All-In-One Holiday Season Marketing Guide

It’s here, finally!

The holiday season is around the corner.

And like every holiday season, social media becomes the center of attraction for most marketing strategies. Holiday season marketing campaigns stay ahead of every other advertising mode. They single-handedly account for bringing in most of your holiday hoarders.

As per the recent reports, $27 billion was spent on social media marketing alone in 2018. Businesses allocate 25% of their annual budget only for holiday marketing.

Sounds bizarre?

It isn’t actually. There is a reason why businesses vibe in red, green, golden, and silver in mid-September. Have a look at the benefits of starting holiday season marketing campaigns early.

Benefits of holiday season marketing campaigns

1. Builds up anticipation

About 23% of shoppers start their holiday season shopping by November. So buckle up, mate. You don’t need to wait till Christmas for your big-time sales.

Ramp up from the mid of October and continue building the anticipation till the year’s end. You will garner enough audience until then. Your target audience will get to know that a good deal is on its way, worth the wait and chase.

Here is an example of Shoes.com posting an apt quote in August to create the Halloween hype. The caption mentions the last-minute deal revelation in their stories.

2. Creates the FOMO effect

Have you ever witnessed those heart-racing countdowns? They create a sense of panic and a moment of urgency in us.

FOMO triggers your impulsive audience to seal the deal with you. Limited sales call for immediate action. You can additionally highlight the missed opportunities alongside as the time ticks away.

Look at The Perfume Shop tweet announcing their member preview deals on 29th October. The 5 pm deadline of the next day is a perfect example of FOMO at its best.

3. Presence of buying intent

The holiday season invokes the buying intent beforehand. You need to produce the right deal for the shoppers. The purchase motto strongly drives the scrolling.

Your audience won’t hesitate twice if they encounter an unmissable deal with your brand. Put your best prices and irresistible discounts this holiday season.

Morrisons know their followers are all set to do chocolate shopping for Christmas. This one-week valid offer is too tempting to let go.

4. Loyal reward

Become a Santa for your loyal customers and show your appreciation towards them. Personalize a thank you message expressing your gratitude. You can also include some exclusive offers or early bird advantages to them.

It will guarantee to strengthen your customer relationship. The retained loyalty will then secure more deals from existing customers.

Fourthraybeauty promised a giveaway worth $100 to 5 lucky followers if they tagged two of their friends. It is a ninja technique not just to reward the followers but also spread brand awareness amongst peers.

5. New customers

A rigorous holiday social media campaign boosts brand awareness. Even the latent shoppers spring up to join the chase.

Consumer traffic increases by 150% during the holiday season, catapulting your profit figures. Pull up your socks to entertain more customers this holiday season.

Here is an example of Starbucks introducing the #RedCupContest during Christmas in 2016. A new entry came in every 14 seconds. The total entries were 40,000 in two days.

So it becomes quite evident that your social media strategies need to hammer all the nails right.

If you need to get the most out of the festive fever, you have come to the right place. This guide is covering essential holiday marketing tips and numerous examples of holiday social media campaigns.

Let’s proceed then.

Holiday Season Marketing In Brief

Before you get all picky with loads of ideas, have a look at the holiday marketing calendar. You need to zero down the crucial holidays and mark them in red.

It can be a handful of tasks with so many holidays coming up and each one being unique. What might work for Halloween will not work for Christmas.

So decide which holidays you want to include in your holiday marketing campaigns. To help you further, here is the curated list of major year-end holidays.

1. Halloween (31st October)

Halloween stands second in US commercial holidays that are considered best for online shopping.

Spooky pumpkin themes take over social media during October’s end. Begin your holiday social media campaigns with Halloween too.

Here’s a classic example of a Halloween post by Domino’s. The offer stays valid only for Halloween.

2. Thanksgiving (26th November)

Thanksgiving is all about expressing gratitude to your dear ones. Dedicate your social media posts to your ardent followers and customers on this day.

