The holiday season is upon us! It’s already the middle of November, but if you’re nimble, it’s not too late to implement some inbound marketing tactics to attract people to your business during the holidays. Here are 5 actionable inbound ideas for marketing during the holiday season that you can tailor to your specific business:
1. It’s Not Just About Christmas.
Sure, Christmas is the 800 pound gorilla in the room this time of year, but it’s not the only one. There’s also the Great American Smokeout, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Festivus, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve and Day. While it may be too late to market around some of these holidays this year, they will all be on the calendar next year and every year thereafter. The point is, don’t just focus on Christmas because by doing so, you risk missing out on a sizable chunk of your overall market. Once you decide which of these holidays is best for you to create a campaign around, you can start getting your plans in motion.
2. Create Holiday-Themed Offers.
Offers centered around your theme can include the ever-popular product or services discounts. But it could also include holiday-related content like recipes for holiday meals and treats or holiday-related how-to ideas. The possibilities are endless when you apply you own creative energy and factor in your specific business.
3. Use Social Media - A Lot!
Using social media is a no-brainer here, if for no other reason than timing. The end of the year is coming FAST and social media campaigns can be up and running in a matter of a few days, or even hours. Yes, social media engagement tends to diminish around the holidays, but it can still be an effective tool. By sharing all your great holiday-related content on your social media outlets, you’re likely to boost engagement because much of people talk about on social media during the holidays focuses on the holidays. It’s also important that you continue monitoring social media. By using your preferred social media monitoring tool to track holiday keywords, you can respond to questions and comments proactively.
4. Optimize PPC Campaigns For Holiday-Related Keywords.
Another tool that can work well for you on-the-fly is Pay Per Click. All you have to do is find some good holiday-related keywords that are also related to your products, services or brand. Then create copy for your ad that speaks to what your audience might be thinking about as they search - gifts for the family… for Colleagues… last-minute gifts…, etc. When you create an ad that makes sense to them as they rush to get some of their holiday shopping done, you are also instilling the idea in them that you can meet their needs at any time of year, not just during the holidays.
5. Sponsor A Holiday Event.
The holiday season is a great time to sponsor an event or host a party. The question is, what kind of event should it be? The default is to put up a bunch of festive decorations and maybe hire a Santa for the kiddies. But that, or some variation on that theme, is what everyone else does, isn’t it? To stand out in the holiday marketing crowd, you need to do something different. Of course, go ahead and do the decorations, etc. if it fits into your holiday theme. But make your event unique.
Ask yourself what goal you are trying to achieve and what kind of event will help you reach your target market most effectively. Having an event just for the sake of having an event is pointless, and a waste of resources. But setting a clear goal you can achieve by hosting a get-together makes perfect sense. Once you’ve set the goal, coming up with the right format and features of the event will be fairly easy. As you do this, don’t leave out the possibility of it being a social media event. At the very least, you should include a live stream of your event on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.
The holiday season is the most fertile time of year from a marketing perspective. It’s a time when people expect to be marketed to - heavily. So don’t disappoint them. Hopefully, the ideas we’ve outlined here will help with your holiday marketing, and we hope you were inspired with some ideas of your own. We also invite and encourage you to Reach out to us today for more great inbound marketing ideas for the holiday season and beyond.
