13 Clever Holiday Marketing Strategies for 2024

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Provide the best possible customer service
• Consider a supermarket
• Create an Interactive Gift Guide
• Begin your marketing strategy as soon as possible
• Make your holiday email marketing campaigns unique
• Increase the effectiveness of your mobile marketing
  plan
• As part of your vacation promotions,
  consider using video advertising
• Offer Free Gift-Wrapping
• As Christmas marketing tactics, run paid campaigns
• Thank your customers
• Allow VIP clients immediate access
• Give away freebies
• Make use of hashtags
• Important elements that go into holiday
  market campaigning include:
  • Define your target audience
  • Set your objectives
  • Take a look at the previous holiday marketing
    campaign
  • KPIs should be measured
  • Obtain the Support of Social Influencers
  • Make use of shopper emotions
  • Utilize fully prepared materials.
  • Don’t put off your arrangements until the last
    moment
  • Customers should be retargeted
• Conclusion

Introduction

Overall, consumption patterns during the holidays are unexpected. It is also critical for all companies. So now is the time to dramatically increase your holiday marketing strategies to manage business revenue.

A well-planned holiday marketing plan will help increase sales and customer retention by building connections with them. Holiday shopping is usually worth $807 billion, with more than $685 billion spent on presents and other holiday products.

In 2021, 55% of consumers began holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, and 31% began shopping before Halloween. The cheer is spreading. This means that if you want to increase your holiday income, you should consider campaigns and promotional efforts.

However, some tried-and-true methods from previous years may not work out this time. We’ve all been through a great deal together. People’s lifestyles and connections with brands have altered as the situation has changed. People will look not only for the great offers but also for brands that focus on issues and are trusted by social media influencers, so a simple giveaway or a limited-time special offer may no longer be enough.

A successful marketing campaign can engage with consumers when they are willing to spend money by doing last-minute shopping or when they are making plans for the coming year and researching who to go with for specific products or services. Being at the forefront of their minds gives you an edge over your consumers.

Provide the best possible customer service

The vacations are a joyous time of year, they can also be hectic, especially when it comes to gift shopping. However, your company can relieve consumer anxiety by providing useful tips and tricks to make their experience more enjoyable.

Consider a supermarket

Your store could create content that offers simple vacation recipes to make holiday cooking relatively easy. This information would not only provide consumers with valuable information, but it would also encourage people to buy more food from your grocery store.

For your firm, you should concentrate on creating relevant content for your goods or services as well as consumer demands. Before creating holiday content, consider how this will benefit and assist your clients.

It’s also noteworthy to emphasize how your product will help customers from a business standpoint. However, you should only encourage users to consider your goods if it makes sense. Readers will not become customers if you push your service or product on them.

Create an Interactive Gift Guide

You can not go wrong with a gift guide. People always have to cram Christmas shopping into their ever-expanding to-do lists, which makes it hectic. As a result, your consumers will undoubtedly enjoy an easy and quick way to find the perfect gift.

While conventional gift classifications like ‘For Her’ and ‘For a Coworker’ are fine, you can end up making your guide even more useful by classifying products by interest and identity. People will appreciate it if they can find a donation for their favorite ‘foodie’ or ‘dog-lover’ quickly. Remember that by aiding your clients in this manner, you are also reducing their journey from the guidance to the shopping basket.

Begin your marketing strategy as soon as possible

When it comes to building a holiday marketing plan, far too many businesses hesitate. Before December, your target audience should be considering your company and their holiday shopping. As a result, your team should begin planning its seasonal promotional campaign as early as August or September. A holiday marketing strategy can also begin much earlier than November or December.

During the festive season, the competition is particularly fierce. So, your clients’ inboxes will be swamped with special New Year promotional campaigns and limited deals. There’s nothing wrong with jumping on the bandwagon, but if you want to stand out, why not start something different?

You could, for instance, send your customers a vacation to-do list (with a few links to your products or services). It’s a simple, yet wonderful Christmas advertising that just doesn’t show up overly sales-y while still supplying plenty of possibilities to remind folks about your product and encourage people to buy from you.

While many customers prefer to shop at the last moment, others prefer to buy gifts ahead of schedule. Capture this audience ahead of time by sending out vacation advertisements and seasonal offers. With this strategy, you can persuade these early adopters to buy your product.

Make your holiday email marketing campaigns unique

During the holiday period, the competition is particularly fierce, and your clients’ inboxes will be swamped with special New Year promotional campaigns and restricted deals. There’s nothing improper with jumping on board, but if you want to stand out, why not try something different?

You could, for example, send your clients a vacation to-do list (with a few links to your products or services). It’s a simple, yet lovely Christmas advertising that doesn’t appear excessively sales-y while still providing plenty of possibilities to remind people about your brand and encourage consumers to purchase from you.

Increase the effectiveness of your mobile marketing plan

Mobile phones accounted for more than 61% of all web traffic to retail websites.

This means that the majority of shoppers prefer to browse products and place orders while on the go. You simply cannot ignore the power of mobile phones and should instead focus on a razor-sharp holiday mobile marketing plan. During the holiday season, mobile sales are always off the roof. Optimizing your mobile apps for the holidays can increase sales conversions and set a good example for customer support.

