Create an effective holiday marketing campaign

Your 8-steps guide to an effective holiday marketing campaign (Covid Edition)

We are well into the holiday season, and with Covid-19 disrupting eCommerce and in-store purchasing, businesses have had to reinvent traditional sales and marketing strategies. If you haven’t had the chance to plan your holiday campaign ahead of time, fear not; there is still time to put one in place today!

While most countries are facing lockdowns, and most people are not sure of the possibility of spending the holidays with their families, the outlook of the holiday season will be different from the previous years. This year the focus on family is going to be even more pronounced. Family gatherings will be different, and being together will involve more virtual instances.

The eight essentials of a holiday marketing campaign

Facebook offers an interactive dashboard with shopping insights and great tools to leverage your social media presence and maximize your campaign efforts. While most holiday campaigns are curated post-summer, you can still craft a smart campaign in the following days. Listed below are six essential components of a creative holiday campaign.

#1 Establish your creative idea for the campaign

Connect with audiences by nailing down the core messaging of your campaign. Do you want your audiences to feel joyful, happy, emotional, or connected? Use those emotions across all your communication, make it consistent, and ensure it reflects in your graphics and voice. Adopting a one-off tone that is not central to your company and brand culture will distance you from your audience. So, make sure it resonates with your company’s ethos and vision.

#2 Tell a compelling story

Emotional marketing is impactful when done correctly with honest intent. This year’s turmoil provides an opportune platform to tell a strong story, to connect on a humane level with your audiences. And the holiday season helps brands highlight unique stories. Whether you do this through images, pictures, videos, or user-generated content, you can create an emotional impact and increase brand awareness.

#3 Stock up on consistent content

Consistency, consistency, consistency - this rule of thumb applies to all campaigns and is the mantra for successful social media marketing. It is essential to have enough assets like product photos, visuals, collateral, and videos ready to keep engaging with your audience. If you are a small business and do not have the budget to hire professional photographers or graphic designers, invest in learning how to take killer product photos and videos yourself. Shopify shares a brilliant DIY guide to beautiful product photography, and Luke Ayers shares his tips on product photography on his Youtube tutorial.

#4 Sell across different social media platforms

Creating an online store on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook is a smart way to grow your business. While these are not the only platforms available in the market, they are the ones with the best results and highest return on investment. And setting up shop on either one of these platforms is easy and can become a long-term outlet for small and medium-sized businesses. With Instagram promising to offer in-app checkout, save-now features, and shopping for creators, setting up a shopping experience on Instagram is a smart step for brands.

#5 Partner with influencers

While finding the right partner on social media to endorse your product is a bit tricky, but influencer marketing is not to be taken lightly. Business Insider predicts that brands will spend approximately $15 billion on influencer marketing in 2022. To begin with influencer marketing, you need to identify influencers or micro-influencers (people with 50,000 to 100,000 followers) or nano influencers (people with 1,000 to 10,000 followers). And the platform best suited for influencer marketing currently is Instagram. Before reaching out to your ideal set of influencers, it is crucial to ensure that your campaign is inclusive and diverse and represents your target audience.

#6 Connect with new audiences

The year 2020 has witnessed a myriad of disruptions, with Covid-19 taking center stage. Consumption patterns have changed courses, and during the holiday season, 64% of shoppers explored new services and ventured on to try different gifting options (source: Facebook 2020 holiday guide). Shopping during the holiday season is often related to emotional and impulse purchasing and proves to be an excellent opportunity to test new audiences.

#7 Focus on helping your customers and community

The theme of 2020 has been the community at large. It is the best time to communicate your company’s efforts to help families and local communities. It is important to tell your audiences what your core values are and how you have contributed during difficult times. The holiday season is a time to give, and it is crucial to show support to the community. Brands can do that by supporting local businesses or creating partnerships with them. Partnering with different companies can help drive sales and helps target customers get better value.

#8 Measure and track your results

Tracking and measuring your efforts is fundamental for any successful campaign. It is also essential to set expectations from the outset. What is vital for your business? Is it an increase in sales, an increase in the number of followers, or an improved brand presence? Once you have identified what success means for your holiday campaign, you need to track and measure the results. Google offers a great tool to track your campaigns with its Campaign URL Builder tool.

In conclusion

This holiday season, “together” will have different connotations for different people. Travel restrictions will give rise to virtual celebrations, and families will reminisce and treasure memories. Brands can lead with empathy and leverage emotional marketing that is true to their core. If you haven’t already crafted your holiday marketing campaigns, the above mentioned eight steps can help you craft one now.