will feel appreciated that they are getting a good deal now, before everyone else.
Offer discounts to customers that are loyal to your brand and are active on social media. This will create a buzz before the holiday season officially starts.
Giving people early access to your holiday marketing campaign can make it more effective by creating a sense of exclusivity and urgency.
If you want to keep your best customers around, give them early access to deals and offers. This will help them feel special and appreciated, and they’ll be more likely to stay with you in the long run.
Give your best customers a sense of exclusivity and special treatment to make them happy and keep them coming back.
If you start selling earlier, you’ll be able to take advantage of sales before the holiday rush. This makes it easier to manage and fulfill orders before things get too hectic.
11. Run Holiday Giveaways on Social Media
Giveaways are a great way to connect with your audience, get new followers, and create excitement for an upcoming event.
Asking fans to engage with your content is a great way to get more people interested in your giveaway.
Brands use giveaways in order to generate interest and sales for their products or services.
You can create excitement for the upcoming holidays and your brand by using giveaways and promotional contests.
Depending on the number of people on your team and how much money you have to spend, you can do something as simple as a Twitter hashtag contest, a photo caption contest on your Facebook page, a festive quiz, or a make a wish contest.
12. Amplify Your Mobile Marketing Strategy
More than half of the internet traffic to retail websites came from people using mobile phones.
Most shoppers prefer to browse through products and order them on their mobile phones, so you should focus on a razor-sharp mobile marketing strategy for the holiday season.
-More than $35 billion in sales were made through mobile devices during the holiday season, so optimizing your mobile apps for holidays can help increase sales conversions and set positive customer experience examples.
As an example, Walmart altered its SEO strategy to better accommodate mobile users and revealed upcoming sales to those who downloaded the app.
Similarly, Amazon offered mobile-only deals that were not available on the website and offered customized incentives to users who downloaded their app through push notifications. This increased the traffic to their mobile app and enhanced user engagement.
Best practices for mobile marketing strategy are as follows:
- Use A/B testing to ensure the highest quality customer experience on your mobile channels.
- While you are optimizing your messaging, consider your onsite mobile experience. For instance, filling out forms on mobile devices can be cumbersome. You can elevate your onsite user experience with expanding mobile CTAs.
13. Turn to Video Marketing as Holiday Promotions
The best way to communicate a holiday message is through video marketing. This allows you to market your brand as a whole, not just your products.
Video campaigns have been shown to increase customers’ average order value, and 64% of consumers said that watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced their purchase decision.
If you want your video campaigns to perform well during the holidays, make sure to include holiday-specific messaging. According to QuickFrame Video Intelligence, social video ads with holiday messaging had 58% higher engagement rates during the holiday season than those without.
You can use video to add holiday cheer to your marketing campaigns in many ways. For example, you could send a festive webinar invite video via email, add a video to your customer page wishing customers holiday cheer, or post a wacky video on social media. Get creative and have fun with your holiday video marketing!
Here are some video marketing tips for the holiday season:
You can set up a Christmas holiday theme by using music with bells, holiday-style text treatments, or motion graphics.
Adapt your CTA according to your audience and the holidays. For example, around a gift-giving holiday, make your messaging more urgent.
It is beneficial to shoot videos in high resolution because it allows you to create still images from the footage. If you have the budget, you can also hire a separate photographer to take pictures during the video shoot.
14. Partner With Your Influencers as Marketing Ideas
Influencer partnerships are the top holiday marketing strategy for many brands, with 17% of companies spending more than half their marketing budget on influencers.
Armani Beauty is teaming up with Instagram and Facebook influencers to promote its fragrances as gifts. In addition to tagging @armanibeauty, these social influencers will also indicate to their followers where they can find a product.
Working with influencers can be a great way to amplify your holiday marketing strategy. Influencers can help you reach new audiences, drive traffic and engagement, and promote your brand.
- Influencer based holiday marketing campaigns help you to increase exposure by reaching niche audiences that could be expected to convert at a high rate.
- These campaigns also increase ad opportunities and space for brands during the holidays.
- Following this marketing strategy, help you to reach new audiences and increase brand awareness.
- With influencers, you can increase website traffic, drive sales, and boost your holiday marketing RoI.
15. Boost Holiday Conversions by Offering Free Gifts
Brands can increase their revenue during holidays by offering free gifts with each purchase. This is a great way to join in on the holiday spirit and give away stuff for free.
by offering something inexpensive that doesn’t require extra shipping costs, you can make your shoppers happy and get them into the buying mood.
If you spend more than $150 at Pandora, you will receive a free limited-edition Christmas ornament as part of their holiday campaign.
The ornament is free, but it is only available for one season.
What are some great Christmas marketing ideas that involve giving away free gifts?
- Free gifts make everyone feel special. They show you care enough to share the holiday spirit with them.
- Needless to say, it works as a strong conversion booster so you will grab as many sales as possible.
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