Halloween marks the start of the holiday season, and the time you have left for the rest of the year goes by fast. A lot of businesses see a dip in revenue in the 4th quarter. You may be tempted to whip out the classic ‘holiday sales’ to try and grab in last minute income. However, launching a robust campaign this late in the month leaves your team scrambling to try and accommodate advertising, tracking, budget, and planning for an entire marketing campaign for this one sale. Most companies try this same approach, which means that your advertising may not get the reach it needs to be effective.
Rather than stressing about finances during Thanksgiving and Christmas, plan your marketing efforts well in advance. Content should be thought out well before it needs to be launched, leaving time for your team to take into account everything that goes into a campaign, as well as to prepare for any issues that may arise.
A simple plain text email or text message with a graphic direct to your client’s mobile device is a great balance between time and effort invested and ROI.
A Pivot in Content
People expect you to wear costumes on Halloween, but you get weird looks for wearing it any other time of the year. The same applies to holiday marketing. Don’t slap a red bow on the same ad you’ve been running all year and call it Christmas. This is your opportunity to engage in content creation outside of the yearly norm and start up different conversations with your audience.
A bank can post an ad that has a cookie recipe on it if it’s the holidays, and a car dealership can feature Santa in their commercials. As long as your logo is on it, it still counts as advertising. Ask people to comment their favorite traditions on social media or share a photo with a hashtag to win a once-a-year giveaway. So long as you remain top of mind throughout the season, it will be an effective campaign.
Additional Considerations
One other key feature of the holiday season is putting a portion of your profits to a charity or local outreach program. Forbes conducted a study in 2020 that showed that people are more eager to do work with companies that have an obvious purpose. Purpose, in this case, is defined as publicly talking about how they operate, support issues, and engage with others.
You regularly see specials during the holidays displaying “an inside look” at happy employees talking about how great their workspace is. Advertising is necessary for significant revenue, but the way you advertise and the mood of the population will directly influence if they purchase from you.
The Right Way to Promote for the Holidays
There is a right way and a wrong way to promote the holidays. Customers expect you to offer discounts and sales from Thanksgiving and Black Friday all the way through to the end of the holiday season. A plain text with a link may come off as suspicious, and a beautifully put together HTML email will likely end up in spam folders. Companies constantly compete for space on social media and other advertising outlets, which makes it all the more important to stand out.
That is why at Channel Automation we combine attention-grabbing gifs and inline videos alongside our messaging so that clients are served our content without having to leave their texting platform.
An enticing gif or video would have a message (no longer than 15 seconds) that has your companies’ name and the main reason why you are contacting them emphasized. For example, if you are keeping your company top-of-mind and don’t have a promotion, you may have a video or gif showing all your products and/or services you offer. You may also highlight the pain points of how your product solves an everyday problem.
Your plain text email will be simple with one call to action. Just a little more detail of what you covered in the text message as well as one link that brings your prospects to the next step of your sales process. Remember: anything that will demonstrate how your product/service will make their life better will be more compelling than a standard promotion.
Sure, a promotion can bring people in that have been on the fence about making a purchase with you. Selling the REASON they need your product compels people who may not have been interested in buying. Think about these points and consider your strategy for the end of the year. Happy holidays!
