The Fall season is coming up fast, but the holiday season isn’t far behind! The holiday season is a time for friends, family, and new marketing strategies for your business. If you want to take advantage of winter shopping, you need to plan ahead. Here are ten tips to get you started on transitioning from fall to winter marketing strategies.
Football is Your Friend
American football is, well, American! Over one-third of Americans consider football their favorite Fall sport, and 99.9 million people watched the Superbowl in 2020. That is a lot of people watching one sport! Featuring football in your marketing strategy can help your business grab the attention of these fans and show that your business is up to date with popular culture. Plus, football season goes from Fall into Winter: you can plan out a full campaign from September through January with just one topic! Consider making a bracket with all the teams and encouraging viewers to comment on your social media with who they want to win. Keep updating your media as you get closer to the Superbowl for some easy marketing content!
Use Thanksgiving as a Touchstone
Thanksgiving is the last national holiday in Fall, so it’s the perfect touchstone for planning your campaign. Once Thanksgiving passes, all eyes are on winter instead of Fall. Make sure to plan out Thanksgiving-themed marketing and use that as a springboard to emphasize snow, family, and the holiday season more generally. Once Thanksgiving passes, you can start to feature more explicit winter-themed marketing.
Emphasize Connection and Compassion
The holiday season means big sales and vacations, but it’s also a time of togetherness and family. Build a marketing strategy as Thanksgiving approaches emphasizing thankfulness, family, and coming together around the dinner table- all themes that continue throughout the winter holidays! Don’t be afraid to feature images with families or lovers spending time together in the snow or by a warm fire. Viewers will appreciate the sense of warmth and security as the weather gets colder and the nights get longer.
Be Charitable
Charity and the spirit of giving are other themes that are essential to the holidays. You can host a charity drive to give to your local community and invite others to join you. Consider starting a canned food or clothing drive or donate some of your proceeds to a charity of your choice. Make sure to share your charity on social media and let others know how they can help. Use livestreams on Instagram or Facebook to add a more personal touch and talk about the causes you support. Make sure that you commit and follow ethical standards if you decide to work with a charity: remember, it’s about giving back.
Make Your Business a Stress Reducer
The holiday season is all about giving, kindness, and human connection, but it can still be a stressful time. Use your marketing campaign to emphasize how you can make wintertime less stressful. Maybe you can offer quick, affordable gift solutions for holiday shopping, or highlight online services that can save time and keep customers off snowy roads. People will want to be spending time enjoying the holiday – show them how you can keep their worries at bay!
Offer Contests and Giveaways
In addition to charity, you can express the spirit of giving by hosting contests on your social media! You can give away holiday-themed prizes like classic movies or winter ingredients paired with gift cards, credit, or free services from your business. Or you can build user-generated content by asking users to post their best photos featuring a theme like “snow,” “chestnuts roasting,” or “nutcrackers” – choose your favorite photo and feature it on your social media to announce the winner! Contests and giveaways are fun and engaging, and winter holidays provide plenty of themes for your content.
A Little Nostalgia Goes a Long Way
Sleighs, reindeer, and candy canes are all classic wintertime images, but they can be a little ubiquitous and overwhelming. Feel free to use nostalgic imagery in your marketing, but don’t go overboard. Even changing up common color schemes can add a unique twist to your content: try deep blues and gold accents over the usual reds and silvers. We all get a little tired hearing the same holiday song repeatedly, so try and add a twist when you feature classic holiday aesthetics.
Optimize Your Keywords
Keywords aren’t flashy, but they are essential to an effective marketing campaign. Make sure to optimize your keywords as the seasons change to keep your content relevant and popular with search engines. Add in holiday-themed keywords when possible, and these small adjustments can collect you a lot of clicks.
Check Your Ad Budget
Take a good look at your marketing budget for the year. If it looks like you’ve saved some extra funds from earlier campaigns in the year, consider using that for one last pre-Winter sprint. Winter sales are competitive, and increasing your budget for online advertising can help you stay ahead. A boost in leads and clients before December can close the year on a good note.
Plan for Future Planning!
Once December ends, it’s a whole new year with new plans, new marketing campaigns, new everything! Schedule time in November and December to go over your plans for the new year- don’t let it sneak up on you. You can also get your audience involved by making interactive content to ask them about their plans. Use Facebook posts and Instagram Q&A stickers to see what your audience is looking forward to in 2021.
Winter holidays are busy, busy, busy for buyers and businesses alike. With these ten tips, you’ll be taking the lead in a one-horse open sleigh well before December! Are you looking to improve your marketing strategy for the winter? Do you need to delegate your tasks for the busy holiday season? Reach out to Monkey VA today!