Create DIY and post quotes which your followers can share with their close ones.

Have a look at this perfect DIY inspiration. Gene2teens reposted a Turkey Socket Puppets DIY for Thanksgiving by Alpha mom for their adolescent and parenting audience.

3. Black Friday (27th November)

Black Friday is a shopper’s dream day. More than 61% of the holiday season shoppers wait for Black Friday offers.

It is the best day to start your holiday marketing campaigns. Include promo code and free shipping deals for these.

It is an iconic Black Friday charity campaign by Patagonia that raised $10 million. They used the entire sum for various environmental and social related initiatives.

4. Cyber Monday (30th November)

Black Friday’s twin, Cyber Monday, is another exciting day for shopaholics. Cyber Monday of 2019 marked a digital history of sales worth 7.9 million dollars.

Leave no stone unturned and extend your Black Friday sales to Cyber Monday deals. If you missed out on meeting the set target on Black Friday, Cyber Monday is your savior.

Here’s an unbelievable deal released by Lemoney on Cyber Monday 2019. They gave their users 96% off on purchases with cashback offers too.

5. Hanukkah (10th December)

Keep up with the lively vibe with Hanukkah, the festival of light and miracle. Though Hanukkah often gets overshadowed by Christmas, it is still a striking social media date.

Spread awareness about this nearly lost tradition. Outline the Hanukkah story in your social media handles.

Share holiday feast ideas. Post lighting candle themed posts with your followers.

Look at this pre-Hanukkah post by BroadwayHD launching the online stream of “The Meshuganutcracker.” One month is long enough to build the hype for the Hanukkah themed show.

6. Christmas (25th December)

The big day is here. Christmas sums up the Golden quarter of the year. Online sale is constantly boosting up, setting newer records with every passing year.

Indulge in pure madness and plan the year’s most extravagant holiday social media campaign. Choose an out-of-the-box theme offering the craziest deal combos to sell your products like hot cross buns.

Dior got incredibly creative with their 2020 pre-Christmas post. The post gave a glimpse of their premier perfume collection showcased in the shape of a Christmas tree.

7. New Year’s Eve (31st December)

And it is not over yet!

The holiday season marketing continue even a week past new year’s eve. Shoppers keep coming for more to cross out their resolution lists.

Motivate them with a freebie guide or newsletters. You can even have a flash sale post-holiday season.

Holiday Inn Express is already excited to reveal its 2021 travel plans. Since holidays are planned even a year prior, this post is a sure masterstroke.

Platform-specific strategies

Different platforms need different strategies. You need to leverage the best of algorithm tweaks in terms of reach and engagement.

You need to decide the best permutations suiting your target users. It will let you achieve a diversified set of goals.

TipsBuild buyer personas and demographics to understand your audience. Look for their presence in each platform to make the final social media choice.

1. Facebook

Facebook is all set to drive your holiday season marketing for instant success. It even has come up with its own holiday season marketing guide.

The reason why Facebook becomes the first choice over all other social media platforms is because of its rich set of features. From online shops to consumer behavior data analysis, Facebook ensures that you get the most out of its association.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are modern-day commercials, and you ought to try them out.

Most businesses fight tooth and nail for customer’s attention in the holiday season. It makes Facebook ads quite expensive.

Testing your ads beforehand can work wonders for saving a few dimes. Reap the advantage to know what element works best for you even before the campaign commencement.

Explore various Ad Placement options for your advertisement to popup. It can be in Messenger, audience network, Instagram, and more.

TipsOpt for an automatic Ad Placement option if you are too confused to make a choice.

Boosting

Let’s be honest. Your customers relate more with the content rather than a random promotional rant.

You got to aid your holiday season marketing with other holiday season videos, articles, and blogs. Make sure to include these in your ad content so your new prospects will know more about you.

Boost posts from your Facebook Business page and rope in the last-minute buyers.

Budget

Setting the right budget is like hitting a bullseye in the first attempt. You need to keep a check on the ad limit account continually. Use Facebook Business Manager in close inspection for this.

