The holiday season is a time that many people look forward to all year, as it gives them a chance to spend quality time with friends and family members, eat delicious food, and provide meaningful gifts. For businesses, the holiday season offers the opportunity for significant spikes in revenue, allowing them to ring in the new year in a solid financial position. Creating a strategic holiday marketing plan can give your organization just what it needs to get a sizable boost in revenue.
Match with the Holiday Image
Consumers have come to expect certain businesses to change their image during the holiday season, which has left some business owners looking for advice about how to advertise for the holidays. Companies like Starbucks alter their drink offerings and change their cups, while brick and mortar stores often decorate their storefronts and interiors to create a sense of holiday spirit. Your company can easily follow suit by implementing similar strategies relevant to your business model, such as decorating your physical locations or offering exclusive holiday products that are only available during the holiday season.
Many businesses also find that offering seasonal special services, such as free or cheap gift wrapping, incentivizes consumers to visit their location and spend more than they might otherwise. Your organization can also tap into more subtle holiday business image techniques that are less costly and still effective, such as adding festive imagery to your website or writing holiday-specific messaging over email and social media channels.
All of these holiday imaging strategies are relatively straightforward, and they can help your business reach customers who look forward to the holidays all year long and are incredibly enthusiastic when they come around each year.
Make Your Marketing Personal
Although personal marketing is more effective throughout the whole year, this is especially true during the holiday season when people are feeling warmer and fuzzier than ever. Small businesses can use their small size to their advantage by creating a holiday marketing campaign that is personal and heartfelt, which easily cuts through the masses of advertisements sent by larger corporations.
One of the easiest ways to make your marketing more personal is by contacting customers who have already purchased from your store and providing a coupon or special offering. Doing so might entice them to come back and take another look at what you have to offer during the holidays. You can do this with mail ads, though an email marketing campaign may prove more cost-effective and lucrative.
Social media can get your personalized messages across, particularly when you use targeted ads and engage with customers in a meaningful way by responding to their direct messages (DMs) or commenting on their posts when they mention your business. Although many larger corporations have the money and resources to cast wide nets and use broad marketing campaigns, small businesses can attract more customers by focusing their campaigns on providing a personal touch.
Forge Local Partnerships
The holidays are the most charitable time of year, and small businesses often find success when they partner with local charities or influencers to spread brand awareness. Some small businesses, for example, host days of giving, where a small percentage of their proceeds from that day go to a local food bank or after-school program in the community. Because people want to do good during the holiday season, they are much more likely to visit your store and make a purchase if they know some of it goes to a local organization.
Partnerships among other businesses can also prove to be helpful during this time. If two non-competing stores in a downtown shopping district decide to offer 10% off coupons to the store next door to each customer that makes a purchase, both stores may benefit from increased brand awareness and sales. Another way to forge local partnerships is by hosting a table at a local holiday event, where you can talk to community members and other business owners about what you offer while also providing incentives to stop in the store or log onto your website.
A Media Partner Can Help with Your Holiday Marketing Strategy
There are numerous possible holiday marketing strategies for small businesses, and it can be challenging to narrow down which ones may present the best opportunities for your organization. The holidays are already a busy time but nailing down a solid marketing plan sets your business up for success throughout the holiday season and beyond.
If you aren't sure where to start your holiday marketing, recruiting help from a media partner might be the solution. They can help you create and carry out a comprehensive holiday marketing plan to help skyrocket your sales this holiday season.
