15 Fun and Festive Holiday Marketing Ideas to Try This Year
By Avitanshi Srivastava • November 24, 2022 • 17 mins read
The holiday shopping fever is officially going to start. Though many of you may still be enjoying the warm colors of summer, a majority of consumers have already decided what and where to buy this festive season.
According to Tapcart’s 2024 BFCM Consumer Trends report, nearly 6 in 10 shoppers begin their holiday shopping in October or November. Moreover, Shoppers want to engage with authentic brands, address social issues and be endorsed by trusted influencers.
Therefore, brands must seize this opportunity and boost their holiday revenue through innovative campaigns and promotional strategies.
On that note, here are the top 15 fun and festive marketing ideas designed to connect with your audience, spread joy, and ultimately boost your holiday season sales.
As the cool breezes fill the air and festive spirit spreads, let’s create marketing strategies that build relationships and maximize your ROI.
15 Fun & Festive Holiday Marketing Ideas To Skyrocket Your Sales This Season
1. Update Your Website And Blog Page With Holiday-Themed Elements And Posts
We all love to revamp our home aesthetics with festive decorations. So, why not decorate and update your website and home page with festive elements?
Here are some recommendations that you can try:
- Choose holiday-based templates to draw attention.
- Change CTA buttons to holiday-related, for instance, you can add “Shop Gifts” instead of “Shop Now”.
- Add a special category for “Gifts” on the homepage and add products accordingly.
- Create holiday-specific landing pages like Holiday Sale or Shop Holiday Gifts, like Bloomscape did (refer to the image below), and add CTAs on the home page redirected to these landing pages.
This will not only make your visitors’ browsing experience interesting but also, you will have increased chances of driving sales.
After all, it is your website where all prospective customers are going to purchase products after clicking on your ads. Thus, along with your paid campaigns, you must update your website with eye-catching holiday elements.
Along with the website, update your blog page too with holiday-related posts. Create a post about a holiday gift guide, and wrapping ideas. Also, suggest gift sets with creative uses of the products available in your store.
Holidays are when shoppers look for gift ideas and read gift guides, decoration ideas, or outfit ideas. Thus, it’s an excellent opportunity to bring organic traffic to your store via festive blog posts.
2. Email Marketing Campaigns With Festive Seasonal Templates
Email marketing campaigns are one of the best forms of direct communication with your subscribers. And if you are not adding holiday season vibes to your email marketing strategy, you are making a big mistake.
An effective email marketing campaign can help you build relationships with your leads and convert them into paying customers.
Here are some effective ways to get the best out of your email campaigns.
- Send out an email with graphics of snowballs or a big gift box that recipients can unwrap by clicking on it. Surprise discounts or coupon codes appear that they can use while purchasing.
- Create a series of countdown emails for shopping days or the holidays, highlighting the sneak peeks, exclusive deals and limited offers.
- Reward your loyal subscribers with early access to your holiday sales.
- Surprise your email subscribers with flash sales that last just a few hours. Use attention-grabbing subject lines and visuals to create urgency and encourage quick action.
- Keep your email subscribers engaged by sending holiday-themed polls or surveys. Ask them about their favorite holiday spots, traditions, or products they’re excited about.
- Send a series of emails featuring last-minute gift ideas for shoppers who are last to buy.
Use these email marketing tips to interact with your customers or introduce them to exciting holiday deals you are offering. However, you must also be unique and creative while designing your email campaigns for the Holiday season.
3. Mobile Marketing Strategy For Holidays
Over the holiday season of 2023, there were record sales of $1.328 trillion and 51% of the digital sales came from smartphones (surpassing desktops for the first time). And this year, Adobe predicts that the online sales from mobile devices will be 53.2%, higher than the last year.
The increase in sales is because most people have been working from home for the past two years, and they were able to shop through desktops. But now, as most have moved back to work from the office mode, shopping via mobile would be more convenient for shoppers.
Thus, optimizing your website for smartphones and providing a seamless, fully optimized mobile checkout experience is critical to driving sales.
