The holidays are the marketing world’s super bowl. They’re anticipated throughout the entire year, companies spend millions to make their mark, and each year it becomes more and more competitive to capture the attention of a media saturated landscape. The most successful holiday campaigns are those that not only draw in their audience, but also successfully engage, involve, and celebrate with their audience. Here are some useful tips to increase your brand’s reach throughout the season:
Urgency Is Key
The first key to achieving holiday ecommerce success is to craft your marketing messages with urgency. Whether with a last minute discount, or a sale for the first 50 customers, to achieve success with online shoppers, marketers know that the best way to lead them to the checkout is to convince them that their purchase is urgent, and that they’ll regret it if they don’t snag that new coat or gadget immediately.
Freshly Picked, a children’s shoe and apparel company, did just that during their holiday campaign, and reaped the benefits ten-fold. Instead of a Black Friday deal, the moccasin connoisseurs held a “one day only” sale on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and sold a limited amount of their signature moccasins at a discounted price. The brand took to their Instagram and Facebook pages to announce the sale, building a great deal of anticipation amongst their die-hard fans and followers. Moms clamored to the site that Tuesday morning to snag their favorite shoes, and a virtual battle ensued until every last shoe was sold.
Additionally, brands that offer free shipping across their social platforms and landing pages are known to reap the benefits of holiday shopping success. According to a recent survey, 46.7% of consumers reported that “free shipping or other shipping promotions are important factors in their decision of where to shop.” Many companies offer free or discounted shipping, but the brands who win out are the ones who promote it effectively.
Invest In Exposure
Of all the times to spend money on online marketing, the holidays provide the most ROI for companies. Why? Because their shoppers are already a captive audience, looking for ways to find the perfect gift for everyone on their list. They only need a small nudge in the right direction to have them click over to your brand’s site.
Social media is a particularly effective way to engage with your audience, especially when you bolster your efforts by partnering with social influencers. Pier 1, in their Christmas-savvy wisdom, partnered with Lady and the Blog blogger Vera Sweeney, a NYC-based mom with a penchant for designer handbags and upscale beauty products, to promote their newest holiday campaign. Vera’s known for her fashion-forward meets function advice for the busy mom on the go and has a following of super moms to match. The partnership is a match made in retail heaven. Lady and the Blog recommended Pier 1’s Pop-Up storybook event saying “it will bring to life the best style stories and new traditions” of the holiday season.
Of all the opportunities for paid advertising, Facebook offers the ideal, most cost-effective platform for brands, with major advantages for businesses looking for holiday traction. First, the targeting options available allow brands to create a custom audience based on a variety of demographical characteristics and behaviors. For example, if your relationship status is “engaged,” you can anticipate content about weddings and honeymoons to pop up on your feed. Finally, Facebook’s ads are intentionally image-centric. Only 20% of an ad on the platform can be text, giving your brand the opportunity to draw users in with tinsel infused photography.
Make It Personal
The holidays, of course, are about a lot more than sales and promotions. They’re a time for pumpkin pie, family, garland-wrapped mantles, and making memories. Engage your audience around topics that are relevant to them today. 3M’s social media campaign, #DontForgettheTape, for example, encourages users to share the different, creative ways they wrap their gifts while sharing DIY tips to use at home. The brand recently partnered with starlet turned DIY blogger Tiffani Thiessen to celebrate the holidays and promote the use of the hashtag across platforms.
LLBean uses their aesthetic on Instagram to engage with preppy, outdoors enthusiasts, rather than flooding their page with promotional posts. While this might sound counterproductive, people don’t use social media to be bombarded with advertisements, but to be social. For the holidays, they use their page to promote the LLBean lifestyle, rife with wintery landscapes, cute puppies chewing on comfy slippers (product placement, noted!), and a living room perfect for winter snuggling.
The holidays are a time to connect; it’s important never to forget that the people sitting behind the screens waiting to shop aren’t just consumers. They’re people, eager to reach out and engage with the brands they care about during the “most wonderful time of the year.”
