5 Festive Marketing Ideas for This Holiday Season

Shoppers across the country are filled with holiday cheer when they see Santa drinking Coca-Cola or hear Hershey's Kisses playing jingle bells. With your marketing campaigns, give your local audiences the same sense of festive fun (and become their go-to holiday shopping destination).  

Product displays, promotional materials, and thoroughly planned marketing campaigns are essential tools for captivating holiday audiences and enjoying a profitable fourth quarter. Last year, holiday sales grew 83%, and they show no sign of shrinking this year. Start your holiday marketing now, and incorporate these tips into your overall strategy: 

Choose a Festive Campaign Theme 

Shoppers are looking for fun, lighthearted ads filled with holiday spirit. Here's your opportunity to have fun and pick festive themes that show off your products and customer service. 

It's important to find a theme that resonates with your audience, so they regard your brand with warm feelings. Begin by determining your campaign's goals: are you looking for more sales in general? Promoting a specific product? Getting people to donate to or participate in a key cause for your business? Once you know your end goals, choose an overarching message that includes a call to action and a joyful or cozy theme. 

Don't Wait — Run Ads Now 

Ring in the holiday season with a burst of engaging ads! Start running your campaigns now, so your audience becomes more familiar with your branding and messaging. Hitting the correct number of touchpoints is essential for building a connection. If you wait, there's a significant risk that a competitor will have already started making that connection, and you'll be behind.  

Shoppers are already planning for the holidays. Complex holiday travel, creating shopping lists, and planning holiday decor are on your audience's mind. With the right holiday campaigns, you can make early prep more enjoyable and engaging. 

Create Holiday Offers 

Along with fresh holiday marketing materials that encourage engagement and interest, you need promotional offers that encourage audiences to take action. This is where the unique incentives your company is offering will shine. You can focus your campaigns are tempting sales, free downloads or product offers, and other time-limited offers. 

For example, if you're having a big holiday sale, create a campaign that drives interest in the weeks before the big event. This generates excitement and gives your audiences something to look forward to. It also secures their future commitment to purchasing from you instead of your competitors.   

If you're offering free downloads, demos, and products (especially online), tie the offer to joining your mailing or emailing list. Gathering the contact details of warm leads is essential in the months leading up to a big seasonal promotion, as you can keep them informed, send more offers and coupons, and get feedback. 

Develop a Cause Marketing Campaign 

You can secure your audience's goodwill with an authentic cause marketing campaign along with direct promotional campaigns. Cause marketing is all about associating your brand with a particular charity or non-profit organization. 

Local businesses might tie their brand to food banks or soup kitchens in the area, for example, and make their brand unique by donating a set percentage of proceeds or matching customer donations. You could also create a cause marketing campaign by partnering with a local nonprofit. Not only does this help streamline your efforts, so the project does more for your cause, but the affiliation also generates goodwill toward your brand. 

Connect With Customers 

Both promotional campaigns and cause marketing campaigns are all about connecting with customers. They need to feel a personal connection to your brand to remember you when they do their holiday shopping. 

For promotional campaigns, you can create these incentives and connections: 

• Promote special offers that are limited to specific days or hours. This creates a feeling of excitement, so audiences look forward to getting a good deal!  

• Attach incentives to gift card purchases. Customers love a good deal, and offering discounts or freebie gifts with the purchase of a gift card for your store is a tempting offer. It's also good for business: not only will you build a good relationship with the person buying the gift card, but you'll have an easy opportunity to build another good relationship with the recipient when they visit your store after the holidays.  

• Offer gifts for customers that spend over a certain amount. Even small incentives can encourage shoppers to do more holiday shopping with you.  

For cause marketing campaigns, you can:  

• Host a toy drive. Whether you're encouraging customers to donate a purchase they make in your store, or if you're offering space to help a local nonprofit, this is a great way to associate your brand with a good cause that most of your customers will connect with you.   

• Advertise that you're donating a portion of your proceeds to a specific non-profit organization. This is a simple way to invest in cause marketing without creating extra work for you and your team. 

Partner With a Media Team for a Successful Holiday Season 

When you start your holiday marketing early, you can minimize your workload during the seasonal rush. Free up even more time to focus on your business by partnering with a media team for cause marketing, digital, email, or TV advertising this holiday season.