Holiday shopping accounts for a significant share of retail sales in the United States.
Americans spend billions of dollars on gifts, decorations, and food for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Easter, and other holidays throughout the year.
To cash in on holiday spending, take some time to set up a well-planned holiday marketing campaign.
Developing a successful holiday marketing campaign involves tailoring your advertising channels, sales goals, and events to meet the temporary needs of shoppers looking for the perfect gift for friends and relatives.
Don’t miss your chance to attract new clients, skyrocket your sales, and gain high profits.
Here’s a six-step strategy to help you develop an efficient holiday marketing campaign.
1. ‘Holidize’ Your Website
Setting a festive mood and tapping into holiday emotions are essential .
Visitors will stay longer on your website and explore it with greater enthusiasm if they sense the approaching holidays on each and every webpage.
Your holiday marketing campaign should be memorable, and not just in your ads and “special offer” sections.
Bring emotional context to all your website’s elements, including footers, headers, CTAs, and other elements.
Decking your site with holiday cheer reinforces the connection users already have with your brand.
Holiday Discounts First
If you offer holiday discounts, make sure they are the first things visitors see on your website.
Keep in mind that the average visitor doesn’t have a lot of patience.
Show shoppers what they really need as soon as they click on your site, to keep them engaged and stop them from shopping elsewhere.
2. Email Campaign
A festive email is a must for every marketing campaign. Customers are eagerly waiting to receive special email offers and save money on pre-holiday discounts.
Use colorful designs, beautiful pictures, and numbers that prominently display discounts.
No one wants to read large chunks of text, so keep it simple and to the point.
Keep Your Most Loyal Customers Closer
You are probably planning to announce special holiday discounts and freebies, which is definitely a great idea.
Consider expanding your offerings with a special email to your current clients.
Provide extra rewards to make them feel special and to encourage them to visit your website more often.
Keep Cool & Be Helpful
Don’t be too pushy, which could easily turn people off. Remember, you are not the only business out there with festive Facebook posts and colorful campaigns.
Hundreds of brands put high hopes in the holiday season, and some remind their audience of special offers as often as four times a week.
However, if your strategy is well planned and your content is engaging, twice a week should be more than enough.
Holiday Email Campaign Ideas
Although they may seem somewhat cliche, keep in mind that some people wait to receive exclusive emails so they can shop with holiday discounts.
Here are five ideas for your email campaign:
- Discounts for Early Birds: Encourage shoppers to purchase holiday gifts early, offering attractive discounts for a limited period of time.
- Special Prices for Online Orders Only: Capture your customers’ attention with a tempting offer of extra discounts when they purchase gifts without leaving home.
- Exclusive Discount Code Inside: Intrigue shoppers with an offer of exclusive bargains.
- Last Chance for Any Online Order: Create a sense of urgency and engage shoppers to order before it’s too late. Let them know the last possible date they can safely expect a package to be delivered on time.
- Greeting Card: Send your final email on the eve of a holiday. Make it a simple message with a beautiful design.
The final holiday email serves two goals:
- It builds lasting relationships with your customers.
- It encourages last-minute shoppers to choose your store.
3. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Use Facebook, Twitter, and similar social media platforms where your potential buyers are likely to rest, have fun, and communicate with close people.
Make enticing offers and create a warm holiday atmosphere to encourage web users to buy, share posts with bright pictures and inspiring phrases, come up with a special hashtag, and provide gifts for mentioning it.
Also, pay attention to Instagram and Pinterest. Being visual is essential during the holiday season. People are searching for handmade gifts, inspiration, ideas for food and entertaining, greeting cards, and more.
Don’t just sell your product. Create a montage that depicts it in full holiday splendor. And don’t forget to link to your website!
If you offer some professional services, LinkedIn would be of great use. Ecommerce companies should consider holding promotions on marketplaces and providing discounts to clients ordering several services at once.
4. Organize a Contest
Contests are great social media tools, and the holidays offer an especially perfect opportunity to entertain your customers, since everyone is happy to get an extra gift.
If you sponsor a photo contest on your website, don’t just limit it to one or two winners. Use the best photos to create a special blog post, or to create a complete webpage.
You can really get creative with this one, and people will be pleased to see their photos online, even if they don’t win first place.
Festive contests bring more traffic and engagement, and attract new subscribers.
This approach works perfectly for both large brands and local companies.
5. Posts with Last-Minute Gift Ideas
Some people put off holiday shopping until the last minute.
Reach out to procrastinators who still need a gift or two just days before the holidays.
By offering last-minute gift ideas, you provide a valuable service to your customers, and save late shoppers from the stress and embarrassment of not finding an appropriate gift.
Use phrases like “last minute gift ideas” in your posts as perfect triggers to get the attention of your audience.
6. Launch Your Holiday PPC
Don’t limit your campaign to your existing audience. Let new customers discover your business – and buy from you.
Advertise your brand to the right people in need of your services during the holiday season. Find your target audience in Google Ads, come up with catchy phrases, and expand your business.
There are no rules for when to start your PPC campaign. Launch it any time before the holidays, or use the classic Advent theme to offer new items each day.
You can change your entire holiday ad campaign daily, or every few days.
If you have an online store on Amazon, this is a great place to realize your PPC strategy. This platform offers ready solutions (Sponsored Products vs. Sponsored Brands) so that you do not even have to struggle to come up with something new.
Take advantage of all available resources.
Summary
You can expect to see an abundance of offers from competing brands. So it’s crucial that you develop bright and memorable advertising solutions that will help you stand out from the crowd.
Now is the time to check your marketing campaign (and check them twice) so you can start spreading some holiday cheer.
Take advantage of the magical holiday atmosphere to attract new customers, boost sales and promote your business, brand, or clients!
Image Credits
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita
