With stores gearing up for the holiday shopping season, marketing campaigns are in full swing. For most retail businesses, the season is a financial windfall, and there’s plenty of revenue for the taking. Shoppers are projected to spend an average of $804 each this year on gifts and goodies, according to the National Retail Federation.
To ensure a piece of the holiday pie comes to her employer, Tyger Danger, who heads the marketing department at high-end cakery Lady M Confections, has put in some extra hours on her marketing plans.
“This year, Lady M built a multi-channel marketing campaign to touch its customers with relevant and engaging content,” she says.
The campaign is designed to capitalize on the busy season, which starts right around Thanksgiving.
“Our business during the holiday season is at an all-time high,” she says. “Online orders and traffic to our brick and mortar locations in New York City and Los Angeles peak this time of year.”
To help inspire your holiday marketing efforts, we asked Danger to explain how she plans to attract more customers. We also found several other brands with killer holiday marketing in place, and we’ve added in a few tips learned from each brand.
Lady M turns to social media
This season, Danger wanted to find a way to thank customers for making Lady M cakes a staple at their holiday festivities.
“We feel blessed every day to have such amazing customers. So, I thought, let’s ask them what makes them feel blessed and give them a hub to have that conversation, share photos and videos with a fun, correlating hashtag,” she says.
That’s how the #SweetLife holiday campaign was born. The brand is asking customers to share who makes their life sweet by uploading a picture to Facebook or Instagram. Danger periodically selects winners who receive a free cake for themselves and one for the person who makes their life sweet.
What you can learn from Lady M:
- Try running a simple giveaway on your social media channels that correlates with both your brand and the holiday. If you’re stumped for ideas, try a “12 Days of Giveaways” campaign. Each day for 12 days give one lucky social media customer a free gift. Ultimate Poker is advertising a giveaway like this.
- Use a specific hashtag to help track your progress.
- Keep the giveaway simple.
Food.com goes all out for Thanksgiving
To find holiday marketing inspiration look no further than Food.com. This site has converted its main page into a digital cookbook.
From recipes and how-to videos on its main website to budget-friendly tips on its food blog, the brand has invested serious time into its holiday marketing endeavor. Even its social media page has Thanksgiving-themed cover art.
What you can learn from Food.com:
- Use your website to its full potential. Your main page is prime marketing real estate.
- Find holiday images that connect your brand with the holiday and showcase them on your website and social media channels.
Petco embraces the holiday season
Where do you go to do your holiday shopping? Petco? While this pet-friendly retailer might not be the first stop on your shopping trip, the brand is making sure you don’t leave Fido off of your list.
Petco has decked out its site with a winter theme. You can find an array of gift ideas, which you would expect for the holiday season, but the company also offers some not-so-obvious holiday content. For example, there’s a section on traveling with your pet during the holidays. Their marketing efforts don’t stop online either. The store is already promoting a series of holiday events, like a paw print ornament class.
What you can learn from Petco:
- Create holiday-themed content. Whatever your brand, whatever your product, brainstorm a list of topics that you can create and post to your website or blog to increase holiday website traffic and sales. For example:
o AARP has blog content that offers money saving tips for the holiday season.
o Military.com has an article to help soldiers find more money during the holidays.
o CoolRay, a plumbing and heating company, created an article about keeping your holidays clog free.
- Consider hosting an in-store holiday event.
Does your brand have a hot holiday marketing campaign in place? Share it in the comment section below!
