So, let’s get cracking with festive marketing. Bare Bones Marketing has prepared some tips on how to make your holiday marketing work.
Whether you target B2B or B2C customers, holiday marketing does work. It is all about lining up your campaign and creative with appropriate seasonal celebrations.
The majority of B2C businesses try and make the most of holiday marketing, as they understand that once everyone hits the holiday season, they are in ‘spending mode’. It is vital to capitalise on that and to stand out from the noise of other holiday marketing campaigns.
With B2B, it’s important to appeal to the audience through holiday emotions. Let’s be honest, when it comes to a festive season like Christmas, it is all you start talking/thinking about, whether you are at work or at home. We often think that we purchase or engage with things rationally. The reality is, people are attracted to something sub-consciously and usually, it is something that appeals to them on an emotional level. Therefore, whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, you can appeal to the audience on an emotional level, and a seasonal holiday theme is perfect for this purpose.
Be creative and unique
Try and be unique with your offerings and with the way in which it is delivered to the audience. During festive seasons, your potential customers will be bombarded with advertising and sales offers. It is vital your message stands out, creates intrigue and has a strong call to action. The advertising channels are just as important as the creative and message. Nowadays, there is a huge overload of information, with too much information chasing the same audience. This has led to everyone being very selective with the content, and they may have a tendency to ignore some of the traditional advertising. This is not to say that traditional advertising channels are not effective, but in order to really reinforce the message being delivered and make sure it is at the forefront of your audience’s mind, your message should be delivered in a unique and creative way. For example, Bare Bones Marketing has introduced ad vans and ad bikes to the marketing mix we offer to clients. It has proven to be highly effective and impactful. Being unique, it attracts the eyes of the audience and creates outstanding exposure for our client’s message and campaign.
Timing
Your competitors have probably planned their holiday marketing campaigns already! Some early bird shoppers will have been on the lookout for deals since September, so don’t leave your holiday marketing campaign until the last minute. Furthermore, the longer the lead time, you are more likely to be able to book the required media and advertising channels, and therefore get the most out of your campaign.
Engage with customers
Make your customers part of the campaign. This is probably the best way of getting engaged with your customers. There are many ways of doing this, and here you can be as creative as you like. The good old ‘selfie board’ or ‘selfie competition’ still works really well and delivers results, as it engages with the audience and helps you build up your social media following.
Personalised festive gifts and rewards
As well as being a nice gesture, it again helps to bring your brand closer to your potential or existing clients on an emotional level. Everyone appreciates receiving a little something, and here is where you can steal the advantage over your competitors. Here at Bare Bones Marketing, we love Jaffa Cakes. We even have a tally chart on the board of how many packets we have eaten during the year (it’s a LOT!). Last year we decided to share our love with our clients and sent them a personalised Jaffa Cake box along with a Christmas card. This technique is popular in a B2B scenario, however, there are ways of rewarding loyal customers if your business is a B2C. If you are using e-commerce platforms, such as Mailbot, you can track and segment customers based on their purchasing behaviour. Identify customers who are frequent buyers or top lifetime spenders, and set up a festive reward system to stimulate more purchases.
Promotions and offers
Everyone expects discounts when it comes to the festive period. In a B2C situation, if you are offering discounts to try and drive footfall to your store, you want to get the word out. Beacon technology was introduced by Apple in 2013, and it has become increasingly popular. Let’s say you have downloaded an app for your favourite clothes shop; Beacon technology will use your geolocation so that every time you walk/drive past the shop, a push notification will be sent to you with a special offer that is currently available at your clothing store. Push notifications are hard to miss, and you can get creative with them for promoting offers and deals. Bare Bones Marketing has developed a white label app solution offering businesses and organisation a cost-effective app solution, which supports push notifications.
The bottom line is that holiday marketing still works! However, the ways in which it is delivered to the audience are changing rapidly, to ensure the campaign is impactful and delivers results. Bare Bones Marketing would be happy to discuss your holiday and other campaign marketing, and our award-winning team will roll their sleeves up and deliver great results.