Walmart, for example, revamped its mobile SEO approach and provided users who downloaded the app with a sneak peek of upcoming deals.

• To ensure the best possible consumer experience on your mobile marketing, use A/B testing.
• Consider your onsite user experience as you optimize your messaging. Filling out forms on portable devices, for example, can be time-consuming. Expanding mobile CTAs can improve your onsite customer experience.

As part of your vacation promotions, consider using video advertising

What are the benefits of incorporating video into your holiday marketing?

Since there is no better way to convey a holiday greeting than through video. You can use video marketing to promote your entire brand, not just your products.

Video initiatives have been shown to increase mean order value, and 64% of consumers reported that watching an advertising video on Facebook influenced a purchasing intention.

Whether it’s a festive webinar invite video sent via email, a video added to your customer page to wish all of your clients holiday cheer, or a wild and crazy video posted on social media, get imaginative. You can use video to spread applause throughout your holiday marketing campaigns.

Here are some video marketing ideas for the holidays:

• Create a holiday theme – You can quickly create a Christmas break theme by using music (featuring bells), vacation-style text treatments, motion graphics, and so on.
• Personalize your CTA – Create festive CTAs for diverse audiences and holidays. Consider including a sense of urgency in your messaging as the holiday present season approaches.

Offer Free Gift-Wrapping

Gift-wrapping is another task that, except for a few packing fans, no one enjoys. Offering to do this for your customers may be a simple gesture, but undeniably a praised one.

Aside from increasing the company’s reputation, this may result in increased social media awareness. People nowadays post their unboxings on Facebook and Instagram, which may increase your customer value.

As Christmas marketing tactics, run paid campaigns

Consumers’ lives have been made easier by the convenience with which they can buy items online. Shopping has become more enjoyable due to features like comparison and thorough research.

With the increased internet shopping, it is critical that your business is active online and stands out from the crowd. So, what strategic plan should you implement in order to gain more awareness and a higher return on investment (RoI)? The solution is a paid advertising campaign.

Regardless of sector, you can run paid ads on popular online channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Google Ads is an amazing resource of seasonal information. You can create a campaign targeting your target audience based on location.

For example, if you sell women’s clothing, you could target keywords such as “precious gifts for mothers” or “trendy holiday outfits.” Then, create customized ads and landing pages. Those landing pages offer incentives for consumers to shop at your store during the festive season.

Thank your customers

Customers can spend a considerable amount of time during the festive season debating what and where they want to spend their money when it comes to buying gifts. As a result, even faithful and long-term customers may shop somewhere else this holiday season.

If your company wants to entice new and returning customers, it must stay at the forefront of their minds. A great holiday marketing strategy for retaining clients devoted solely and loyal to your brand is to emphasize gratitude.

Show customers how important they are to your company. While there are various ways to thank customers, sending a thank you email or a physical card are both simple acts that can encourage consumers to do their vacation shopping with your company.

Allow VIP clients immediate access

Reward your subscribers with priority access to holiday sales. This allows you to entice buyers to shop ahead of the holidays. Your registered users will feel special because they will be able to find a great discount right now, before everybody else.

How can providing early access help your holiday marketing strategy be more effective?

• Give your premium clients early access – Giving your premium clients early access involves maintaining your ideal customer with exclusive holiday deals and offers.
• Amuse your clients – A sense of uniqueness and special treatment will delight VIP clients and maintain them buying for a long time.
• Begin selling early – It is beneficial to begin selling early, before the holiday rush. It makes it simpler to manage and place orders in advance of the holiday season.

You can also reward your regular clients by automatically sending campaigns with a good discount that is only available to them. You can also provide exclusive deals to clients who participate by telling their stories, photographs, evaluations, and early-bird discounts on social media to create buzz before the holiday period officially begins.

Give away freebies

While many customers are focused on acquiring gifts, they are also attracted to the idea of purchasing something for themselves. That is why offering free goods or a purchased gift is such an effective holiday marketing plan in 2023.

You can use this approach to entice consumers to not only buy your product but also spend a fortune with your company. For example, offering a free item with a $50 purchase encourages users to spend a lot of money. Instead of spending $25 on a product, they splurge and spend $50.

If your company is hesitant to offer freebies, make the reward free shipping.

Make use of hashtags

Almost 81% of people have a social profile, you won’t want to pass up the chance to reach new customers and influence current ones through these channels. If you already use social media advertising, make sure it’s ready for the vacation.

How can you use social media as part of your holiday marketing plan?

Use hashtags on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. While hashtags can be used on Facebook, they aren’t as popular or useful. As a result, it’s a good idea to restrict your use of hashtags to platforms that make the most out of them.

You can use hashtags to spread the word about your offers and promotions. You can also encourage user-generated material by creating a tagline that customers can use when they upload a picture or status about your product or service.

Hashtags are also simple to remember, making it easier for prospective customers to recall your company name. The right hashtags can also enable you to reach new shoppers searching for the perfect gift this holiday season.

