No-Stress Holiday Campaigns
Make the magic happen and stand out for the all the right reasons
Most companies look to close out the year on a high note while celebrating the opportunities and success ahead. We seek to appreciate customers and employees for strong partnerships, while seeding the mindset and momentum needed to meet/exceed business goals in the coming year.
What is your message to close out 2018 and welcome 2019? Do your plans include direct mail such as cards, packages, subscription boxes with a personal touch, or similar? Here’s a reality check:
It’s SHOW Time!
October and November are high season for conferences, then the majority of us hunker down in December for corporate holiday parties and personal holiday celebrations. January brings recovery, gym enthusiasm and sales kickoffs. When it comes to planning, prepping and launching your Winter communications, there is no time to waste.
YOUR Q4 checklist
Calculate what special promotions or discounts you can offer, such as free shipping or waived implementation.
Are there opportunities to co-create content and experiences with your customers, and your customer’s customers?
Consider taking a mobile-first approach in all communications.
Update your branding to get into the holiday spirit. Change your social media profiles or website to capture attention.
Promote your loyal customers and fans - highlight and share their user generated content.
Identify your desired pixels (Facebook, Gooogle, Adobe) to create audiences and enable retargeting.
Build, integrate and/or update your CRM with your marketing campaigns.
Ensure tracking and metrics are enabled for your camapigns so you can measure campaign success and strengths.
Consider multiple campaign types to increase engagement and sharing.
Start thinking about what successful camapigns to transition to the new year.
YOUR Q4 & Q1 THEMES
The Right Energy to Ring in the New Year
Photo: Aaron Burden
Wrap up all your external communications and campains with any of the following themes:
Warm wishes / good tidings
New Year / new beginnings
Celebrate or look back at 2018 successes
Exciting releases and our commitment to you in 2019
2019 forecast of macro and market trends
Travel, trips, destinations and activities
Winter weather, airports to avoid
Holiday shopping do-s, don’t-s and deals
Family, friends and community
Philanthropy and service work
Fitness, nutrition and wellness
If you have any seasonal trend data to share, now is the time! If not, plan for it next year!
YOUR GIFT GUIDE
8 Holiday Campaign Ideas
[Obviously] Holiday Cards: Handwritten cards printed on recycled and sustainable paper in an environmentally friendly envelope are better than email if you are trying to convey real sentiment. You can also dirtch the envelope and do a custom postcard - most printers offer green printing. If you’re going to do an eCard, you need to up your game: spend the time working on a great design with branded images and an elegant delivery experience (Paperless Post is our fave). Infuse a little polite humor so your audience will be more inclined to take proactive action now or in the near future - rather than hitting delete before leaving to grab an eggnog latte.
Playlist Promo with Spotify: Inspire consumers to submit their favorite songs to be featured on your branded, collaborative Spotify playlist. You can integrate all your digital campaigns with your CRM/ESP systems to grow your customer database and first-party data. Join our Exec Walk-On track playlist here.
Shoppable Instagram: Make your brand’s Instagram content shoppable by creating a gallery designed to seamlessly drive consumers from your Instagram feed to products on your website. Include your product home page link in your Instagram bio and cross-promote your Instagram on other social channels.
Instant Win: Give something back to your customers and social media fans during the holidays. Let users find out if they’ve won instantly with unique codes or predetermined winner numbers. Drive sales by rewarding fans with an instant discount code - this works for consumer products and SaaS solutions alike. B2B companies can think further outside the box with non-software prizes suggestive of the key benefits of your solutions. Are you an efficiency platform? A prize could be a General Assembly course credit for the new skill they now have time to master. Or jiu jitsu. Crochet? You get the idea.
Countdown Calendar: Launch a countdown calendar to get you customers and social media followers excited during the holiday season with exclusive giveaways. Drive retargetable traffic to your website and reward loyal followers and customers.
Quizzes and Surveys: Invite customers and prospects to take quizzes to gain a deeper understanding of their preferences and affinities -- and to continue to engage with your audience. Run personality, diagnostic, or poll quizzes to promote deals and products. Make sure your quiz is prominent on your site to increase time spent on the page and clicks. Use the data to create a thought leadership asset for lead generation or media pitching.
Snapchat Filter: Hosting a Holiday Party, user group or conference? Get your staff and customers to share your brand by adding a geo-specific Snapchat filter for the night.
Instagram-Fueled Travel Inspiration: Launch a visually stunning, interactive travel contest centered around adventure and discovery. Highlight authentic, relevant, and compelling content created by travelers and see increased brand awareness, sales, and redemption. Create a panel of travel bloggers as Judges to decide the winner(s) based on specific criteria aligned to your business goals.