Best tips for mobile marketing strategy for holidays:
- Create a mobile app for your brand and promote it to encourage installations. This will help you directly communicate with your prospects, and you can send push notifications, product update notifications, recommendations, or other personalized messages.
- Ensure that the app is compatible with all other devices and syncs across all channels
- Create holiday-themed SMS campaigns for a broader reach
- Automate messages for abandoned cart reminders
- Automate customer service to communicate with your customers in real-time
4. Holiday-Specific Google Ad Campaigns With Targeted Keywords
No matter the size or type of business you own, Google ads are a great way to entice and attract your customers during the Holiday season. Be it to build a relationship with your existing customers or to reach out to new customers; google ads can efficiently achieve most of your business goals and objectives.
Holiday shopping is incomplete without including Google Ads campaigns in your holiday marketing strategies.
Create seasonal Google ads campaigns with targeted keywords to target Holiday Shoppers. For example, if you sell indoor plants, target high-ranking keywords such as “Holiday Plant Gifts” or “Indoor Plant Gifts For Holidays” and create specific campaigns offering some benefits or incentives to your customers.
5. Reward And Give Back To Your Loyal Customers
Reaching out to new customers is essential but valuing your existing ones is also important. Let them know they are special to your business, and take holidays as an opportunity to show some appreciation and thank them for their loyalty.
Tips to give back to your loyal customers:
- Give them early access to new products or services.
- Offer exclusive discount deals or coupons.
- Give them loyalty points on every purchase that they can redeem on later purchases.
- Send them a survey and ask for feedback to make them feel valued
- Offer free gift-wrapping options. Gifts can feel like a chore to many people, offering gift wrapping can be a small gesture from your side and can be helpful to them.
- You can also add hand-written notes or a holiday card inside the orders. Write something funny or share best wishes to add a personal touch. They might share the note on social media and it may get a few more prospective customers.
6. Revamp Your Social Channels With Festive Creatives
Gone are the days when social media was only meant to chat with your friends and family or to know about their whereabouts.
Social channels are now powerful tools for marketers. Marketing on social media platforms is an efficient holiday marketing strategy to improve the organic growth of your website and drive traffic, leads, or sales.
Use the given below social media tips:
- Update all your social media profiles with festive feel creatives, and plan festive-themed content postings regularly targeting all major holidays.
- Use different forms of posting and utilize all excellent features like reels and clips, short videos, IGTV videos, etc., available on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
- Share heartwarming holiday stories related to your brand, customers, or team members. Storytelling is a form of art that genuinely helps customers to connect with the brand.
- Post behind-the-scenes videos or images on social media to show human connection during holiday seasons. It can be you showing the office area, decorating the place, pranking team members, etc. It will bring smiles to their faces and make them remember your brand’s name.
- Try word-of-mouth marketing by running a referral contest on social media. It will encourage followers to tag friends and share your posts to win exclusive prizes, boosting engagement and attracting new prospects.
7. Host Giveaways On Socials
If you are thinking, do giveaways work? Well, the answer is a big yes!
Hosting giveaways helps you gain awareness, increase social media followers, gather leads, and increase your chances of conversions and sales. This year, embrace the spirit of giving in your marketing. When you uplift your audience, you create loyal customers for life.
- Every customer loves freebies, and what’s better than giving freebies via a contest to your customers? You can run #Hashtag-specific contests on social media (for example ask them to share Halloween-inspired costumes with unique hashtags like #HalloweenNightCostume or #GetReadyForHalloween) and offer freebies to winners. You’ll have double the benefits of doing this. First, an increased engagement rate for your store. Second, you will have a high chance of quick purchase action.
- Run a “10 Days to Giveaway” campaign on your social channels and offer new prizes every day.
- You can honor the giving spirit of Christmas by donating part of your holiday sales to a local charity or a cause you care about. Not only will this help make a difference, but it also lets you share your values with your audience and promote your brand.
