Inspiration for Your Holiday Digital Marketing

“Hey Siri, play “The Holiday Season” by Andy Williams.” Yes, it is October, and that means it’s crunch time to start planning, initiating, and executing your seasonal marketing strategies. We aren’t going to lie to you – you probably should have started working on ideas a couple of months ago, but now there’s no time to waste! So, here are 9 ideas for your holiday digital marketing that can help increase sales – and boost your brand.

1. Get festive and decorate.

You probably decorate your stores and offices for the holidays, right? So why wouldn’t you decorate your online storefront or business site? A few minor design implementations will give your company and the user experience (UX) a little extra sparkle in their holidays. 

Decorate your website, social media accounts, and email blasts in a way that matches your brand and attracts your target audience. If your online style is more classical/subtle, just add some scripted holiday messages. If your site is more upbeat/colorful, go all out with Christmas lights, etc. 

• Create landing pages with custom content for each of your target audiences
• Segment your potential buyers into audience groups and write content they will relate to
• Guide them to the products that will suit their wants/needs. 

Depending on your gift options, you may also want to create individual landing pages for specific user groups or for products or promotions with fun, holiday-related content. 

2. Be social and spread the holiday cheer.

Use your social media platforms to engage with your audience in a positive way that still conveys the message of why your products or services are the best for the gift-giving season. Be careful not to overwhelm your followers with constant reminders of your products, but instead, think about promoting holiday-themed contests with prizes they can use on your website. 

Example #1: We might run a contest for our followers that when they use the hashtag #ExploredIronisticHolidaySite, their name will be entered in a drawing for a free site audit. (This prize might seem boring to some, but for those of you managing websites, an audit certainly is a welcome gift!)  

Example #2: Some of our credit union clients run special, weekly giveaways on their social accounts during the holidays, rewarding each winner with a gift card. This is usually one of their most popular campaigns and encourages a lot of social engagement.

Note: You want to make sure that your holiday social campaign is not implemented a mere week before the 25th but that you build up your marketing strategy weeks in advance so the seed is already planted when your customers start their seasonal shopping.

3. Email seasons greetings

It’s important to incorporate the meaning and spirit  of the holidays into your email and direct mailing pieces. These messages could include deal announcements, gift ideas, games themed around your products/services, and more:

• Offer free shipping and/or a reduced price on express shipping for those last-minute shoppers. 
• Include gift wrapping and/or an enclosed note for gifts sent directly to the recipient.
•  Remind everyone that gift cards make a great, easy gift by designing a holiday-themed crossword puzzle for your recipients to play. 

The creative possibilities are endless, so take some time to brainstorm ideas that will fit your company’s brand and personality. 

4. Leverage other online sales platforms 

For convenience, many people choose to do their online holiday shopping solely through providers such as Amazon, Target, and BestBuy. Amazon has seen record-breaking holiday sales of over 21 billion dollars – that is a heck of a lot of sales to push through a website. Do some research and see if it makes sense for your company to sign up as a seller.

If Amazon is too much to deal with this holiday season, consider some paid online advertising options. Google PPC campaigns and/or Facebook ads are an excellent start. For Google PPC, it is essential to do your homework with keyword research and content targeting to get the biggest bang for your buck. With Facebook, there are options for targeting people with specific likes, demographics or from specific locations. Targeting is critical with paid advertising to help stretch your budget and not waste resources advertising to the wrong audience.

5. Give back to the community.

The holidays are a time for sharing and caring. Show your customers that you care by sponsoring a local charity or event or supporting a seasonal charitable campaign like Toys for Tots. 

Everyone feels more inspired to give during the holidays – hence, Giving Tuesday. You could run a special promotion on this day and advertise a portion of sales going to a cause of your choosing. You could also consider giving a percentage of all your holiday sales to a charity, and let your potential customers know how they can add their support. 

6. Give back to your customers.

People EXPECT holiday sales and specials, and the fact of the matter is that if you don’t give consumers special treatment, they will find someone else who will. Having some hook to show your potential customers that you value their business is vital. Send some sharing and caring towards your customers by offering some freebies. 

7. Make it easy 

Everyone is extra busy during the holidays. Make it easy for your customers to make purchases right from their mobile devices. If you haven’t heard of responsive website design before, now is the time to learn about it (ideally, from us, Ironistic). We strongly believe in building sites responsively. 

On the other hand, if you have an app, give users a discount for downloading it or making a purchase through it. 

8. Create a sense of urgency 

The stress of making sure those packages arrive on time is very real. Mitigate that stress by encouraging your customers not to wait until it’s too late:

• Use call-to-action statements like “order by X date to receive your gifts before December X”. 
• You can also provide discounts if someone orders by a specific date. 
• Encourage people to get their shopping out of the way early by offering special promotions in October and November. 

Remember, plan ahead! 

9. ‘Tis the season to be jolly 

Most importantly, stay in good spirits! This may seem silly to include in the holiday digital marketing tips, but we think it is important. Stay upbeat and positive when a customer contacts you through the website, social media, or live chat. Excellent customer service with a smile goes a long way – and not just during the holiday season, of course.

Final Inspiration Just for Service Providers During the Holidays: 

Typically, “boost sales for the holidays” means retail/e-commerce strategies, but let’s talk about services and holiday digital marketing tips. Many Ironistic clients are professional services companies: government contractors, consulting firms, associations, technology companies, etc. Boosting sales for these types of companies involves a lot of planning ahead and pitching ideas for the following year. So some marketing tips around the holidays are:

1. Reach out to existing clients with recommendations for 2023.
2. Create content around 2023 planning, industry predictions, or trends and promote that through email, social media, and even PPC/paid social media advertising.
3. Create an email drip campaign for building a 2023 strategy.
4. Comb through 2022 leads (especially leads that did NOT hire you) and reach out about their 2023 plans. They will be impressed that you remembered them AND are still interested in their business. 

The bottom line is – show potential clients that you are planning ahead on THEIR behalf. They will thank you for it come the new year!

– Chris Foss, Co-founder, and President