A Short Guide for Holiday Season Marketing

The streets are already glowing with colorful lights announcing the holiday season. In the evenings, as they return home from work, people are window shopping and browsing on e-commerce websites a bit more than usual, in search of gifts for their loved ones.

This is the month when the heaviest annual spending happens, so marketers and entrepreneurs are preparing or adjusting holiday season campaigns in order to gain a share of their target audience’s attention and Christmas budget. If you are a professional caught up in a swirl of marketing possibilities, I prepared some tips to help you get going.

E-mail Marketing Success- a Christmas Recipe

It’s that time of the year when people drown in a pool of inbox spam. Even if consumers are likely to open an email announcing 40% discounts for the products of a famous high-end brand, don’t expect the same if you work for a medium size retailer or for a company selling services that can’t be offered as gifts(cybersecurity, cleaning services etc.). You need to come up with something more in order to gain any leads from your e-mailing campaign, but it is 100% worthy to work on one: for every dollar, you invest, you can make a return up to $38.

First impressions matter most, so pay attention to the title – humor and curiosity are some of the best triggers. Further on, use a resourceful email builder to visually impress potential customers as soon as they open your e-mail.

Now let’s let’s approach written content: build a story around your campaign and introduce a hook in the first e-mail for the upcoming one. This celebration time also opens a door for you to engage existing clients: offer them digital presents, make them laugh, show them the team behind the business, and express your gratefulness for the company’s achievements.

If you still want to share some discounts and special offers, introduce them as gifts for loyal customers or as an opportunity for them to make more presents and spread the good vibes this Christmas.

How to Tailor Content

Nowadays, businesses don’t only promote products, but also provide content – industry advice, shopping guides, photo albums and related videos. The websites of international clothing retailers like H&M and Zara have beauty magazine interfaces now: they feature photo-shoots, influencer interviews, styling advice and a sleek, intuitive design.

Of course, those brands have huge marketing budgets. But on a smaller scale, you can still find a way to offer more than a product list to your audience. If the business doesn’t have a blogging section yet, this holiday season it’s the perfect time to start with some Christmassy, laid-back, shareable posts.

However, do some Google AdWords research before starting to work on any articles. You’ll certainly find a way to link a few keywords to the selling points of your business and build organic traffic. Also, meta descriptions and keywords need to be adapted seasonally, so don’t forget to make changes after the holiday season. If you notice that there is too much competition for your chosen keywords, it might be less expensive to focus on video content and use Google AdWords for video. Kissmetrics published in spring an actionable guide on this topic.

Evaluate Your Marketing Needs

By December you have most business reports ready, so you can see what worked best and what can be improved. So why not use the holiday season campaign to address some of the existing marketing needs? Now it’s the time to come up with emotional content, to emphasize the capabilities of your staff, to tell your company’s story, to host charity events.

Sales are important, but maybe this December it’s a good opportunity to grow your brand or make it visible locally. The company could take part in a humanitarian campaign in targeted communities. This way, you’ll have something meaningful to promote via e-mail, website and social media.

And talking about social media, don’t put your trust in the multichannel experiences that so many brand advisors talk about. Sponsoring ads on every new platform might actually be a waste of money. Sometimes, a combination of new and old marketing tricks works best, especially if your budget is small.

Step Outside the Digital World

The typical digital consumer now owns 3.64 devices and marketers tend to channel their efforts towards the digital medium. However, there are still ways to engage customers traditionally.

For example, all of us tend to travel more by cab in winter: it’s cold and we have shopping to do, family members to visit, friends to meet, and events to attend. Some old-school back-taxi advertising is a nice way to connect with clients stuck in traffic. You don’t necessarily have to leave technology out of it. A QR code can lead passengers to your website.

Another idea is to partner with a coffee shop and put your brand’s name on cups. We all love a warm drink in December. Depending on your target audience and budget, you can search a local business or a chain that has the right locations for you. Don’t forget to customize your logo with festive elements!

All things considered, the holiday season is an excellent time to use your creative resources and put to work the brightest minds in your company. Further on, your campaign doesn’t end on January the 1st – you can surprise your customers with some discounts to match their smaller post-holiday shopping budgets.