Click here to read: 7 Wicked Holiday Marketing Ideas
8. Add A Sense Of Urgency To Your PPC Campaigns
Adding a sense of urgency to your Holiday marketing ad copy is a proven idea to drive sales. Making people feel they will miss out on a fantastic deal attracts and encourages them to take quick purchase action.
Add phrases like “Discount ending soon,” “Only a few items left in stock,” or “Limited time offer” in the ad copy to motivate the shoppers to complete the purchase right away. Looking at FOMO notifications, customers fear or become anxious about missing out on the perfect deal.
Also, offer something to both early and last-minute buyers. Last minute buyers procrastinate and when they do decide to buy something, they don’t have much time to decide. With last-minute deals, they will be reassured and appreciate the approach.
9. Create An Engaging Interactive Gift Guide
Creating an engaging interactive gift guide is a great way to relieve the stress of your customer’s holiday shopping. Because of the busy schedules and endless to-do lists, people appreciate a simple and quick way to find the perfect gift.
Traditional categories like “For Her” or “For a Freind” are useful, but you can make your guide exceptional by organizing gifts by interests or personality.
For example, a guide to finding the perfect gift for a foodie or nature lover would be more helpful for people to choose thoughtful presents.
“An interactive guide adds value by allowing customers to filter and browse gifts as per their needs. This creates a personalized shopping experience and shortens their journey from browsing to checkout.”
For inspiration, take a look at practical and stylish Holiday Guides by Wool and the Gang and Tattly. These show how you can create your own for this festive season.
10. Instagram Ads And Pinterest Pins Are A Win-Win During The Holidays
Instagram has gained massive popularity lately and now plays an essential role in holiday marketing for businesses. It is one of the Millenials and GenZ’s favorite platforms to scroll through or watch reels and stories.
Thus, it also turned out to be a great platform to capture shoppers’ attention as they look forward to getting inspiration or ideas on Instagram during the Holidays.
- For instance, “Instagram Live” allows companies to share direct links to their products during live broadcasts at the bottom of the video stream. This makes it easy for viewers to tap the links to learn more or add items directly to their shopping bags.
- Create shoppable Instagram posts to promote your holiday-themed offers or suggest gift ideas through a post. You can also post IGTV videos for a product demonstration, or share sneak peeks of your upcoming holiday deals through fun memes and reels.
Organic or paid ad campaigns, Instagram has proven its worth for holiday marketing with the unlimited features and opportunities it offers to brands to promote their business.
Similarly, Pinterest has become a powerful tool for driving online and in-store sales, with major brands utilizing strategies like hosting contests, using rich pins, and incorporating the most-pinned items into their physical stores.
Click here to read: 5 Holiday Marketing Campaigns Lessons
11. Utilize Both During Holidays – Remarketing And Retargeting
It is essential to place your business on top of the audience’s mind or to remind them that they have shown interest in your product or service. This is where remarketing and retargeting comes in.
The shared goal of remarketing and retargeting is to increase conversions by bringing back past visitors to your website who are likely to purchase from you.
However, both retargeting and remarketing nowadays are used interchangeably, but in reality, they both are different.
Let’s understand the difference between remarketing and retargeting with the help of the image below:
Thus, they go hand in hand and are great techniques for nurturing and developing customer relationships. Both tactics have now become extremely important for all e-commerce businesses.
12. Fun & Creative Videos To Attract And Engage Customers
Videos are not only eye-catching and exciting, but they also have the efficiency to quickly engage the audience’s mind and leave a long-term impression on their mind.
- Create jolly videos highlighting your Holiday sales or promotions, or share a “Happy Holiday” video note via email campaigns. You can also record a video of a Thank You message for your loyal customers to show them some appreciation.
- Make short videos or posts showing the fun of unboxing your products. This will meet their expectations and show them exactly what they are anticipating.
For example, this 2019 viral holiday ad by WestJet touched hearts by reuniting three groups of people with their loved ones from afar.
