“If you’re not in the middle of your Black Friday marketing strategy by now, you’re doing it wrong.”
If you’re hearing this for the first time, it’s time to look at what’s on the horizon and make it a priority. Understanding the elements of a successful holiday marketing campaign is the first step toward aligning your clients for visibility, growth, and, of course, sales.
Holiday marketing done right creates an increased urgency for promotions, a higher demand for products because of the season, and an overall feeling of holiday cheer. Most consumers are really happy during festive times. It’s important to embrace and capitalize on that when thinking of marketing ideas and how your holiday campaign should look like. Even not the most loyal customers will be there for the holiday rush and join the festive season.
Crafting an effective digital PR strategy starts with defining your client’s target audience to understand how things may have shifted or evolved over the past year. The next step is to look at what happened during previous holiday campaigns to discern what went right and where you can improve. You’ll be able to create goals better suited for your target audience if you understand what’s been done before. Finally, you must look at the key performance indicators (KPIs) to make sure you’re using the right tools and platforms that engage and delight your client’s audience.
The right strategy creates longevity and loyalty. At the core, your clients should have a centralized theme to align your marketing and PR channels around one message. This also helps with the timeline of when your activation starts. The best holiday marketing campaigns start with these simple steps:
Choose goals
What’s the heart of the campaign and the outcome your clients are looking for? SMART goals can help create clarity and focus on the marketing needs and how they’ll be addressed to attract holiday shoppers.
Target audience
Strive to help your client better understand their target audience. This involves finding out where they hang out, what they like to do, what their problems are, and the items that generate interest for them. This helps you make the best strategic marketing decisions with your budget, and it should go beyond just holiday shopping.
Include holiday messaging and calls-to-action on the client’s website
People need someplace to go. One of the first places they visit is the website. Revamping the design to be more festive and focused on the holiday season can work wonders. The CTAs and messaging should be clear, there should be interactive personalization, and there should be banners and pop-ups to direct people to where they want to be when it’s time for the holiday promotion while making the most out of the holiday spirit that’s in the air.
Use social media for giveaways
Social media marketing and influencer marketing are a good way to gain visibility and engagement while keeping costs low. This creates interest and sales while building excitement. Contests and quizzes help create quick marketing wins, while promotional campaigns from celebrities via holiday-themed content also do wonders for overall customer engagement.
Consider early access
An effective Black Friday or even a Christmas Eve marketing strategy gives early access to customers who are loyal to the brand. This helps get them excited about what’s coming and what they can get early and builds momentum throughout the promotion period. Early discounts, being able to see and purchase products before the general public, and getting exclusive deals help the brand manage orders before the big day and keep their trusted customers happy. Big or small, a holiday deal in early access is bound to boost customer experience to your most loyal clients.
Leverage mobile devices
Mobile phones are huge in helping make sales and getting to an audience of people who live for the mobile experience. Having mobile-only deals can incentivize customers to engage more. Using A/B testing and optimized messaging helps increase traffic.
Use influencers
Partnerships are huge in the world of PR and marketing. In fact, 17% of companies spend half of their marketing budget on influencers. When used correctly, you’ll create a buzz within their following as well as theirs. Leverage niche audiences to increase brand awareness. This should increase traffic to the site and boost sales and holiday ROI.
Extended deals
It’s no secret that there are always a few last-minute stragglers looking for great gifts. There are multiple reasons for the delay, but having extended deals can make a huge difference. Add expedited shipping to ensure the gifts arrive on time, and your clients will have new customers who become loyal to the brand, strengthened relationships, and more.
Leverage user-generated content
Great PR campaigns happen organically when you don’t have to pay for them. Using content from your customers not only makes them feel special, but it’s social proof that lasts long after the holiday marketing campaign is over. Create holiday-specific messaging and hashtags, post customer stories and videos, build content around platforms and the stages of the campaign, and follow up with emails, ads, and social media posts throughout the campaign.
Use paid ads in tandem with earned media
With so many people being online, your digital marketing and PR strategy won’t work if you miss the “digital” component. Creating an earned media strategy can offer rewards long after the holiday season. In addition to earning organic media placements for your clients, run paid ads on the platforms where the audience is with keywords people look for. Once they find your client, there should be landing pages and specific retargeting ads offering incentives.
Conclusion
It’s important to plan for post-holiday marketing campaigns and keep them running for a while after the holiday season is over. If you can help your clients run holiday marketing campaigns all year to include those holidays most people don’t consider, their brand will continue to deepen customer relationships year-round. The key to any holiday marketing strategy is to keep your client’s brand top of mind while building engagement, establishing trust, and converting sales.