It began with Thanksgiving followed by Halloween and Black Friday Sales, the holiday shopping fever is at its peak. Retailers of all kinds wait eagerly for the holiday season sales and start preparing much ahead of the events to ramp up their sales significantly. Holiday marketing is unique because businesses can try out innovative marketing strategies and campaigns that they would not dare at other times. Holiday campaigns are essential for companies because people are ready to spend more than they would typically do, and it provides enormous opportunities for increasing sales. Last-minute shoppers are usually heavy spenders who can help create a healthy business bottom line.
Businesses must relook at their marketing strategies during this holiday season because the pandemic changed people’s shopping habits and even impacted their relationships with brands. The tried and proven marketing tactics that worked earlier will not be effective now. With the surge in online shopping, a time-specific discount or a simple giveaway will not work. Besides looking for the best deals and brands, people will look for brands that address social issues and earn the trust of social influencers. Today’s holiday marketing ideas will be entirely different from the traditional approach of the years before the pandemic.
The most notable change in the marketing approach is that these would be more content-driven, increasing sales by delighting customers.
Gift guide drives holiday marketing campaigns
People shop frantically for gifts during the holiday season and experience tremendous mental stress to figure out various gifts that match their bucket list. Besides gifts, there are so many other items in the shopping list that keeps expanding every moment as new things keep adding. Buying gifts by checking the list repeatedly and going through the pains of the indecisive moments can be a frustrating experience. It can impact the spending if shoppers tend to wind up early, unable to cope with the fatigue of intense shopping.
To ensure a more comfortable shopping experience that encourages more spending, one of the best festival campaign ideas is to offer a Gift Guide to shoppers. Gift guides make the task easy for shoppers as they need not hunt for items. Categorizing items like ‘For a colleague,’ ‘For Her’ is quite normal, but going a step ahead, you can make the guide more valuable by categorizing items according to personality and interest. People will love to find a gift for their favorite ‘dog lover’ or ‘foodie.’
Be creative with email marketing campaigns targeting holiday shoppers
The competition is too much during the holiday season when shoppers have their inboxes flooded with marketing messages about limited deals and promotions. All marketers must implement email marketing but must be creative to stand out from the crowd. Remember that yours should be holiday marketing campaigns with a difference. Get intimate with customers by sending them a to-do list with a few links to your products for the holidays. It is an excellent way to solicit sales without talking directly about it. People will like the soft approach in reminding them about the brand, which draws their interest and drives them to purchase.
Rope in social influencers
Customers’ faith and trust in influencers override their trust for brands. Shoppers are more willing to buy according to the recommendations of influencers instead of exercising their brand choices. The ROI of influencer marketing is 11 times more than advertising. The flexibility of the cost of influencer marketing makes it affordable for all sizes of businesses, although with variable returns. Micro-influencers and nano influencers are less expensive but highly effective to ensure higher sales. But you must prepare early by choosing the influencers and the most effective social media platforms that can boost sales. For example, TikTok or Instagram can have the edge over Facebook in influencer marketing.
An easy way to add more spice to your holiday marketing campaign is to offer gift wrapping. Although it is a small gesture, the rate of appreciation is relatively high, enhancing brand value and earning a lot of attention across social media.