Daily budgeting and lifetime budgeting are also options for short term and long term holiday marketing campaigns. Keep the Facebook Ad Budget calculator handy to avoid a burning hole.

Report

Review the campaign performance with Facebook reporting features in its Ad Manager. Filter out the columns and know how your holiday marketing campaigns are working at the moment.

The reports include performance, engagement, messaging, clicks, conversions, app installs, purchases, and more. You can also have a sneak peek of cost per clicks, impressions, cost per conversion rates, and so on.

Campaign Breakdown is another excellent feature that lets you segregate the campaign dynamics as per demographics and action.

TipsMake sure to feed in the correct date to check the campaign reports.

2. Instagram

Since mobile accounts for 67% of the traffic during the holiday season, Instagram for holiday marketing is mandatory. 65% of Instagrammers follow at least one brand and make a purchase.

Holiday season marketing on Instagram is vibrant with an adrenaline rush. You got to pump some of it into your feed to see the magic in conversions.

Live

Go live and let your followers explore your business life. Give them some mind-boggling details on how you plan to vibe in the holiday spirit.

The holiday season is the best time to showcase your place’s promotional events or how you plan the decorations.

Kiser Country did a brilliant job in leveraging Instagram for Christmas picks live. Their prior posting asked their followers to jump onto their festive bandwagon.

Constant stories

Rent a permanent space in your customer’s mind with Instagram stories.

A short-lived story is an excellent FOMO tool. Constant stories keep your followers on edge to tap on your account and watch the latest update.

Constant story posting also leads to faster brand discovery.

Have a look at Puma highlights for their latest “The Rotation” collection. The highlighted stories make sure their promotional stories remain a part of their feed for future reference.

TipsDon’t forget to highlight your best stories.

Influencers

Collaborate with influencers to boost your holiday season sales on Instagram.

Let them announce your best giveaways or promote your holiday-themed filters. Influencers are great for building trust and garnering followers in a short time.

Here’s a fairytale collaboration of World Tech Toys and Instagram’s top influencer, Kylie Jenner. The post was dedicated to Kylie’s daughter Stormi and has 2.5+million likes as of now.

Quality content

The holiday season is a time of fierce competition, so you need to level up the posting game. Here’s how you can add value along with holiday season postings.

• Go for IGTV tutorial: Cover the how-to topics here
• Use video ads and carousel ads: Boost your account visibility
• Post high-quality content: Gives a substantial impact on your feed
• Create future takeaway posts: Compel your followers to save them

Starbucks aced the game yet again with Christmas themed holiday feed. Their feed is inspired by the energetic red and calming green highlighting the brand’s trademark style.

3. Twitter

Twitter has set its foot in the holiday season arena with its latest launch of Holiday Hub. It has covered its ad tools for helping brands to reach the right audience in this holiday season.

Here are some additional holiday marketing tips for kickstarting your holiday season on Twitter.

Partnership deals

The holiday season is all about togetherness in the best of spirits. Collabs and partnerships are the best way to showcase that.

Double your brand reach with partnership deals and exclusive offers. Announce great combo deals with your partners for a win-win strategy.

Pointbleu Design cited an example of a powerful brand collaboration. Hershey’s partnered with KitKat and Heath and launched a new candy flavor. All three big names under one banner marked a stellar partnership indeed.

Retweets

Make most of the retweet trends and roll out similar content with a new touch. Retweet your best ones to set the stage for dripping engagement.

Post user-generated images and videos. Don’t forget to mention your followers, giving them shoutouts.

Have a look at this great retweet of Fall Guys by McDonalds. The retweet alone got a reshare of 1.6k and 36.1k likes.

Polling

Twitter polls are great for interactions. You can get unique insights by using these in your tweets.

Set a period for your polling with relevant discussions. You can run a poll and gauge the excitement and anticipation levels of your followers.

