Christmas is an excellent time to build your brand’s reputation through an online marketing campaign. Christmas specials are a popular way to spread holiday cheer and ensure people make your company one of their shopping destinations. If the brand doesn’t operate in direct sales, a Christmas charity event or prize give-away can work the same way by generating online buzz that gets people talking. The Christmas spirit allows for greater interaction with clients and generates personal relationships that will last all year.
It’s easy to put on a Christmas marketing campaign with very little expenditure. Social media is a fantastic tool for this purpose, with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter offering ways to promote posts and monitor their success. At ReputationDefender, we recommend all our clients establish official brand-name pages to help build the company’s online profile. A Christmas special is an excellent way to generate interest in these pages and attract followers who will visit your website and share your posts. Holiday advertising can boost activity and help to build a strong reputation.
Design Your Christmas Offer
There are a lot of ways to create a Christmas special. If your brand markets a physical product, try offering a limited time discount. BOGOF is perfect for people who are looking to tick things off their Christmas list quickly. A special on Gift Certificates offers shoppers hassle-free solutions for those challenging people on their to-buy-for list. If your product is geared toward a monthly subscription or membership, offer a two for one special, so customers can purchase their own subscription and give another as a gift. A discount for clients who recommend a friend can help to retain long-term clients whilst adding new ones at the same time.
You can choose to run the special for the entire month of December or just a couple of weeks before Christmas. If it doesn’t seem like your product lends itself well to gifting, try a post-Christmas/End-of-the-Year sale to attract people who have time off between Christmas and New Year’s Eve and may be looking to treat themselves.
Christmas offers do not necessarily have to include a discount. You can generate interest with a Christmas give-away offering prizes to select customers, or a charity campaign that promotes donations to a good cause. People like to feel they are being generous around the holiday season, yet you’ll likely get a better reaction if the company goes halfway and provides some kind of incentive for those who donate.
Using Social Media to Promote Your Offer
Social media is one of the best, most personable ways to promote a Christmas special and it costs almost nothing.
- Facebook – The brand’s official Facebook page is an ideal place to promote your Christmas offer for free. An event invitation allows you to let followers know about promotions directly so they won’t end up missing the offer. Facebook also has a tool that will “pin” your Christmas post to the top of the page so anyone visiting will see it immediately. Call to Action buttons direct clients to another page where they can learn more about the offer or sign up. You can also run a paid advertising campaign on Facebook. This offers a higher level of exposure geared toward attracting new followers and allows you to target a specific audience. Facebook ads are a good choice for companies on a limited budget. Cost is determined on an auction basis and so it will depend on the type of ad and the target audience, however fees are typically low. Facebook ads also come with analytic tools that allow companies to track the effectiveness of their marketing.
- Twitter – Twitter also has a huge social media audience, so it is another excellent platform to promote a Christmas special. Again, this can be accomplished with regular promotion as an organic part of the page or with a paid advertising campaign. Like Facebook, Twitter allows companies to set a target audience for their ad. Payment for Twitter is based on the number of clicks or retweets for a promoted Tweet, so there is no minimum payment required and it’s easy to set a budget. Twitter will also help you to track the ad’s success rate so future endeavors can be more successful.
- Instagram – This is one of the fastest growing social media platforms that is currently owned by Facebook. Instagram is an ideal place to create quality visual content that can be shared through other platforms. Unique designs that are visually appealing will help to draw attention to your message and give the whole campaign a professional touch without adding extra cost. Instagram offers ways to promote specials as well as to create “Like”, “Follow” and “Share” campaigns. Attaching hashtags and key words will let you target images to an important key term search. Instagram is the perfect complement to other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Keep the Offer Going
Once you have designed your Christmas special and completed the initial promotion, you’ll need to apply constant dedication to get the most out of the campaign. Keep re-posting the offer with adjusted wording such as, “Only Two Weeks Left” or “Last Chance” to avoid spamming followers with the same message. Add new posts with statistics about how many people have already taken advantage of the special. When it’s over, do a recap article with testimony from customers who took part. If your campaign turns out to be successful, consider making it a tradition that will become a regular part of clients’ holiday celebrations as well as a yearly boost to the brand’s reputation.
