4 Tips for a Successful Holiday Marketing Campaign
madmindstudios - November 23, 2018 - 0 comments
‘Tis the season for marketing campaigns! The holiday season is an extremely popular time for sales and promotions. From Black Friday to Christmas, this time of year is when presumably every company is launching a campaign of some sort to promote their product and get people buying. Here are some tips on how to make your holiday marketing campaign stand out.
Tip #1: Start planning early!
It’s very important to give yourself enough time to plan and prepare. Come up with a solid outline of what exactly you want to achieve with your campaign. Do you want to generate more sales for your product? Do you want to increase the size of your audience? Once you have your goals laid out, you’ll have time to plan out a creative, original, and effective campaign.
Remember that it’s important to spend time creating a campaign that will catch the attention of your target audience; customers are bombarded with campaigns over the holidays and it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. If you start planning early, you’ll have time to talk to customers, do research, review past campaigns, etc.
Tip #2: Understand your audience
Knowing who your audience is and what kind of holiday marketing campaign will appeal to them is crucial. A great example of this is REI’s #OptOutside campaign. Instead of having a sale on Black Friday, they closed their stores and encouraged their customers to enjoy the outdoors rather than shopping that day. This decision shows that REI completely understands their audience and is effective in showcasing their image and values as a company.
Although most companies try to appeal to as many people as possible during the holidays, you can run a stronger campaign by focusing on a certain group of people.
Tip #3: Create an Interactive or Sharable Campaign
When planning out your campaign, it’s important to be creative and choose a type of campaign that best suits your goals and company.
Creating a holiday marketing campaign that’s easy for people to share is a great way to bring attention to your company. Seeing a campaign or promotion on a friend’s page is more likely to cause action than a random ad that pops up before a Youtube or Facebook video.
Many companies also create a UGC (user-generated content) campaign. This is where participants share posts on Instagram and tag them with your account or a specific hashtag. A great example of this is the Starbucks Holiday Cup Contest is 2015. During the holiday season, Starbucks launched a #redcupcontest that encouraged people to share a creative picture of the Starbucks holiday cup. Whoever designed the best cup and hashtagged their image with #RedCupArt won a year’s worth of Starbucks coffee.
Interactive campaigns that encourage your audience to get involved rather than watch or read passively are also very effective. Interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content. It also generates 4-5x more pageviews than static content.
An example of this is Barnes and Noble’s #BNGiftTip hashtag in 2014. People could ask for tips on what books to gift to their family and friends, and Barnes and Noble’s in-house experts would recommend a book. The free, personalized advice that B&N offered their customers was a great way to connect the brand to the customer and puts the focus on the customer’s needs.
Tip #4: Use the Right Tools
There are tons of different ways to promote your holiday marketing campaign, ranging from influencers to social media. People who have a large following online can be an extremely effective way to get the word out, especially if their following is largely similar to who your desired audience is.
Social media can be complicated but is necessary for promoting your campaign. Facebook allows you to promote certain posts and create ads that link back to your page or website. Facebook also allows you to specify your desired audience, so you can choose the demographic, location, and interests of who sees your content.
Instagram and Pinterest are unique due to their concentration on visual content. Take advantage of this: creating eye-catching posts and using the right hashtags is a great way to increase page visibility. Visual content can also be effective in showcasing your product and how it’s used in the lives of consumers.