Polls are also great for feedback. It is indeed one of the most trusted ways to gain consumer insights post-sales.

Draw inspiration from this simple example for Twitter engagement. Have a look at this witty poll by KitKat for their tagline.

Hashtags

Your tweets might get lost in the pool of popular hashtags. So choose a mix of it.

Don’t clutter your tweets with hashtags. Three is a good number.

Create your hashtags at the beginning of holiday social media campaigns. Your followers can then instantly catch up with all your relevant tweets under that hashtag.

TipsCome up with a hashtag that is easy to remember.

Have a look at this eBay holiday social media campaign post. The campaign was giving out 15 gift cards. The hashtags used were #ebaygifts and #sweepstakes for this.

General strategies

Did you put on your thinking caps already? Have a look at these strategies as you chalk out the best holiday social media campaigns.

1. A planned holiday season marketing calendar

Leaving everything to the last minute is the perfect recipe for disaster. Skip this hassle and avoid unwanted surprises.

You should be a month ahead in planning at least to streamline your holiday marketing campaign efforts. Be ready with the test campaigns and ad copies.

Draw your pens out and whiteboards to discuss the shared objectives and outcomes for each holiday social media campaign.

Say if your prime objective is to boost engagement, then work on your Twitter strategies.

If you need faster conversions right away, then Facebook strategies might need your immediate attention.

Planning will let you focus more on better executions. So start filling the holiday marketing calendars.

2. Create content for personas

Be it the holiday season marketing or not, creating buyer personas always helps while brainstorming for content. Sweat a little doing background research.

To create great content for personas, ask yourself the following sets of questions:

• Who is my audience?
• What do they do?
• What problems do they face?
• What solutions can I pose?
• What is the average age?
• What is the current trend followed by that specific age group?

As you answer these questions, you will be ready with the draft of a fantastic copy.

3. Schedule more

The holiday season marketing can be stressful, and you can’t afford to go wrong with your scheduling.

Do away with multiple reworks and last-minute stress with a scheduling tool like SocialPilot.

• Focus more on quality creation
• Never lose track of your posts
• Schedule at the peak times to get the best results
• Analytics to find out the best performing posts

Scheduling makes sure that your brand suffers no consequences of procrastination ever again.

4. Mandatory replies

Well, here’s the thing.

Everybody hates getting ignored. The same goes for your followers cum customers.

Your followers vest their time and money in you. It becomes your moral obligation to respond and care for them.

Be it any comment or share, shower your appreciation, taking accountability. It will make you seem incredibly approachable.

Here is an example of a prompt reply by Nestle. One of the followers complained about the missing “Nestle KitKat Chunky Cookie Dough.” Nestle quickly took the onus of replying and declared the product’s discontinuity.

5. Reposts often

Let promotion be a two-way street. Repost the followers’ posts which talk about your business brand.

Have throwbacks posts to surge in waves of nostalgia. Those will create a ripple of excitement in your followers’ clan. You can use scheduling tools to repost your content.

The holiday season marketing demands a lot more attention and posts. Reposting can solve this attention-hunger.

Have a look at Taco Bell‘s repost of their user-generated content. It is an ideal way to continue with your content calendar.

6. CTA is a must

The final key-turn to unlock the holiday season is a compelling “Call To Action” or CTA.

Concluding couplets of CTA materialize your goals. They invoke action impulses in your followers.

Be it signing up for a trial or a real-time conversion, CTA is the ultimate magician.

Samsung Mobile rolled out Galaxy S20 FE and other products in their holiday season marketing campaign. The short and crisp CTA appeals instantly.

TipsUse catchy phrases that resonate with your followers.

Conclusion

Holiday season marketing campaigns can be a smooth cakewalk if you get the right plan rolling out. Regardless, it is a stressful time for every marketer indeed.

Make every penny worth the spend. Have a specific goal for every campaign and balance out the budget accordingly.

Make use of all these strategies, and you will nail it for sure.

Happy Holiday!