As a Canadian airline, it cleverly connected travel to the emotional joy of reuniting during the holidays. The ad resonated because people love heartwarming stories, especially around the holidays. You can create videos like this and share a beautiful message around holidays to attract the audience.
13. Collaborate With Influencers
It is undeniable that influencers significantly impact customers’ minds in today’s world.
People buy from their trusted brands but they buy even more from trusted people. They are making purchasing decisions inspired by their favorite influencers’ recommendations.
Thus, collaborating with influencers during the Holiday Season is one of the best holiday marketing ideas to raise brand awareness and user engagement.
The great thing about this type of marketing is it works for any budget. With the rise of micro-influencers (5,000–20,000 followers) and nano-influencers (1,000–5,000 followers), you can benefit from them without spending too much.
You can collaborate with influencers to promote the giveaways or contests you’ve hosted on your social channels. Or request the influencers to promote your products or services by making unboxing or review videos and sharing them on their social media handles.
14. Holiday-Specific Product Bundle Offers
Believe it or not, this tactic works like magic during the Holidays as people tend to purchase discounted product bundles for holiday gifts or to save money with the offers they get on discounted product bundles.
However, you need to ensure that the bundle is compelling and valuable to your customers and that they are getting an advantage in purchasing the bundle over shopping the products (included in the bundle) individually.
Tips to remember while creating your product bundle:
- Add the products in the bundle that complement each other or the products that fit naturally.
- Look for what products customers purchase together and pair them in a product bundle.
- Add accessories with a product you think a customer would have considered purchasing together but individually.
- Highlight the offer and the benefit to inspire customers to buy the product.
15. Utilize The Power Of “Push” Notifications
Push notifications have been around for a while and have multiple benefits for your business. Whether to build a relationship with your audience or to send them a personalized reminder to bring them back to your website, push notifications are efficient marketing tools for every mobile app owner.
Why do push notifications matter for businesses?
Push notifications are messages, including updates, offers, news, etc., sent on users’ mobile devices. They are short but powerful messages designed to inspire users to specific calls to action.
What’s more enthralling for businesses is that 60% of app users agree to receive push notifications, with 70% feeling that push notifications are helpful, and 40% interacting with push notifications within 1 hour of receiving them.
The above statistics show the power of push notifications and how efficiently they can boost your Holiday season sales.
Here are some tips for using push notifications for the season:
- Study your user’s past behavior or shopping pattern and send them relevant notifications.
- Segment location-based and time-zone-specific notifications to give personalized offers at the right time.
- Schedule your push notifications in advance and run automated push campaigns to avoid hassle during the peak shopping season. And, you can also enjoy the season with your family & friends.
- Send the users holiday-specific notifications customized for each particular Holiday and let the shoppers know about shipping deadlines, offers and discounts, product updates, and much more.
How to Make Sure Your Holiday Marketing Campaign is a Success?
The holiday season can be pretty hectic, and even the best planners can miss something important. For a successful promo campaign, follow these tips:
- Set clear goals, prepare your sales and support teams, and track performance closely.
- Don’t forget to leverage social media for outreach, especially to younger audiences.
- Optimize content for mobile devices.
- Take advantage of pre-made digital assets to save time.
- Avoid last-minute preparations.
- Sending products for review early helps bloggers promote them on time.
Even though it’s a busiest time for marketers, it’s also a great chance to increase revenue and brand awareness. This holiday time also helps build genuine and long-lasting connections with the audience.
Don’t forget to read: Expert tips on Do’s and Don’ts of Holiday Marketing
Final Thoughts
The holiday season is a great time to boost your brand’s awareness and user engagement. This year, don’t just sell products, offer experiences that resonate with your audience’s holiday spirit.
Utilize the above-mentioned holiday marketing ideas, and you’ll see your holiday sales rise this holiday season.
Here’s to a festive season filled with stronger brand connections, happy customers, and impressive results!
For more festive tips and inspiration, explore our latest Holiday Marketing blog posts by clicking here.
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