• By michelle
• In Marketing Strategy

5 Quick Ways to Take Advantage of Holiday Marketing

Christmas in July. Some people love it; others hate it.

But as a business owner, it’s a midsummer celebration you should probably be taking part in if you want to have your holiday marketing strategy in place before the season arrives.

If you don’t have your holiday marketing solidified quite yet or if you haven’t given it much thought, no worries.

You may be a bit behind, but there’s no need to scramble.

There’s still time for you to capitalize on the holidays and get your  holiday-focused marketing strategy deployed.

In honor of the holiday spirit of giving, we’re sharing with you our 5 favorite, quick ways to get your holiday marketing in gear today.

Holiday Marketing Tactic #1: Sales, Coupons, and Giveaways

November and December are prime months to take advantage of promoting special sales and deals.

Regardless of what holiday you celebrate during these months, gift-giving is usually involved. And most people tend to do most, if not all, of their holiday shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This creates a sense of urgency. People have a window of approximately 30 days between Black Friday and Christmas Eve to find the perfect gifts for the ones they love.

After searching and searching without luck, that $300 foot spa that was too much to splurge on for Aunt Martha suddenly looks more affordable with a 20% discount. And into the shopping cart it goes.

Let’s not forget that discounts encourage prospects to purchase more stuff. It’s simple psychology.

Suzy goes shopping and sees some dishware on sale for 25% off. She picks up four plates, all of which are on sale for the discounted price.

But does she stop there? Heck no.

She saved a quarter of the price (25%) on all four of the plates.

In her mind, that’s equivalent to getting one of her plates for free. So surely she can purchase one more plate to complete her collection without feeling guilty about it.

Well…kind of. She did save the total cost of what one of those plates would cost without being on sale. But, she still must pay for 75% of the fifth plate.

Suzy thinks she’s getting an amazing deal, and you sell extra products. You simply can’t go wrong.

Last but not least is our personal favorite way to encourage people to purchase your product or service…free giveaways.

If you’re in a pinch, here are two ways to give away free stuff and watch your revenue increase:

#1) Offer a free gift that doesn’t require a service or product to be purchased.

Example: Come visit our store, and we will send you home with a free mini candle. No purchase necessary.

This type of giveaway encourages prospects to check out your products or services. And most important, if they like your free gift, they will be more likely to spend money buying your other full-size products or services.

#2) Use free giveaways to get people interested in other products or services that you sell.

Example: You own a store that sells bath products. You know that you have several new soaps that don’t sell as well as others. The reason simply might be that customers fell in love with one of your older products and are not ready to try something new. Giving them a free giveaway of a bottle of your new products gives them the chance to try it, fall in love with it, and then purchase it.

Bonus tip: Small giveaways—no matter what you sell—make fun stocking gifts. What a great way to get products into the hands of more people!

Holiday Marketing Tactic #2: Use Retargeting Ads

In 2016, it was reported that 71% of Americans now shop online on a regular basis.

Between finding the best online deals for holiday decor and attempting to find a gift Uncle Gary will enjoy, you can bet online sales during the holiday months will only increase.

The only unfortunate thing is that with online shopping also comes a lot of unpurchased viewed products and abandoned shopping carts.

Sometimes prospects simply change their mind. There’s not much you can do about that.

But other times, people have to leave their computers and abandon their carts because their three-year-old suddenly swallowed a tree ornament…or something else along those lines.

And that’s when your little retargeting elves need to work their magic and remind prospects the next time they are on Facebook, or reading a blog, or shopping on Amazon that they forgot about YOUR product or service.

Example:

With so much going on during the holiday season, a little retargeting reminder can do wonders to increase your sales. Get started on your retargeted strategy now.

Holiday Marketing Tactic #3: Implement Holiday-Themed Contests

Who doesn’t love a good holiday-themed contest?

There’s something about funny photos of crying babies in the hands of Jolly Old Saint Nick that show the peaceful, loving, and joyous holiday season has arrived.

Why not turn those classics photos into a contest your prospects will want to share?

Trust us, people do love contests…especially those that give away valuable prizes.

The best part is that, in an attempt to win a contest prize, people will do just about anything.

That includes giving you their name and email address for your mailing lists.

Jackpot!

Our suggestion is to create a fun holiday-themed contest and use it to collect prospect information that you can later use to sell your product.

A simple form to enter the competition is all you need.

Here’s an example of what this could look like:

Further capitalize on this strategy and  send discount coupons to everyone that enters as a thank-you for participating.

Your prospects are happy to receive a discount, and you’ll most likely end up selling more products/services because of it.

Now that’s a contest where everyone wins.

Holiday Marketing Tactic #4: Create Holiday-Themed Content

Creating valuable content is a very important part of any marketing strategy. You’re going to have to create content anyway, so why not focus it on holiday themes?

Have fun with your content, but don’t forget that, in order for your content to be successful and draw readers in, it must provide value.

If you sell pumpkin pies, you might want to create a checklist of all the items people shouldn’t forget in order to have a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

If you sell kitchen products, put together a tutorial of how to cook a turkey while using your pots, pans, and kitchen knives. Create your video, and then add a call to action to check out your products at the very end.

Let’s not forget the ever-popular product image list content piece. Check out how this brand highlighted 20 products with photos that would make great stocking stuffers.

Not a bad list to have around when Santa just can’t think of what else to fill people’s stockings with.

Holiday Marketing Tactic #5: Promote Holiday Bundles

The bundling strategy may in fact be our very favorite marketing strategy to sell products. And it’s especially effective during the holidays.

Bundling is simply putting together a handful of your products and selling them as a group. Most often this is done at a discounted rate.

Bundling works well because prospects feel as though they are getting a lot of product for a reduced cost. Why only get 3 products when you can get 5 for only a few more dollars?

It works well to promote bundle deals as gifts. People enjoy giving away “sets” or baskets of goodies for the holidays, and bundle options allow people to do this easily and affordably.

It also works to simply promote bundle deals as a regular product at your store or online. As the holidays approach, market this bundle strategy as a gift to your prospective customers.

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