You’ve heard it before, and we’ll say it again: 2020 is a year unlike any other. That means this holiday season is going to be a unique one, too. Having a strong holiday content marketing strategy in place will help you stand out from the crowd and increase your product sales during the holidays.
The most effective content marketing strategies take into consideration blog content, email marketing campaigns, and social media feeds. So, here are holiday content marketing tips for all three!
Holiday Content Marketing Tips For Your Blog
Using your blog to highlight products during the holiday season is an effective way to capture the attention of new and existing customers. That is if you do it with some tact.
Rather than simply trying to sell through every section and sentence of your blog, write about topics that matter to your audience. Answer their questions. Provide solutions to their problems. Engage them with relevant information. And soft-sell throughout.
At Synergy Content Marketing, we work with a leading faith-based t-shirt company called All Things By Faith. They have a large line of apparel and accessories focused on the word “Blessed.” With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we saw this as an opportunity to capitalize on what everyone is thinking about right now: gratefulness.
What came from this was a blog highlighting ways their customers can practice gratitude this holiday season. We focused on ways they can make “counting their blessings” a habit. Included were scientific studies on the power of gratitude and practical tips for practicing gratitude daily, such as:
1. Start a “Blessings Journal”
2. Set a “Blessings Alarm”
3. Wear “Blessed” Christian T-Shirts and Apparel
Do you see what we did there? First, we discussed a relevant topic with our audience–gratefulness during the Thanksgiving season. Then, we gave them practical tips, one which they could implement today by shopping at All Things By Faith.
From there, we highlighted specific products from their “Blessed” line for men, women, and children. To tie into the holidays, we encouraged them to shop now and purchase items as Christmas gifts for their friends and family.
You can read the full All Things By Faith blog post here.
Holiday Content Marketing Tips For Your Email Campaign
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to capture the attention of your target audience. Email campaigns drive website traffic and increase ROI (return on investment). This is especially true during the holidays.
With Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday, Christmas, and the New Year all crammed together into two months, consumers are going to be receiving a lot of email communications from a variety of companies, organizations, and e-commerce businesses.
So, first and foremost, keep it simple.
Don’t be afraid to stick to the basics in your holiday email marketing campaigns. You can definitely incorporate holiday-themed designs, but when it comes to your products, less is more. Discuss the benefits of your product with a clear call-to-action so consumers can “Shop Today!”
Offer discounts, but do it strategically.
Everybody loves a good sale. In 2020, with the high unemployment rate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales are essential during the holidays. So, offer discounts and do it strategically.
To produce urgency and stay competitive in your industry, consider developing an email campaign that offers “flash sales” on specific products. Or, offer discounts that are only available for a limited time.
Highlight products, reviews, and customer testimonials.
One of the best ways to use your email channel to entice past customers to return to your website for their holiday shopping is to offer gift suggestions. By collecting and analyzing your website data, you can identify products, reviews, and customer testimonials that are relevant to your existing customers based on their past purchases. Then, craft engaging email campaigns that include your findings.
And if you’re feeling frisky, interweave your email marketing campaigns with display ads so everywhere your customers look, they see your products.
Provide free shipping and returns when feasible.
Customer satisfaction is extremely important. One of the ways you can increase customer retention during the holidays is by offering free shipping and returns. Oftentimes online shoppers will hesitate to make a purchase for a friend or family member if there isn’t the option for free returns. What if their mother-in-law doesn’t like the gift? It’s stressful enough trying to find the right presents for everyone. You can make the process stress-free with free shipping and returns.
Holiday Content Marketing Tips For Your Social Media Pages
Social media pages are a great place to showcase your products throughout the year and especially during the holiday season. The images and words you use determine how your target audience identifies with your brand. When someone looks at your social media page during the holidays, do they see Christmas cheer, happy families, and holiday discounts?
Is there a smiling child using your product after unwrapping it underneath a beautifully decorated Christmas tree? Are you giving your audience tips for finding the perfect holiday gift, highlighting your products as solutions to their shopping needs?
Because social media uses photos to capture the attention of your target audience, and captions to further engage them, it is important to consider the emotion(s) you want to evoke. During the holidays, we suggest using nostalgia for the past to evoke action in the present.
Christmastime is often filled with family gatherings, childhood joy, snowfall, hot cocoa, and Santa Claus. However, due to the continued effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no doubt this holiday season is going to be different. Rather than focusing on the fact that families might not be able to travel to each other, tap into holiday nostalgia on your social media feeds. Use the nostalgia of the holidays to entice customers to purchase your products this season using a mix of still photos, graphics, and videos to highlight how your product makes people feel.
Implement Your Holiday Content Marketing Strategies Now
There’s no time to waste when it comes to holiday marketing in 2020. Online companies have already started targeting their ideal audience with engaging social media posts, emails, and website content relevant to Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Next, companies will be focused on the New Year, followed closely by Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day. Before you know it we’ll be back to Thanksgiving and Christmas again. There are so many different holidays throughout the year where you can use content marketing to increase brand awareness, website traffic, and sales.
At Synergy Content Marketing, we are ready to help your company thrive during the holidays and every day in between. Connect with us today so we can create a content marketing strategy for your business to thrive 365 days a year.
