Digital marketing ideas to try over the festive season

‘Tis the season to be jolly and for many of us, it’s a crucial time for making those much-needed sales towards reaching your financial targets and goals.

For the last three months, I have spent a lot of time creating festive marketing campaigns for my clients, so I thought it is a good idea to share some of the top ideas to try over the festive season.

Before we start…

When it comes to festive season online marketing, it’s important to get your planning done as early as possible. And your planning needs to be executed perfectly. There are few things that will make your shoppers angry than when you mess up on their Christmas shopping.

Be prepared. The festive season is the most competitive season for businesses. Make your business stand out.

Another thing I always tell my clients is to give the people a reason to buy. Don’t give them fluff. Give them a reason they need your product! And sell it to them! And most importantly, don’t forget about your existing customers.

Digital marketing ideas to try over the festive season

Social media:

Social media is a busy time over the festive period. Make your social media channels stand out. One way of doing this is to make your social media more festive by perhaps adding a Christmas hat to your logo (if the design allows it). Or add a snowy effect to your cover images on Facebook. There are so many fun and interesting things you can do to your social media profile pictures to make it more festive. Remember to update it after Christmas though.

Another fun idea is to start a #12DaysOf campaign. I love this idea because it is so versatile. For one of my clients we are doing a #12DaysOfDesserts campaign. For another client we are doing a #12DaysOfChristmasSpecials campaign.

My favourite campaign we are doing is the #12DaysOfCheer campaign where followers will be asked to share their fondest festive memories for a chance to win a holiday! There are so many fun ways you can incorporate this into your brand.

To generate engagement over the festive season, ask your followers some questions. One thing I’ve learnt is that people love to talk about themselves and this is not necessarily a bad thing. Ask your readers about their favourite festive recipes, if they have any Christmas traditions, where they usually go on holiday over the festive season, what their favourite Christmas memory is.

Design or create beautiful e-cards to draw more attention.

Polls, polls, polls. There’s a group of people on social media that we call an “onlooker audience”. This is not a technical term, so don’t quite me, but it is a fun way to refer to those who actively use a social media account without interacting with anyone.

This is quite popular for Instagram and Twitter, although we see several audience members on Facebook following this approach too. A fun way to engage these people is by doing polls. A poll only requires your reader to select an option (and most of the time the poll results are anonymous so most won’t mind answering).  

Try asking whether they are cooking at home or going out for Christmas lunch, whether they have already finished their Christmas shopping or if they are going on holiday over the festive season. Again, there are many fun ways you can incorporate this into your festive marketing strategy.

Giveaways! I cannot stress this enough. If you want to see reach and engagement on any social media platform, host a giveaway over the festive season. The trick here, however, is to give away a prize that is 100% worth it. Don’t skimp on something small. Stick with the big guns – personalised gifts are a real winner!

Create limited-time offers to entice people to buy now!

Website or blog:

Gift guides are wildly popular. And they show a high click-through and conversion rate. If you are a product-based business, creating a gift guide will most-likely give you conversions.

Content is KING! If possible, create content that will make your reader’s lives easier. For example, for one of my clients, we’ve put together a guide to surviving the festive season when you are hosting your family. Another client of mine went with a completely different approach to the festive season and we’re creating 7 hacks for the perfect Christmas roast. This is a video campaign, and we’ve seen great results so far.

Another great content idea is to share what goes on behind the scenes in your business over the festive season – you can also roll this out to social media. Share pics and stories from the people in your team. Introduce the people behind your brand.

Your content marketing strategy should be super strong and completely relatable this time of year. Pump some humour into your content. Make it funny, make it stand out.

Also create a landing page with your festive offers and encourage readers to shop now – you can do this with limited-time only discounts, upgrades, etc. Add a sign-up form with an even further discount to encourage people to sign up to your newsletter.

Newsletters:

Newsletter/email marketing is a wonderful direct marketing tool. You have all of your customers and subscribers at the tip of your finger.

Send a weekly email to your database in the weeks leading up to the festive season. Include special offers, discounts and more in your newsletters.

Split your database in two and target those customers who have shopped from you before. Encourage another sale by giving this database an extra special discount offer. People are very likely to repurchase if you share something exclusive.

Write headlines that make your readers want to click. Spread the Christmas cheer. But, don’t spam your readers. One email per week is enough.

Get personal and address your customers directly. Personalise your email subject lines. Something along the lines of “Imka, here’s how to survive the festive season on a budget” would get better open rates than “Survive the festive season on a budget”. People love hearing and seeing their own names, that’s why personalised gifts are always a winner!

Last year, we created a fun “report” card for one of my baking clients where we shared stats from the year. It included the amount of flour used, how many km they have driven, the biggest order they have received and the most-extravagant order they have made, to name a few. The subject line was something along the lines of “Imka, look how far we have come together…” and it received a 76% open rate! Your readers want to know about your business, so share it with them.

Add some festive cheer to your newsletter headers too. Add some snow, or a Christmas hat, or some fun bells and whistles. Experiment with animations too. Make it fun and festive!

Unfortunately, the festive season seems to be about discount offers and it’s the battle of the brands with the biggest discount codes. But remember to make it work for you.