As of today, you have only 12 days left till Christmas is upon us – which also means there’s not much time left before it’s all over. Since we know the holidays have a reputation for being one of the busiest times of the year, we thought it would be a great time to list some of the possible ways you can leverage this holiday period to engage more people with your brand or business.
On the 12th step of Christmas Marketing, my true love gave to me… A seasonal Profile Picture.
That’s right, spruce up your profile picture on all networks. Get those Photoshop skills into good use and either decorate your profile pictures or logos with a Santa hat, a seasonal change of colours or even exchange it for a royalty-free image if you can’t Photoshop well there are plenty of places and holiday-themed images to be had, just use the google. If you need the different profile picture sizings remember you can download our free Photoshop social media templates from our blog article on image sizings on social media.
On the 11th step of Christmas Marketing… A Seasonal Cover Photo.
That’s right, if you’re doing the profile picture then you should also follow that theme across your social networks with cover/header photo updates, also your website, so you have that flow throughout the user’s experience with your business. Here are some examples of known brand re-theming cover photos in the build-up to the holidays.
on the 10th step of Christmas Marketing… Seasonal designed posts!
Design your post with the holidays in mind, even just a graphic wishing people happy holidays or a merry Christmas is great. I suggest going to Canva and playing around with some designs and season quotes. Even though a cute picture of a Santa puppy or kitten in there to cover all emotional angles 🙂
on the 9th step of Christmas Marketing…Seasonal Motion Graphics
Just in case you didn’t get the memo, motion graphics and Video get the user’s attention better than a static image does. You can make your own video, tweak an existing one to reflect the holidays or even simpler is to download Boomerang or Hyperlapse from Instagram and make some original content on the fly.
on the 8th step of Christmas Marketing… Facebook Comment Giveaways!
Everyone loves free stuff and this helps engage your audience so this is a no brainer. It’s easy for people to enter and to track entries. So all you need is some basics.
- Create an eye-catching picture for your post.
- Keep the question simple. Like, “What treat are you looking forward to eating this holidays?”
- Put the instructions & the prize on the picture itself and remember not to overloads the image with too much text, as it can be distracting.
As you can see the picture does all the work, now you can post this across your socials.
Now, this can be something that you can do on all your social networks, not just Facebook. On Twitter you can do a Retweet and Follow contest. Again make sure the image is good enough to entice, you can put the details into the tweet itself and hashtag it as need be. Now on Instagram you should put the instructions on the Photo like with the Facebook one above. Common ways to hold a contest on Instagram are to follow, repost and tag. Also, you could do a YouTube or Google Plus comment give away too. Best to focus on your 2 biggest socials networks for competitions, unless you are happy to give away several prizes.
on the 7th step of Christmas Marketing…Sales Promotions
Being the biggest buying time of the year, this is the perfect time to do sales promotions. There are so many ways on every network, however here are a few to consider as they do work well.
- Early bird sales
- Limited quantity or one day only sales
- Free shipping is always a good one, make sure put in conditions for overseas shipping!
- Buy one Get one free (plus a set of steak knives)
- General discounts. X amount off this range and so forth.
- Couple that with an eye-catching photo and you will get reaches.
- Repost, retweet, share, and do it all again, a few times a day. People may miss it the first 20 times.
on the 6th step of Christmas Marketing… New Years is only 6 days after Christmas
You can use all the above methods on a New Year’s promotions as well, while you are coming up with ideas for Christmas also think of other that you can continue pushing past into the new year. Depending on your business or products this may work very well.
on the 5th step of Christmas Marketing… Partner with a Cause
It’s the time for giving, so give back to charities or to those less fortunate than ourselves, this is good for not only business and brand reputation but also the community. This can engage a much wider audience particularly at this time of year, you may even motivate others to follow suit and help a cause.
on the 4th step of Christmas Marketing… Keep customers engaged
Ask them questions about your products, try and start conversations and keep up with customer support via twitter. Even ask your followers to post their favourite holiday images on your feels or using your products. Get them involved!
on the 3rd step of Christmas Marketing… a reminder of what it’s all about the ETC
How does your business tie into the holidays? How do your products tie into the festive season? Leverage these questions to produce relevant content and contests during this time. The biggest point to remember when tying into a to the holiday season is ETC. That’s EMOTION, THEMES & COLORS, get them right and your halfway there.
on the 2nd step of Christmas Marketing… The giggles
Don’t forget about humour! It’s the holidays and we all want to feel good. Make everyone feel good with well-placed and funny Christmas memes, these can make someone smile and maybe follow you that might not know they really need your business.
on the 1st step of Christmas Marketing… Analytics? What the.
And you thought it was going to be something fun! Well this is where the magic happens, between the mystical fluttering fairies and the colourful dancing gnome Ah ok so there is no gnomes and fairies, but the data, but this is where you can see trends so always keep note of your analytics while doing any social media campaign, see what works and see what flops. Leverage anything that jumps out and focus that. Come next year you’ll be a pro!
