There are two types of people in this world:
those who love the holidays and those who don’t.
Regardless of which category you fall under, we guarantee these *tried and true* tips will better your holiday marketing strategy this year.
Holiday marketing is quite possibly a whole form of marketing in itself. During the holidays, consumers are not only looking to buy more, but they are willing to spend more and hunt for deals whether they are shopping in store and online.
If done right, your holiday marketing strategy will bring you double, if not triple, the success.
We compiled a list of the most successful marketing techniques and holiday marketing strategies from major companies like Business 2 Community, Business.com, and even Hallmark— who many consider to be one of the most successful brands of all time. Some of the following tips can also probably be applied to your normal marketing strategy, so pay close attention.
The first and most obvious strategy is to get to know your audience.
I know, I know– this is a no brainer. However, many forget how quintessential this can be when it comes to selling.
In fact, the people at Hallmark don’t just rely on one consumer report to understand their customers each year. Hallmark finds it extremely important to repeatedly conduct market studies and continue adjusting your marketing strategies accordingly. Marketing is not stationary, and your marketing strategy shouldn’t be either.
This and the following technique are strategies you can implement year round, if you aren’t already.
You can also better market your content if you try to personalize your approach. By looking into the things your customers love to buy and do on your website, you can construct a rough understanding of their needs. From there, you can personalize content to them specifically based on their needs. This is something called passion targeting, and it can bring great change to your sales report.
Plan your promotions and deals well in advance.
You should have a very rooted understanding of the things you will be promoting, how you will promote, and what kinds of discounts or specials you will offer. Your plan should contain each little detail, down to the time and date you will announce and push out a specific promotion. And yes, this is a lot of work, so yes, you should start on this right now.
Don’t forget you must also create collateral material for each promotion, like marketing emails, landing pages, blog posts, video guides, graphics, banners, and so much more.
Keep in mind that consumers in 2018 are very savvy. They know businesses are competing for their attention and will actively hunt for deals and discounts during the holiday season.
Prepare your website for heavy holiday traffic.
This is becoming more important than ever, as trends continue to lean in favor of online shopping as opposed to in-store. You should plan for extremely high traffic levels during the holidays, especially on days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
That being said, it is crucial to make sure your website can handle this! You should survey your website well before the holidays and fix any bugs you come across.
You should also be sure to look into your website load speed so that customers don’t leave out of frustration from a slow loading page. Read our other blog post on website load speed for more information on this frustrating problem.
Don’t forget about mobile.
For the first time in history, mobile sales are expected to surpass desktop sales. It is very, very important that your mobile site (or even your app, if you have one) is looking just as shiny and new as your desktop site.
Tap into your customer loyalty reserves.
While the holiday season is all about revenue and reaching more people, repeat customers will still account for at least 40% of your sales. Whatever you do, don’t forget about them. You can even offer a special gift or promotion to your most loyal customers out of your sincere appreciation for their time and money.
Capitalize on video marketing.
If you have read any of our previous blogs, you know that video marketing is on the rise and ready to bring you more business than ever.
There is no better time than the holiday season (the portion of the year that never fails bring in the most money) to implement your most successful marketing strategies.
But instead of creating a normal video campaign for your company, try a few of these different video marketing techniques during the holidays.
Seeing as how the holidays are such an emotional and nostalgic time, you can appeal to your audience by showing the human faces behind your company.
- Ask your employees what their favorite holiday memory is or shoutout a number of your most remarkable employees.
- Consumers love behind-the-scenes footage, so why not showcase unique aspects of your company during the holiday season.
- Create a cute or funny video that is totally unrelated to your products. This can help to bring awareness to your brand during the busiest season of the year.
Remember ACE.
Attraction, Conversion, and Engagement. Those are your superficial goals this holiday season.
We also felt the need to provide a few less frequently used, but powerful tricks for the holiday season.
Provide your customers with gift suggestions. 
Nobody knows what to get their friends and family without a detailed wish list in front of them. Do your customers a favor and provide them with a list of gift suggestions from your business. Try including a “shop now” button that links directly to the product page. You could even suggest a couple of ways to bundle more than one product into the perfect gift.
Send Thank You’s.
A unique idea we came across recently was to send your customers thank you cards. If done early in the holiday season, this will make your customers feel very appreciated and will likely help your company out in the long run, since your customers will be more inclined to remember and recommend their friends and family. This is especially true if you decide to offer a discount or promotion with your thank you notes.
Provide a feeling of nostalgia.
Everyone knows the holidays are full of warm feelings of nostalgia. It may beneficial to capitalize on this and throw out some black and white pictures, old style fonts, and nostalgic imagery in your social media posts and campaigns.
Another way to do this could be through storytelling. Once you fully understand your audience, appeal to their soft side by either telling your brand story in a nostalgic manner or get creative and guide them through a storyline to describe a featured product.
You could also amp up your holiday spirit by updating your window display, homepage, or landing page with warm holiday scenery and extra sparkle. Or, if you’re feeling extra nice this Christmas, offer a free gift wrapping service in-store or online.
Offer free shipping for the holiday season.
Speaking of online shopping, you may be able to gain a handful of loyal customers this year by offering free shipping for a limited time. Your customers are spending a lot of money during the holidays– probably more than they should, actually. You can provide this additional incentive to rope in a few more happy customers this season. Just be sure to include this in your marketing emails!
For more information on holiday marketing, click on the links at the top of this article, or reach out to Boss Creative for help on your 2018 holiday marketing campaign!
