How to Break Through During the Busy Holiday Season
It may be the most wonderful time of year, but the holiday shopping season can be a challenge for brands as the market becomes cluttered with products, services, and promotions vying for shoppers’ attention. Fortunately, if you take the right steps to market your product, you’ll be top of mind when shoppers make their lists and check them twice, so keep reading for our recommendations.
Plan Ahead
Don’t wait until the first snowfall to start marketing. Most companies start planning their holiday campaigns long before the first leaves change colours to be prepared to launch ahead of prime-time shopping. Get a solid plan in place, from your offers to hero products to messaging touchpoints, so your brand awareness and product visibility have the best chance to cut through.
Involve Influencers
Whether your shopper is young or old, most are on at least one social media platform regularly, meaning they’re a captive audience primed to receive your messaging. One way to get your product seen is to work with an influencer. Because influencers already have an established audience who trusts them, they can be a highly effective avenue to increase your brand exposure and make consumers more receptive to your product.
When working with influencers, think about how they can showcase your product or service to solve a problem for potential customers or position it in an aspirational way. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, which absolutely holds true with influencer content.
Add Holiday Cheer to Your Online Presence
When a customer tries to find out more about your product or service, they’ll often go straight to your website or social media. When they arrive, get them in the holiday spirit with festive touches that help them imagine your product fitting into their gifting or hosting occasions. A homepage carousel banner with cheerful graphics and copy is a great place to start.
Run a Contest
Everyone loves a chance to win, and a social media contest can be a big boost to your business. On your page, run a simple contest with a giveaway your followers would want to win or host a reciprocal contest with other brands to tap into their audience and add value to the prize. To boost your engagement, require all entrants to follow your page, like the contest post and either tag friends to raise awareness of your offering or have them comment on what they love about your product or service. Even if they don’t win, you’ve now made them desire your product, and you may convert a few hopeful entrants into customers.
Be Different
Once Black Friday hits, it seems the offers and discounts never end. However, remember that a product doesn’t need to be discounted if customers understand its value.[1] When shoppers are getting bombarded with the same marketing type from every other brand, making yours more personal can help you stand out. Think about how you can tailor your messages to your target and show you are thinking about their needs by suggesting gift ideas to keep them connected with loved ones while staying socially distant. After all, customers look for something unique when shopping for gifts and appreciate brands that aren’t in their faces with aggressive offers.
Keep It Simple
If you throw a ball at someone, they’ll likely catch it. However, if you throw five or six, they probably won’t catch any. This analogy holds for your marketing as well. Shoppers are drawn to simplicity, focusing on driving home fewer but stronger messages to give your offering the best shot at standing out and being remembered during the high-volume shopping season.
Create Buzz
Drawing interest to your product adds to its value by informing customers there’s a reason to buy it. Work your PR connections to get your product featured in a gift guide or remind your audience about any awards and features your product may have received throughout the year. Showing shoppers that your product is worthy of the hype makes it easier to get them on board.
As one final tip, don’t forget about those who aren’t as into the holiday cheer. Would your product appeal to someone who dislikes holiday hosting or giving gifts? If you can find the right angle, this often-overlooked market segment can be well worth tapping into.
Now, it’s time to get to work and put these points into play. Happy holiday marketing!
[1] Magill, Dan. “Nine Secrets to Getting Noticed During the Holiday Season.” WooCommerce.