8 Tips for Running a Successful Holiday-Themed Digital Marketing Campaign
Holiday campaigns are among the most effective ways to give your business and brand a quick boost. Here are 8 tips for planning your next holiday-themed digital marketing campaign.
Just because the calendar currently says “September” doesn’t mean it’s too early to start thinking about your holiday marketing campaigns. In fact, if you haven’t already put some thought into the broad strokes of your Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas/New Year’s campaigns — you’re behind the curve at this point.
Holiday campaigns (and promotions!) are among the easiest and most effective ways to give your business and brand a quick boost — so long as they’re done smartly and efficiently.
Following are eight tips to keep in mind when planning out your next holiday-themed digital marketing campaign:
1. Start early. As already noted, not only can the holidays creep up on you, but there’s practically a holiday a month that you capitalize on to boost your brand/products.
Make sure you start planning any major holiday-focused marketing campaigns early, so you have plenty of time to develop a well-executed strategy, create content for your campaign, and get everything up-and-running.
2. Define your goals. Just because you can run a holiday-themed marketing campaign every month doesn’t mean you should. Instead, think about what makes the most sense for your brand/organization and focus on holiday campaigns for those specific events — just like you would do with any other marketing campaign.
What are your core goals, and what do you hope to achieve with this holiday marketing campaign? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads and sales? Once you’ve settled on your campaign priorities, it’ll be easier to figure out a strategy for which holidays to include in your marketing strategy and how to do so.
3. Know your audience. Along the same lines as #2, understanding who your core supporters/members are and how they will react to a holiday-themed campaign is critical.
Corporate types, for example, may not find as much value in a holiday-themed campaign — while parents will love any type of sale on merchandise for their kids at Christmas or Labor Day/Back-to-School.
Once you know if a holiday campaign(s) will work for your audience, then you can focus on tailoring your messaging and content to appeal to them.
4. Create engaging content. There’s no better time to go a little crazy or over-the-top with your content than with your holiday-themed marketing efforts. This is when you can (and should!) create engaging and informative content that is a little more visual-heavy than you would usually go. From blog posts to infographics and videos galore, now’s the time to show off your creative skills with your marketing efforts.
And while you’re at it, don’t be afraid to incorporate holiday-themed visuals into your marketing efforts! People are more likely to be drawn to your campaigns if they contain festive images or videos related to the current holiday.
(Just make sure your marketing collateral for these campaigns keeps to your existing branding guidelines for cohesion with your other marketing efforts.)
5. Create a holiday-themed website and social media pages. Why not give your website and social media pages a festive makeover to get into the holiday spirit? This will help you attract visitors and generate excitement for your upcoming promotions. (You can also create one-off, holiday-themed landing pages attached to your social media or paid advertising efforts to achieve the same effect but on a smaller scale.)
6. Run social media contests and giveaways. Social media contests and giveaways are a fun and engaging way to interact with your supporters/members while simultaneously promoting your core products or services. You can even get creative with the grand prize and choose something holiday-themed that’ll be sure to generate excitement among your supporters.
7. Use paid advertising to reach a wider audience. If you have the budget, consider using paid advertising to reach a wider audience during the holidays. This is especially critical during the Christmas holiday season, when search engines tend to see higher traffic for holiday-related searches.
Make sure you’re setting your ads to target the specific demographics and interests that match your supporters/members — ensuring that your message is seen by the right people.
8. Track your results and adjust your campaign as needed. Don’t forget to track the results of your holiday marketing campaign so that you can see what's working and what's not. This way, you can adjust along the way to ensure that you're getting the most out of your investment.
By following these tips, you’ll be able to create a successful holiday-themed digital marketing campaign for your organization that’ll get your customers in the spirit in no time!