While you may not have started counting down to the holidays yet—in the marketing world, they’re already here! We’ve already seen blogs and brands pushing their 2019 gift guides and there’s no room to fall behind.
It’s easy to put holiday messaging on auto-pilot by relying on clichés (‘tis the season for cheesy emails galore!), but in a sea of messaging sameness, how do you make sure your brand cuts through? In this post, we’ll explore four steps to creating a holiday story that makes sense for your goals. No need to overthink things—we’re making holiday content easier than ever.
1. Know Your Audience
In order to create content that connects, the first step is to understand who it is you’re trying to connect with. While that seems like a no-brainer during the rest of the year, come holiday time, it becomes an even more important differentiator. Whether you’re targeting moms, a local customer base, or a niche demographic, get into their frame of mind. What are they thinking during the holidays?
For example, mom is probably pre-occupied with finding her kiddos the perfect gifts, while workout fanatics are concerned with maintaining their fitness through a notoriously unhealthy season. It’s important to identify your brand’s holiday mindset accordingly—and create your unique content from there.
2. Develop a Meaningful Strategy
By now, you know your audience—but what are your other goals? If you don’t create a seasonal strategy, you’ll burn through your holiday ideas way before it’s even time to break out the advent calendar. Decide on the story you want to tell your customers and map it out from now until January so you don’t end up directionless in December.
For example, if your main goal is boosting sales for spa services during November and December, you might consider both gifting and self-gifting to create a holiday message around self-care. What are all the ways you can inspire your customer to stay connected throughout the season using both promotional and lifestyle content?
3. Engage, Engage, Engage
Maybe the holiday season is a huge time for your business and you need to use your content to grow sales, or maybe the holiday season is pretty consistent with the rest of the year. Either way, by creating content that encourages engagement, you can create loyalty that lasts long after the holidays are over.
For example, it’s easy to rely on promotional content to carry you through a season filled with “Buy, Buy, Buy!” messaging at the forefront—and there’s a time and place for that!—but it won’t make your brand stand out. Instead, take a more unique approach like we talked about in Steps 1 and 2 to really connect with your customers. By doing this, you can not only promote engagement, but also get a direct read on what your customers will continue to respond to year-round.
4. Don’t Ditch Your Brand
Now you have a strong story to engage your audience with, but we all know it’s visuals that are going to stop them from scrolling right past you. While other brands will fill up feeds with green and red, consider what recognizable branding elements you can inject into your visual content throughout this time. Customers know it’s the holidays—but how can you also let them know instantaneously that the holiday content is coming from your brand?
For example, if you have signature colors, make sure those show up as a complement to a more traditional holiday look and feel.
Still not sure where to start? We’re here to help you put together a holiday marketing plan that will keep customers engaged long past New Year’s Day. Ask us your questions in the comments, or shoot us an email for more personalized ideas.
