Holiday Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Holiday Social Posts
We know that the holiday season can be busy for many. Because of that, many businesses tend to put marketing their brand on the back burner.
But if you aren’t taking advantage of this time to market your brand, you are missing out on serious business gains.
Here’s why you need a holiday social marketing strategy plus some tips for formulating an effective strategy.
Why You Need a Holiday Social Marketing Strategy
If you aren’t doing more than wishing your target audience Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, here’s why you should be implementing promotional holiday posts.
The holiday season is a big time for many businesses and nonprofits. It’s a time when you can acquire new leads, drive sales or donations, and increase engagement online.
Additionally, the holiday season is the perfect time to pull on the heartstrings of your target audience. Purchase and donation decisions are emotional decisions, not ones based on logic. The nature of holiday posts in and of themselves easily appeal to the emotions of your target audience.
Trends for 2023 Holiday Marketing
This year, many consumers are looking to save money. Inflation has had a big impact on many shoppers and that means they are looking for sales, deals, and coupons, as well as loyalty rewards.
Inflation will also have an impact on nonprofits, who may be trying to help more people than usual while also dealing with smaller donation amounts. This year, it will be important to appeal for small donations as well as run matching campaigns.
Holiday Social Marketing Best Practices
Here are some best practices to ensure that your holiday marketing strategy is as effective as possible.
1 | Audit Previous Holiday Campaigns
If you’ve run previous holiday campaigns, perform an audit to see what worked and what didn’t. Keep in mind that the social landscape changes often, so what worked last year may not work this year. However, it’s always a good idea to keep this data in mind as you consider this year’s campaigns.
2 | Identify Strategies that Fit Your Audience
The key to any successful marketing campaign is to know your audience. What is your target demographic? What issues or problems do they have that need solving? When do they like to shop or donate? What is their age? These are just some of the things you should think about when formulating your holiday campaign.
3 | Be Ready to Adapt Quickly
During the holiday season, it’s a bit of an all hands on deck time. So make sure that your team is ready to remedy issues, engage with users online, know what promotions are running, have enough boxes in your fulfillment department, and so on. It’s important to think about your marketing in a holistic sense, from your social account to the store room to the customer service team.
Ideas to Take Your Holiday Marketing to the Next Level
To help you get inspired during your holiday marketing brainstorming sessions:
- Talk about the customer experience in your store and how it will help alleviate some shopper stress.
- Offer social only deals or coupons to show gratitude to shoppers.
- Share about loyalty rewards or free gifts for repeat shoppers or big donors.
- Share your products in a video.
- Do a live Q&A.
- Show the behind the scenes at the office or your team’s holiday party.
- Offer a special Black Friday deal, Small Business Saturday deal, or Cyber Monday deal and run advertisements well in advance.
- Run a donation matching campaign on Giving Tuesday–be sure to get the word out early!
Final Thoughts
The holiday season is a great time to make your end of year push to meet your marketing goals. Holiday posts naturally lend themselves to appealing to consumer emotions so be sure to appeal to a certain emotion in each post, whether it’s nostalgia, warmth, giving, or joy.
Need an expert to help you formulate your holiday marketing strategy? Tintero Creative empowers brands to tell their story while guiding them to healthy and sustainable marketing tactics. Learn more about our marketing approach or schedule your free consultation today!