Best Marketing Tactics for the Holidays

The holiday period is a time when marketing opportunities are limitless. To stand out to holiday shoppers, brands need to implement new techniques that increase interest, engagement, and sales. Below are important holiday marketing strategies that should be undertaken to make the most impact during this pivotal festive period.

1. Start Planning Early

The phrase “start planning early” is a cliché that shows just how effective it is. Many shoppers start looking for and purchasing holiday presents as early as October. Start setting goals by studying previous holiday seasons to see effective and ineffective approaches.

Learning from previous seasons helps make current strategies effective and satisfactory to customers. So rather than competing with all the last-minute ads and other holiday advertising efforts, have a proactive initiative. Attract customer interest first, before any of the competitors even start marketing and see results.

2. Use A Multi-Channel Marketing Strategy

While there are several social media marketing strategies, using a multi-channel marketing strategy ensures that there will be a broad reach across different platforms.

Multi-channel means using email and SMS, social media, and other channels to follow a potential customer wherever they go. For example, social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest have a high chance of getting sales throughout the holidays, because they're easy to market products and services. Emails are also very useful for marketing. They announce promotional offers, gift guides, and discounts that are for a specific period.

These channels all work together to create a message that appeals to various customer needs.

3. Be Creative With Social Media

During the holidays, many customers search for holiday gifts and ideas through social media. Statistics show that social media is quickly becoming a popular means of reaching the target audience for nearly half of the consumers during the holidays.

Brands can build holiday-inspired visuals such as photography, videos, or animations. These communicate the holiday feeling to their audience and connect with them on an emotional level. Since holidays are about sharing warm and happy feelings with family and friends, social media is the perfect delivery system for them.

Use Instagram to create content like cooking for the holidays or making a video where one wraps presents as a tutorial. Such clickable content can help engage your business and improve sales with your customers.

4. Personalize Your Messages

Personalized communication is a must for holiday greetings because it allows the client to experience something special. Messages can be fine-tuned according to the customer's data, such as their behavior, previous purchases, or preferences. For instance, this could mean showing ads or using personalized letters with gift ideas for the holidays.

This creates a deeper bond between the customer and the brand. Alternatively, holiday greetings through SMS or messaging apps like Facebook can also be done to make them feel special during the festive periods. Such an approach helps build customer loyalty and increases the likelihood of people returning to patronize your business.

5. Work With Influencers

Influencer partnerships are a popular marketing strategy throughout the Christmas season. Influencers are well-known individuals who the majority of their audience admires or looks up to. With their help, new people will get acquainted with your products and receive trusted recommendations.

During the holidays, many influencers make gift guides or show their favorite holiday products. Ensure you choose influencers who resonate with your brand and can connect with the ideal target market.

This could include influencers demonstrating how your product may be used in a family get-together or holiday cooking. Providing good influencer content enhances authenticity and also increases the level of engagement compared to normal ads.

6. Hold Festive Contests and Giveaways

Contests and giveaways create anticipation and grab attention when it comes to your brand. You could capitalize on holiday trends to form contests or create your own from scratch. Contests during holidays are perfect in terms of giving back to the community while marketing the brand.

For instance, you could get customers to participate by posting an image of their best holiday moments using your product on your brand's social media channel. Through contests, you naturally get more interaction and engagement which drives sales. You also get user-generated content to share and enhance your brand's authenticity.

7. Provide Special Offers and Time-Bound Discounts

Time-bound offers and special offers encourage people to buy your products. Especially during the holiday season, time-limited offers create urgency, which motivates consumers to act fast. For example, you can provide early bird offers before Black Friday or special offers for email subscribers.

You could also offer "buy one get one" deals or promise free items with the purchase of others. When customers anticipate gifts with multiple purchases, they are more likely to make multiple purchases.

8. Use User-Generated Content

During the holidays, many families and people engage with businesses, creating memories. Businesses can invite their clients to share happy memories with their products. For example, a customer could post an image or video of a holiday family dinner featuring a food item from your restaurant.

User-generated content like this improves trust and allows more customers to visualize the usage of your products. Use visually strong customer-generated content on your brand's social networks or send email newsletters showcasing how customers use your products.

User-generated content is more genuine and personal, leading to higher user engagement and persuading others to buy.

Conclusion

The holiday season is the most active period for businesses. For this reason, the marketing strategy for holidays must be prepared beforehand. Be active on multiple channels, create interesting content, and ensure customers have a good experience. By following these tips, your holiday shoppers are sure to come in droves.