Follow shopping trends in your industry for optimal outcomes. What do your customers appear to want the most this holiday season? To generate more hype for your business, use hashtags on your Facebook, Instagram, and other social media accounts.

Important elements that go into holiday market campaigning include:

Define your target audience

Identify and segment your target audience, then gather specific info about them. Learn about their appropriate channels of data consumption. Do they prefer to consume information on their desktop or mobile device? These insights can be used to make informed marketing decisions for holiday promotions.

Set your objectives

You can set realistic goals for the upcoming festive season once you understand your target market and have audited previous holiday campaign groups. The insights will assist you in making your goals more customer-focused while also obtaining as many profits as possible from holiday shoppers.

Take a look at the previous holiday marketing campaign

Auditing the performance of previous holiday initiatives can help you to understand your target audience’s actions. You can develop a greater understanding of previous trends and how they affected the growth of your business. Enlisting all information available will assist in defining the aims for a more effective holiday marketing plan.

KPIs should be measured

After you’ve defined your holiday marketing promotional objectives, you must define the key business KPIs in terms of achieving a fixed percentage of total growth. To provide an outstanding holiday customer service experience, you must ascertain the customer engagement processes and tools required to engage with clients immediately across their preferred channels.

Obtain the Support of Social Influencers

People buy from brands they trust, but they buy from people they trust even more. According to recent data, the ROI of celebrity endorsements is 11 times that of conventional banner ads.

The greatest feature of this type of marketing is that it is suitable for all budgets. With the increase of micro-influencers (5,000–20,000 followers) and nano-influencers (1,000–5,000 followers), you can reap the benefits of this stream without spending lots of money.

Consider the following when planning your Christmas or New Year’s social media promotion campaign:

• Facebook is assumed to be less effective, whereas Instagram and TikTok are the main players. If you are trying to send free products for evaluation, make sure to do so ahead of time. Then influencers will be able to test them out and write about them in time for those early customers.
• Opt for genuineness. This means you shouldn’t think of influencers as a separate ad stream. Instead, think of them as creative partners and give them some leeway. When delivered in the influencer’s distinct style, the message will feel more legitimate and trustworthy.

Make use of shopper emotions

The vacations evoke a range of emotions, from elation to nostalgic memories. A nice holiday marketing strategy taps into these feelings, which can persuade users to include your company in their holiday shopping. Pay special attention to the emotional appeal of your content when developing your vacation marketing campaign. To evoke strong feelings, share interesting and inspiring messages on social media, for example, or provide a behind-the-scenes look at how your company observes the holidays.

Utilize fully prepared materials.

Some companies provide a wide range of holiday designs and other digital products, so you don’t have to build from zero.

Don’t put off your arrangements until the last moment

We’ve all heard that if you pull an all-nighter before the deadline, anything is possible. But wouldn’t we be happier and more relieved if we didn’t have to?

Customers should be retargeted

A remarkable 96% of customers will abandon a webpage without buying a product. This means that only four out of every hundred people who visit your website purchase your service or product. But, change that with a remarketing ad campaign and email advertising.

If a client provides their email address but does not complete their purchase, you can send a follow-up email. This email reminds the reader that they still have an item in their cart, which may persuade them to finish their purchase. A remarketing ad campaign, on the other hand, focuses on customers who have previously visited your website. Even so, that is a large group of people, which is why you can narrow your viewer’s attention to a single product page.

It is among the best holiday marketing campaign strategy that plays on consumers’ inquisitiveness and suspense. In a nutshell, to keep customers coming back, develop a marketing strategy that offers flash deals at specific times or on a regular basis. While giving a 10-20% discount will produce some interest, the most effective flash sales give heavy discounts. How can you offer substantial discounts while still making money? For a limited time, offer a limited number of sale items. How can flash deals and offers to help your holiday marketing plan succeed?

• Prior planning – It is critical to plan ahead of time to determine which offers and discounted rates to promote as flash deals in order for this marketing plan to be successful.
• Shout out loud on noteworthy channels – Make sure to make loud declarations about the flash sales on social networks, your website, and via email.
• Make a buzz – Focus on new deals to build anticipation and encourage consumers to buy.

It is critical for your company to understand each user’s motivations regardless of how you remarket your enterprise. Investigate what caused a user to end up leaving your site.  In some cases, a user might have purchased your product, but your website made the transaction nearly impossible. As a result, you must pay close attention to your marketing plan as well as the functionality of your website.

Conclusion

The holiday season may be the busiest time of year for marketing companies, but it’s also a great chance to increase end-of-year sales and brand awareness. The holidays are an excellent time to invest in building an emotional bond with your intended audience. And if you know how to increase customer engagement, you can always increase transformation. We hope our list has assisted you in locating the great vacation campaign idea. It’s now time to get serious about making plans! Just remember to have some fun along the way.

You are branding yourself for maximum success with the upcoming holiday season by segregating your customers for a highly personalized experience. You can do it by making your campaigns easily shareable, and delivering great deals that are consistent throughout your social channels.

FAQs