The holiday season is near, which means it’s the perfect time to start thinking about incorporating holiday fun into your marketing and business. There are numerous ways to get your team involved in the holiday spirit, but doing so in a professional, enjoyable way is just the tip of the iceberg!
Today, I’m going to outline some creative ways you can acknowledge the holiday season and get your audience excited and involved in your marketing efforts.
Start Early
Get the jump on your holiday marketing plan and get your ideas rolling! You can slowly start incorporating holiday cheer throughout your marketing efforts, like Mariah Carey recently did, for example. For many of us, one of our favorite holiday songs is “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” a staple in festive music.
At the beginning of October, Mariah Carey did an at-home interview, can you guess what was standing tall and shining bright behind her? A glorious Christmas tree. Simply seeing her and a decorated tree in the same image instantly reminds us of her holiday album. So yes, even though it was the beginning of October, her holiday cheer resonates early with her fans and prompts them to start listening to her music.
Get Your Customers Involved
Create a campaign that gets your customers involved! A great example of this is Starbucks asking their customers to create a holiday cup design by drawing straight onto their cups. They then take the winning designs and print them for actual use in their stores.
Erin McDonald at Expert Media Design explains, “You can incorporate the holidays into your marketing on a smaller scale. If you have a physical item, you could ask people to submit pictures of the item in a holiday setting. Attach a catchy hashtag, and you’ve created a feed of free marketing. Repost the best ones or offer a prize.
For more service-based businesses, try an interactive ad through social media or even email. Try a Christmas-themed poll. You can even create a quiz to help a customer find the best answer from a list of your products. Make the quiz with holiday puns and graphics. There are plenty of services that offer personalized quizzes.”
Create Holiday Visuals
Two business colleagues having Christmas video chat with partners.
Services like Canva make holiday posts for social media a breeze. With their pre-made templates and wide selection of holiday graphics, you’re sure to find something perfect for your brand.
Try adding a santa hat or dreidel to your logo, or changing the colors to red and green for the month of December. Create a new Facebook header on Canva and add some festive flare!
Your customers will enjoy the new designs, as holiday trends resonate extremely well with consumers everywhere.
Use Seasonal Google Ad Campaigns
Whether your business is in retail, B2B, finance or insurance, Google Ads is a fantastic place to get seasonal! Start by creating a campaign and targeting holiday shoppers!
For instance, if you sell women’s apparel, you can use targeted keywords like “gifts for mother” or “holiday sweaters;” then create specific ads that offer incentives to shop with your store during the holiday season. Be sure and highlight the exact benefits you’re giving; whether it’s 20{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b} off or free shipping, make sure the incentive is clear.
Here are a few quick Google Ads holiday marketing tips to remember from WordStream:
- Use seasonal ad copy! Include words and phrases like “holiday” and “‘tis the season.”
- Ad extensions are your friends. Eat-up more real estate on the search engine results page (SERP) during this competitive time.
- Highlight special offers and seasonal deals.
- Instill a sense of urgency with copy like “40{429fc2506e610357e12b2a5665db82631200a2e00b3a1d8839077d76f18e2e8b} off if you order before Nov 15!” or “Take Advantage Before It’s Too Late!”
- Make sure you’re relevant. Conduct holiday-related keyword research.
- Set up ad scheduling to post at the times when your shoppers are most likely to be searching.
Don’t forget that everyone is looking for a deal this holiday season. Pairing special offers with a sense of urgency is a great way to win potential customers over.
Send Holiday Cards
Holiday cards are a tried-and-true way of putting a personal touch on a thoughtful idea. A hand-written message will show your customers or clients that you took the time to create a thoughtful note for them. If you can, personalize your cards so that your clients know they got a unique gift from you.
Run A Holiday Giveaway
Create a special holiday giveaway and run the competition across all your major social media platforms. Whether it’s a big discount, a free add-on with an order or just something completely free, get into the holiday spirit of giving. Typically, asking your followers to comment, share, like and so on is a great tactic to get even more engagement on your giveaway.
Funny business meeting with the devil and skeletons
A great idea is to host a giveaway for Halloween or Thanksgiving and use the phrase “Be sure and catch our next holiday giveaway at Christmas time!” Not only does this get your audience excited, but they will be checking your page to see the next giveaway!
Get Seasonal In Emails
WordStream says that “If you’re not incorporating the holidays into your email marketing campaigns, you’re making a big mistake! Holidays instill powerful memories into your shoppers’ minds, so enticing them with fun seasonal emails is a great way to connect in their inboxes.”
Pull At The Heartstrings
Personally, when I picture the holiday season I imagine twinkly lights, delicious cookies and cheerful music. The holidays bring a warm and fuzzy feeling to many of us. While it’s important to remember that the holiday season may not be loved by all, most people have an emotional tie to this time of year.
Emotion drives action, so now is the time to amp up your marketing efforts. Also, “emotional” doesn’t mean you make everyone cry; even using humor in your messages can go a long way during the holiday season. If you need inspiration, check out this list of 2019’s best holiday ads.
Get Creative With Video
WordStream says, “There is no better way to communicate a holiday message than with video. Whether it’s a festive webinar invite video that you send via email, a video added to your customer page to wish all of your customers holiday cheer, or a wacky video that you post on social media of your CEO dressed as a reindeer, get creative, and have fun with video to spread the cheer throughout your marketing campaigns.”
Show Extra Gratitude To Customers
During the holiday season, consumers can spend a significant amount of time debating how and where they want to spend their money. That means even loyal, long-term customers may shop elsewhere this season.
Show shoppers how valuable they are to your business. While there are many ways you can thank your clients and customers, simply sending out a thank you email shows that you care and are willing to make the effort. Simple acts of kindness go a long way!
What If I’m A B2B Company?
Wordstream suggests that “with others focused on the holidays and seeing increased business, a B2B company may see lower traffic. Embrace this quiet time and focus on strategizing for the new year. How can you better serve clients after they’re done with the hubbub of the season? Perhaps there’s even a project that you’re typically too busy to see through.”
Don’t expect to be totally out of client work. As companies are looking to drive customers to their website for holiday sales, this may be a time they look for SEO help. The holiday season is a magical time for many of us all over the world. Go the extra mile for your customers and help get them excited for the upcoming season.
Host A Holiday Party
This holiday season is unlike most others, because we are still facing a global pandemic. Holiday parties may be few and far inbetween this year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a creative alternative.
Team video call during isolation quarantine.
If you live in a relatively warm area, you could rent a pavilion or another comfortable space outside for your team to get together. To keep everyone at a safe distance apart, try spacing out tables and chairs, along with the food and drink stations, and definitely encourage mask use.
Another idea is to host a virtual holiday party! You could send everyone on your team an equal amount of money and have them buy their favorite holiday snack or drink. Schedule a party time on Zoom and get together with the whole team.
Better yet, make your holiday party open to the public! Be it online or in person, send out a personalized invitation to your clients and customers and encourage them to join in on the fun!
For even more involvement, make it an ugly Christmas sweater party! At the end of the session, everyone can vote on their favorite sweater, and the winner can get a prize!
