Creative Online Marketing Ideas For The Holidays

Winter is almost here and the drop in temperatures signals the arrival of the busiest time of year for many businesses. The transition from fall into the holiday season is an excellent opportunity to strengthen existing customer relationships and attract new buyers with creative marketing campaigns. 

These 12 marketing ideas will increase brand awareness and drive revenue during the peak holiday season.

Run Google Shopping Campaigns

Give your inventory a digital boost this holiday season with Google Shopping campaigns. These campaigns are an effective way to target local clientele or expand your brand awareness and drive traffic to your website. 

Incorporate holiday elements in brand colors for holiday-specific Google Shopping campaigns. Distinguish your business from the competition with visually appealing ads. You can also include high-resolution photos with product benefits in your ads for increased sales conversions. 

Instagram and Social Selling

Instagram has become a popular platform for a diverse group of users. Instagram ads is an inexpensive yet effective way to promote your products and seasonal promotions. Instagram lets you customize your post in several ways and enables audience targeting, which ensures that your ad reaches the right people. 

This platform is great for organic social engagement too. If customers post reviews of your products, repost these reviews to share this information with your following. You could even launch a holiday campaign and share incentives for customer engagement with your Instagram handle. 

Run Seasonal Email Campaigns

Email marketing campaigns are highly effective during the holiday season. Since the holidays are a time when people make meaningful memories, you can send out sentimental seasonal emails to connect with your existing customers while also building rapport with potential customers.

Like running seasonal Google Ads campaigns, you need to incentivize your buyers to continue shopping with you. For example, you can instill urgency in your email subject lines such as offering a major discount for a limited time.

Identify Customer Segments to Improve Personalization

Effective holiday messaging is designed with specific customer segments in mind and appeals to their preferences and purchasing habits. Create content that speaks to this customer segment’s specific pain points and position your products as the solution they’ve been looking for. 

For instance, if young mothers comprise the majority of your target market, show them how your products make the holidays hassle-free and keep children smiling all season long. Utilize data gathered through Google Analytics, Facebook, and CRMs to clearly identify your market segmentation and which campaigns resonate best with your ideal customer. 

Holiday-Themed Google Ads

Google Ads are excellent for retailers to target seasonal shoppers. You can optimize your Google ads with effective keywords. For instance, if your brand sells apparel, use keywords like “holiday fashion trends”,  “holiday gift ideas” and “winter clothing essentials”. The next step is to create specific ads and landing pages which incentivize shoppers to purchase products.

Consumers seek holiday deals when they shop for gifts, so you should promote offers and special seasonal discounts online. You can use ad extensions to occupy more space on a webpage, which results in increased site visits.

Host A Holiday Webinar

Webinars are web-based seminars, which are effective for teaching your audience about a new product or service or to position your brand as an industry leader. Online events can be a great way to engage your audience, especially if social distancing is still a concern in your community.

Encourage your audience to participate in an upcoming digital event with a gift incentive. For instance, when you have reached the end of your webinar, provide your attendees with a holiday discount code, a branded mug or a free product sample.

‘Tis the Season for Giveaways

Holiday giveaways are an excellent way to use social media platforms. With people looking for ways to cut costs during the holidays, handing out free items can be an effective way to grow your audience. A giveaway can be a big discount, a free add-on with an order, or a branded holiday keepsake like a t-shirt, coffee cup, or ornament. You can use in-store advertising tools such as pop-up displays to showcase your giveaways and incentive purchases.

You can ask your followers to like, share, comment, and subscribe to your social media handle, which will help your brand gain recognition and help you rise above your competition.

Utilize Video Content Creation

Video content marketing has become the new trend to communicate your holiday message with any demographic. It could be a festive webinar invite video sent by email, a social media video to wish a happy holiday season to all your customers, or a funny video of your employees dressed as reindeers or as Santa on your website’s landing page.

Let your creativity stand out this holiday season. Remember, customers want authentic brand connections. Find what sets your business apart from your competition and showcase these differences in your content. Instead of focusing on hard sales, share the ways your products make customers’ lives better and offer insightful content to increase viewership. 

Holiday Messaging

People associate holidays with Christmas lights, Santa Claus, reindeer, and fond memories. They also enjoy  quality time spent with family. Therefore, you must include sentiment in your marketing campaign, since positive emotions can lead to action. Thank customers for their business and support and reward your existing shoppers with special pricing. 

If humor is appropriate for your brand’s tone of voice, it can be a powerful tool for building customer relationships. Delivering humorous and relatable messages can yield higher sales conversions. You can also use banners to deliver these messages to your in-store audience or boost your brand’s relatability on the go. 

Design Festive Display Ads

Get a designer for your holiday display campaigns, since holiday images can evoke joyous connection between your brand and potential customers.

Create images that pop out and immediately grab the users’ attention, since people scrolling online have very limited attention spans. You can leverage traditional images of snowmen, reindeer, or nutcrackers to drive greater conversions.

Hand out Personalized Gifts

Personalization is remarkably effective for tugging at people’s hearts and creating deeper customer connections. Once you’ve identified your target users and the strategies that inspire them to take action, send out personalized gifts, such as direct mail coupons, holiday cards or custom planners and.

Organize a Holiday Party

While the idea of throwing a holiday party might sound expensive, it does not have to be that way. Pick your invitees carefully because by inviting the right people, you do not need to overspend to make sure everyone is having a good time.

You can strengthen relations with prospects and customers by giving them a chance to open up and relax at a leisure event with holiday drinks, games, and appetizers.

Final Words

With the holiday season right around the corner, it is time to tap into the spending habits of people by connecting with their sentiments and incentivizing your buyers. Consider these twelve unique marketing ideas that are easy to implement and ensure a higher conversion rate.

Creative marketing strategies can elevate your brand above the competition, increase consumer engagement, and grow sales. Keep creative strategies aligned to your target audience’s purchasing behaviors and holiday conventions for a truly impactful campaign.