Yes, it is! The celebration of the end of the year is fast approaching and with them comes the magic of gifts, chocolates, decorated trees, garlands of light, and small New Year's bubbles. If this time spreads happily for many people, it is, above all, an opportunity for companies to set up a marketing strategy designed specifically for the holidays. Here are some tips to help you create festive and effective communication.

 

Decorate your site and your social network with Christmas colors

The holiday season should be visually inviting in your communication: use Christmas colors, think of snow, gifts, champagne. In short, rely on the imagination surrounding this magical moment. 

In the case of a digital communication strategy, consider arranging your website and your social networks on a Christmas or New Year theme. You can change your header photo, adapt your logo, change your photo profile or your cover photo on Facebook. All in all, have fun and it will show in your contacts!

 

On Instagram, you can create a special feed for the holiday season. Canvas is a great tool for creating original templates if you don't have a lot of money. The site even offers readymade, which you can change to match your business image. You can let your imagination run wild and start from scratch!

 

Create useful and festive content

At Christmas, magic works and imagination overflows. Be creative and, above all, spread a little holiday surprise in your content! This is an opportunity for you to exchange views, share with your customers, build links ... and so build loyalty.

 

Write advice blog posts

You can, for example, write advice blog posts where you can give your clients all your ideas for a great time.

 

Do you sell clothes? Bring the ideal variety of clothing to shine. Are you here to Create gourmet menu ideas for family enjoyment?

 

There are many things that depend on your industry. You can also suggest gifts, talk about the latest decor trends, give DIY ideas ... even the more serious ones work very well. For example, if you are a tax accountant, you can write about year-end requirements for businesses or even individuals.

 

Develop humorous visuals

Do you have an in-house graphic designer or work with an agency? Now is the time to use their imagination. Celebrating the end of the year is an opportunity to create lots of visuals. Pictures, pictures, even videos ... The possibilities are many and each of them must express the emotions associated with Christmas. For example, you can create a tutorial video or an infographic. These are two very useful ways to build engagement with your brand and generate shares.

 

Send newsletter (s)

If you have a database of subscribers and prospects, newsletters are still one of the best ways to reach them. And during the holidays, you can send them different messages:

 

●      They may report: If you take a vacation between Christmas and New Year, you can notify your customers of your absence, for example.

●      In the same vein, they allow you to communicate about your promotions: People now want discounts when shopping, so don't hesitate to throw a special holiday sale or two.

●      These are also ideal for highlighting your flagship products: Many of us don't know what to pay for the holiday season. So this is the right time to send a newsletter with gift ideas.

●      Lastly, it's a great way to send greetings and thank your customers for the trust they've placed in you over the past year.

 

Post naturally on your social networks

At Christmas, content ideas for your social network come naturally. It's very easy to communicate about the holiday environment within your company. And it makes it possible to humanize your brand, build a commitment, build loyalty. This is an opportunity to promote your company from a corporate perspective, by showing potential candidates that coming to work for you means enjoying a good environment.

 

As you can see, this period and such publications will bring you a lot of interaction from your community. Also engage your followers by asking questions or creating holiday-related polls (for example, "Christmas is coming, you're rather: excited or annoyed like a chip, eager to stop it"). You can tell them a Christmas story that identifies them or a funny anecdote that they want to share.

 

Don't forget about Facebook ads!

Beyond the general post, there is another solution: Facebook ads, that is, ads on Facebook, Instagram, and even Messenger. They allow you to target your audience more precisely by creating an audience: you can specify that your ad is for men, women, or both of a certain age, who speak a certain language, and who live in such a place of interest. Etc.

 

Think about Google ads

If you have a budget, Google Ads (formerly AdWords) is an effective way to increase your search engine rankings. The only downside is that this campaign requires a certain budget. So for companies that don't want to spend a whole year on this campaign, creating Google ads at a high time like Christmas might be a solution.

 

Be careful, however, that in order to be effective, you must optimize your promotions as much as possible. This is not an easy task when you are new to the field: which keyword to choose? How do you schedule an auction? During the holiday season, of course, you must include seasonal keywords in your payment campaigns (gift ideas, gifts for men, gifts for women, etc.). This maximizes the chances of increasing the visibility of your promotion.

 

Create one or more web contests

Set up a contest to win different prizes. If we love Christmas and New Year so much, it is mainly because we accept and give gifts. So play with the joy of giving and organize competitions. In addition to increasing your notoriety, you will also create engagement. Especially since the solutions for promoting your competition are numerous: through social networks, including a newsletter or even a pop-up directly on your website ...

 

Another small tip: consider creating an interactive contest that takes the form of a game. Their success will only be greater. Internet users are actually fans of this competition, which requires their reflection or action. No more games where you just have to answer a helpful question and then guess the number of participants.

 

One idea that works every time is the Advent Calendar: Offer your customers a win in one of your products to participate in a small competition every day, and you'll see your community's promise explode by Christmas.

 

Some tips for a successful holiday marketing strategy

The key to developing your marketing strategy is to understand the mindset of your audience. The atmosphere of the celebration of the end of the year is special and it must be felt in your communication. But, this focus is not the only point.

 

Adapt your tone

Be sure to adapt your tone to the season: during the festive season, an equally festive tone should match. When communicating your promotions or other information, don't take it too seriously. Instead, be cheerful and spread the word in your speech. Take the lexical field around the end of the year celebration to create a warm atmosphere.

 

Plan your communication actions

If there is one time of the year when you need to communicate twice as much as you normally do, it is during the holiday season. Of course, still, be careful to be parsimonious. You should not create the opposite effect and you should not exhaust your customers and prospects.

 

Be careful not to rush! Carefully prepare year-end campaigns for your business. It would be ideal to build your communication support between mid-October and late November. This will give you plenty of time to think carefully about your activities and the visuals that accompany them. So you are more likely to stand out from the crowd through real and efficient communication.

 

Don't forget about retargeting

Have you ever searched for a product on the web and then found ads for the same product on other sites? This is called retargeting. Of course, at first glance, this marketing strategy may seem scary. Tracking visitors to your site and offering their content is not a soft marketing practice, but in fact, the conversion rate of re-targeted ads is proven. . After all, it's understandable because your target audience is already interested in your products.

 

Measure the impact and adjust your budget

After launching your first communication campaign, it will be time to measure your return on investment (ROI). This is the way to invest in your communication project and the ratio between the resulting income. To do this, you need to check the previously selected performance indicators when setting your goals (for example, on Google Analytics):

 

●      The click-through rate of a newsletter or an Adwords ad is 7

●      Number of leads in calls to action (Internet user action)

●      Spending time in a blog post …

 

This is an opportunity to make sure your campaign really works. They meet the expected success and, above all, improve the following so that they become more efficient.