The Ultimate Guide to Holiday Advertising Strategies in 2021
Recently, life has been challenging, especially with COVID19 changing the plans we had set out for this year and complicating how we plan for the future.
However, this does not mean you should not plan ahead anymore, especially if we’re talking about the holiday season when it comes to advertising.
The countdown to Christmas has started, and now is the best time for you to think about how you will be strategizing advertising for the holiday season. The thought of this can be a little stressful. Don’t worry, that’s what we’re here for!
This article is going to be your ultimate guide to Holiday Advertising in 2021, and we are going to help you make a holiday marketing plan with these 7 amazing tips.
1. Review all the upcoming holidays
The first thing you should do is to review the calendar to determine upcoming holidays in the year. This way, you can easily decide what holidays you want to schedule a promotion for.
Some of the major US holidays include Labor Day, Halloween, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. However, this list doesn’t include other national and international holidays that take place, such as Black Friday, Giving Tuesday and other religious festivals of other religions.
Therefore, to kickstart your holiday advertising for the year, you must have precise knowledge about these major holidays, as well as their dates.
Now, we move on to the next step...
2. Make a clear plan
After analyzing the major holidays in the US, as well as for deciding on which holidays and occasions you want to focus your marketing and advertisement on, you then need to start making a clear plan.
Email marketing is an effective tool to conquer this, as you can easily send an announcement of the offer of your holiday through email marketing, as well as send reminders of the offers, and the last date and chance of the offer.
3. Plan and schedule your online marketing campaigns
After you have a clear plan, then is the time to plan out your online marketing and advertising campaigns.
In case you’re reading this article in late September or October, there is still adequate time to plan everything accordingly. However, in case it's already November, it’s high time to step it up.
We advise you to take out small amounts of time each day dedicated to planning out your online holiday marketing campaign. Now, depending entirely upon your own specific needs, resources, and time, creating your email campaigns first before branching out to one social media channel at a time would be a wise idea. Or, you can even go in a specific order when you want each advertisement campaign to publish- the choice is totally yours!
4. Team up with influencers
Including influencers in your marketing and advertising campaign has proven to be the most effective tool. This is because by teaming up with the most famous influencers and celebrities, there is positive word-of-mouth from the influencers themselves, through which numerous customers are attracted and acquired.
Therefore, in order to make your holiday advertisement campaign successful, you must consider influencer endorsement and product placement.
The fact that individuals trust people they see and know more than actual business representatives or salespeople is enough proven fact that investing in influencers is a good idea.
When you connect with influencers and pay them to promote or advertise your holiday campaign, a huge pool of customers will be attracted this way.
Here’s what you can do- in case you want to advertise for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, you can consider sending your PR packages or gift boxes to influencers. This way, the influencers will advertise and talk about your products/services with their audience.
5. Channel the festive spirit
What’s better than updating your business’ visual identity in order to channel the festive spirit?
The best way to give that holiday and a festive feel is to give your website, as well as other social media platforms, a small makeover for the holiday season. For instance, in case it’s Halloween and New Year’s, you must plan out and design your website and social media platforms accordingly.
We advise you to work on catchy CTAs, on-page greetings, and a whole different layout of your website in order to create a more festive atmosphere.
Now, here’s another clever tip- use dedicated landing pages for seasonal promotions! This way, your customers will be directed to a landing page that is exclusively for that holiday promotion.
6. Use a countdown timer
A countdown timer is an excellent tool for gearing up individuals, as well as keep reminding them about special holidays and festivities.
By using a countdown timer, you will be creating a sense of urgency, as well as making the audience wait eagerly for the most-awaited holiday offers.
Furthermore, countdowns also signal customers that your specific holiday promotions will not last long, which is why they will be eager to get their hands on the products and services set exclusively for the holiday and festivities seasons. Therefore, this is going to help you boost your holiday sales remarkably.
7. Holiday giveaway and contest
Another clever tool to attract customers in the holiday season and market your business is to run a contest or giveaway on social media.
Not only are these contests cost-effective, but are also an incredible tool to attract new customers. You only need maximum exposure for this contest, which is quite easy as these giveaways on social media are of great hype, especially during the holiday season.
Thus, here’s what you can do- design content (after a countdown of this contest), and structure it according to your own preferences.
For instance, you can go for a classic ‘comment to win’ or ‘share and follow to win’ structure, and then ask the audience to share this contest with their friends to achieve more brand awareness.
8. Gift card promotion
Gift cards are an incredible way to increase sales and revenues. These gift cards are time-specific and are ideal for purchasing for loved ones who aren’t really sure what to get them. Therefore, for the holiday season, you can opt for offering promotions or discounts on these gift cards, exclusively for the holiday season.
