The holidays are already here, and although most of the planning should have been completed months ago, and you should have already started your holiday marketing campaigns, here are a few quick tips to keep in mind:
1. Use all of your resources
Marketing messaging is significantly more important during the holiday season.”According to Salesforce, 68% of shoppers say they pay more attention to companies’ emails during the holidays.” This means you need to use all the ways possible to reach your audience. If you’re e-commerce, you need to increase the volume of emails you send to be able to compete with how much everyone else is sending. Lead with your promotion and deals in the subject line, so you get noticed and opened, although don’t use too many CAPS or !!!! or you will get flagged as spam. Incorporate those same messages and promotions into your organic social media and paid social advertising to capture your customer’s attention while they’re scrolling! If you’re running Google Ads, add new ad snippets and callouts that are holiday-specific to be relevant to the season.
2. Reward real VIPs
They’re good to you all year round, so don’t forget to do something nice for them during the holiday season. If you’re a restaurant, give them an extra gift card or exclusive offer. If you’re a B2B brand, something branded that they will actually use will work well, plus it gets your logo out there for the world to see! Utilize the data that your CRM collects to figure out who’s spent the most money with you and reward them accordingly, remember people love to feel special!
3. Keep in mind that not everyone celebrates the same
You can get festive without getting religious and if you have a diverse client base, it’s nice to post Happy Holidays or give a Happy Holidays card. If your target marketing is a younger demographic, they are more likely to be inclusive than an older demographic, so keep that in mind as well. There are so many different elements to include that will speak to all audiences so try to incorporate some on-brand wrapped presents, snowflakes, snow globes or even festive lights! Here’s an example of a holiday post we created for a home care agency that speaks to the holiday without being too in your face.
4. Use Your Branding
When you create something for the holidays, make sure it looks and feels like your brand. Do not post a generic Christmas tree and write Happy Holidays on it. You will look like every other generic brand. Your messaging should feel like you and be on brand. Here’s a post we did for our golf client on Thanksgiving:
As you can see, we incorporated their tonality with a play on words related to golf with a tie-in
5. Capitalize on all the last-minute buyers
“According to the shopping service Klarna, 79% of people left their holiday shopping to the last minute”. Speak to them with a sense of urgency and humor- “We know you waited, and we won’t tell” is a good strategy to connect with those shoppers and encourage them to buy. Sell your gift cards until the very last second to ensure people are able to include you in their holiday gift-giving.
And lastly, make it fun! The holidays are a time for family and fun and, for most brands, a good time to connect with customers and clients and head into the New Year with excited anticipation.
We can help you surpass your goals in 2023 by creating an effective strong marketing plan! Contact us today!
