The Christmas shopping season is one of the busiest and most important times of the year both for our clients and our company. In order to get the most out of consumers’ expanded need to make purchases this time of the year, retailers and marketers need compelling holiday campaigns across multiple channels. The same strategies apply throughout the year as other holidays and opportunities arrive. Other seasons and celebrations can be equally if not more important to you and your business and unlike Christmas, may not have as much competition for your consumer’s attention. The following helpful tips and strategies should be considered when creating any marketing campaign around a specific season or celebration.
Plan Ahead: Don’t start planning your marketing strategies days or even a few weeks before certain holidays. Planning your holiday campaigns a few months in advance will give you time to adjust to any changes and won’t have you throwing rushed, low-quality campaigns together at the last minute. Create a schedule and include specific weekly and daily tasks for each channel. Create assignments for people in your organization.
Be Creative and Generous: Use your creativity and the various channels at your disposal. A few ideas we’ve had success with include:
- Run a Facebook exclusive promotion that you only post and promote on your Facebook page for your fans.
- Use Pinterest or Twitter to run a re-pinning or re-tweeting contest for your followers.
- Send out weekly or daily newsletters counting down to the big day that include a deal in each.
- Offer larger promotions specific to well-known shopping days like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.
- Create a “Last Minute Gift” promotion closer to Christmas. Most people shop online now, so offer promotional codes and make sure these codes are working before sending them out to your audience.
Engage Your Audience: Make your customers and fans feel special. Ask them via Facebook or Twitter what products they want or would like to see more of for the holidays. Use unique hashtags for them to use to interact with you. Consider running a photo contest or a “Caption This Photo” contest and have them submit their own photos or sayings. This makes them feel special, but more importantly it keeps them coming back to your page.
Show You Care: Show your customers and fans that you are a considerate and philanthropic company. You can start by partnering with a local charity or non-profit organization. Host a donation drive or volunteer at a charity event that benefits this organization. Helping those in need shows your audience you care about more than just sales.
Be Festive! Your clients are showing their spirit, so why shouldn’t you? Create festive graphics to utilize across all channels, including your website. Decorate your place of business and post photos of the décor and your happy helpers (employees). In the midst of all the promotions you are running, your audience will appreciate the occasional “fun” post or photo. It is also smart to create a special newsletter to send out. Something as simple as “Happy Holidays from All of Us” or “We are Thankful for You” shows that you appreciate their patronage.
Hopefully these tips will help you get an idea for a successful holiday campaign. Start planning your marketing strategy for the next holiday, celebration, or season using engaging and creative campaigns that will excite your audience and give you more brand awareness and sales.