Marketing Ideas for the Holidays
‘Tis the season to do some holiday marketing for your company! Here are some seasonal marketing ideas show that your brand is happy to be a part of the holiday cheer:
Advent Calendar
An advent calendar is a great starting point for marketing ideas. For example, a cosmetics company could mail out a scratch-off advent calendar. Each day, customers could scratch off to reveal beauty tips, hacks, etc. On the last day, there would be a coupon or a special offer. There are many other ways to utilize this idea. Social media posts/GIFs, a special page on your website, or even something in your storefront!
Holiday E-Blasts
The possibilities are endless when it comes to e-blasts during the holidays. If there is ever a time to send out emails to your clients, it is during the holidays. Sending a simple happy holidays message always adds a personal side to your brand. More than likely, you’ll want to add some sort of seasonal offer with your holiday wish – after all, the holidays are the time to be generous.
Promote Your Holiday Specials
The end of the year is the best time to promote your company’s products/services – customers are spending money on holiday gifts. Give discounts, release a new product, anything you can do to get current or potential customers interested in what your company has to offer.
Giveaways
In the holiday spirit, giveaways are a very popular way to spruce up your marketing this season. There are so many ways to interpret this marketing opportunity.
Charitable Giveaways
Your business could do something charitable for a customer in need during the holiday season. For instance, one of ocreations clients, J&A South Park, recently donated and installed a free furnace to a local family in need to stay warm this winter. Doing something charitable is always good, and shows your customers that your brand cares about its customers and giving back.
Along with charitable donations, you could also encourage your employees, and potentially even customers to donate to a charity during the holidays. This could be anything from donating money, food to a food bank, volunteering, etc. Set a goal for your company, and see if you can surpass your goal! Share your goals, progress, and results on social media or via an email blast!
Random Giveaways
Many companies do random giveaways on social media. Usually it involves selecting followers who re-share the post, comment on the post, or tag a friend in the post (winners are selected at random). These giveaways are usually something small, although during the holidays, you could have a series of small giveaways that build up to a large giveaway.
Contest Giveaways
Another popular giveaway is a contest giveaway. This is usually more involved, requires rules to present to your customers, and usually only allows one winner (though if you have great submissions and are feeling generous, make your giveaway to your top 3 submissions!) Examples of ideas for giveaway themes could be submitting your best ugly Christmas sweater, sharing a favorite holiday memory or tradition, even a snowman building contest! Try and relate the contest back to your brand somehow – if not, a general contest giveaway is always something that can add a fun, personal element to your brand.
Create a Wish List
During the holidays, many people write out wish lists. Make a custom wish list for your brand! For example, you could send out an interactive PDF that has a Wish List template (custom branded, of course) that customers can download and fill out products or services that they want specifically from your company. Interactive PDFs are great because they can be send digitally/via mobile, or printed out at home.
Your brand could also create print versions of a Wish List and mail them out to customers. This could come in a holiday envelope to add a seasonal touch to your mailer. Even sending a special discount/coupon with this may encourage customers to fill out the wish list and give it to someone with the coupon for a higher chance of purchasing the items.
Holiday Greeting Cards
Add a personal touch and friendly company characteristic by sending out holiday greeting cards. As mentioned prior, this can be done digitally via an e-blast. Holiday greeting cards could also be posted on social media (newsfeeds or “stories” on Instagram and Facebook), or even printed physically and sent to customers. Oftentimes, it’s a good idea to put an offer in with your holiday message. For instance, “Wishing you a happy holiday. Here’s our gift to you this season” with a free gift with purchase, coupon, or other special offer.
Don’t forget about New Years too! Make another greeting card wishing your customers a happy, healthy New Year!
Create Your Own Wrapping Paper
A quick and fun holiday themed idea is to create your own wrapping paper (usually this is done with making a pattern of your logo or using brand elements/colors). Depending on your industry, size of your company, etc. the wrapping paper could be used as a limited time purchase/gift for your customers. It could also be used as a gift for your employees.
Decorate Your Website
Whether it’s a header image, adding twinkling lights, or even having a pop-up on your site, add something decorative to your site to show your company is in the holiday spirit! Pop-ups are always a great idea to capture email addresses. Some fun pop-up ideas include a free gift with purchase or a seasonal holiday discount.
Host Events
If your company has a storefront or hosts events, there are an abundance of ideas for sharing your holiday spirit with customers. Free hot chocolate is a great way to get customers to show up and socialize. Cookie decorating is also a fun opportunity, even for all ages! Pictures with Santa, or even inviting carolers to sing during specific hours could also be great opportunities for your business to engage with your customers and community.
12 Days of Christmas or 8 Days of Hanukkah
The 12 Days of Christmas or 8 Days of Hanukkah are great templates for campaigns, giveaways, etc. Depending on the size of your company, you may be able to do a giveaway for each day, or you can slowly build up to a grand prize giveaway at the end of the campaign.
This year, ocreations is running a 12 Days of Creative Christmas – check our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and/or LinkedIn each day to see what we’re celebrating for each of the 12 days. Follow along all 12 days for a chance to win free merchandise!
Now is the time to get in the holiday spirit, and share it with your community of customers, followers, fellow employees/co-workers, friends and family. Putting together a marketing campaign, a holiday promotion, contest, or giveaway are all great ways to get involved in the seasonal cheer. The best way to spread holiday cheer is to engage with your customers! At ocreations, we love the holidays. Need help marketing your brand during this season? We can help! Let’s get festive, let’s get creative.
