This holiday season spending has the “potential to shatter previous records,” according to the National Retail Federation. That is excellent news for retailers and other businesses who benefit from the increased shopping traffic during the holiday shopping season. But to stand out from the crowd, you must get creative with your holiday marketing campaigns.
Read on to discover some of our favorite ideas for marketing your business for the 2022 holiday season.
Start holiday sales promotions early.
According to Salesforce research, 37% more people in the U.S. plan to start buying gifts earlier this year. In previous years, the day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday, marked the start of the holiday shopping season. This year, many plan to start holiday shopping in early November. (Hint: if you haven’t started planning for the 2022 holiday season, you’re already behind.)
While the holidays are top of mind earlier this year, beware of cramming the season down people’s throats before Thanksgiving is over. Hold off on cranking up the Christmas music until after Thanksgiving but go ahead and offer early bird shopping promotions.
Review the results of past holiday campaigns.
Take a look back at the previous year’s holiday marketing results to get an idea of what worked well and what fell flat to get the most out of your marketing efforts—no need to waste time on a tactic that did not work in the past.
Also, be sure you are looking into your data to see if anything has changed. If, for example, your demographics have shifted, you may need to adjust your messaging. Or if your goals have changed, what worked before may not be the answer this year.
Send a holiday card to customers.
Sending out a holiday card is a great way to kick off your holiday marketing efforts. You can make it a digital card and send it to your email contacts, be sure to include personalization to help create those warm and fuzzy feelings. Or you can even send out a hand-signed physical printed card to your top customers for an even more exclusive experience.
You can even leverage your holiday card by posting it on your website and social media to extend your reach beyond your email contacts.
Make a holiday video.
Online video consumption is increasing across all platforms. In fact, the average person spends 100 minutes a day watching videos online. To ride this trend, you should incorporate video into your holiday marketing campaigns to deliver a festive message and highlight your products and services.
Some ideas to showcase in holiday videos on your website, email, and social media include:
- Highlighting your staff
- Sing a Christmas carol or do a dance video together.
- Discuss favorite items from your product catalog that would make great gifts.
- Show highlights from your company holiday party.
- Provide tips
- Show users how your products make great gifts.
- Display how you can help make their holiday season more manageable.
- Share holiday recipes or decoration ideas.
Crank up your email marketing.
With the holiday season getting busier for everyone each year, consumers have less time to research gifts and promotions. But they are still checking their inboxes regularly. This makes email marketing a no-brainer for the holiday season. Plan your holiday email marketing to send out campaigns on a regular schedule, so your subscribers know when to expect your emails.
Some ideas to include in your holiday email marketing could be:
- Send out a Thanksgiving email to express gratitude to your loyal customers.
- Highlight your restaurant event space or catering services for holiday parties.
- Promote special holiday events and sales in your store or online.
- Promote gift cards and gift certificates for easy last-minute gifts.
Launch a paid media campaign.
Investing in a digital paid media campaign for the holiday season can provide a positive return on investment if you plan ahead and do your research.
You can update your ad copy for a Google pay-per-click campaign to make it holiday-centric. If you sell products, you can say, “Find the perfect holiday gift.” If you have a restaurant, your ad copy might be something like, “Book your holiday celebration with us!”
For social media ads, you should use holiday-related imagery and videos to promote a festive feeling to highlight your offers.
You should also employ retargeting ads during the holiday season. Did you know the average cart abandonment rate is just under 70% for e-commerce sites? You can reach these customers by running a retargeting campaign encouraging them to return. You can even offer a special discount code for returning and completing a purchase.
Remarketing campaigns can be used similarly for restaurants. Visitors may be scoping out venues or catering services from several locations simultaneously. You can remind those who did not contact you by retargeting them to remind them of your unique holiday offerings.
Partner with Influencers.
A recent survey revealed that 52% of consumers find gift inspiration from social media. You can leverage this discovery by partnering with influencers who are relevant to your brand to help amplify your campaigns. You can use an influencer marketing campaign to drive engagement and conversions. All you need is a little creativity to stand out in the sea of competition.
Here are a few of our top ideas to use influencers in your holiday marketing campaigns:
- Plan a holiday giveaway
- Partner with relevant influencers to promote a holiday giveaway. You can set the entry rules, such as following your brand account, leaving a comment on the influencer’s post, or sharing the post to their Stories.
- Start a countdown
- Ask influencers to post weekly as a countdown to your big holiday sale or new product launch.
- Develop an influencer affiliate program
- Give your influencer partners unique discount codes to share with their followers and pay them a commission for the sales they drive.
Wrapping up (See what I did there?)
While holiday sales can make or break your annual sales goals, you can still set yourself up for success. You just need to start planning early, leverage experience from previous efforts, and get creative with your marketing campaigns.
Use this list as a guide to start planning your holiday marketing campaigns. If you need help creating a marketing plan for your business that will provide a positive return on investment, reach out to our marketing experts.
