
The holiday season is coming up fast. You may be ready for the extra traffic, but are you prepared with a solid marketing campaign? With so many marketing campaigns, it is easy to get overwhelmed.
Here are nine successful strategies for holiday marketing campaigns:
Start early with email marketing
Use social media
Go omnichannel with your campaign and display ads
Drive traffic back to your site with retargeting ads
Personalize every touchpoint
Promote gift ideas
Delight your customers with a personal touch
Make it easy to buy
Don’t forget quality control
Arguably, successful holiday marketing campaigns share several striking similarities. Read on to learn how you can utilize these strategies in your own business.
1. Start Early With Email Marketing
Use a welcome campaign to build a customer list and establish a presence in their inbox before the holiday shopping season officially starts.
As the customers start buying, send follow-up emails that promote upcoming sales or remind them about returning gifts.
This is also the perfect time to create a holiday marketing email series to boost your open rates and customer engagement.
2. Use Social Media
Proactively monitor which hashtags are trending in your industry or geographic location. If you find something, use it on Twitter so more people will see it.
Make sure to use as many social networks as you can. Social media is a valuable, cost-effective way to gain exposure during holiday marketing campaigns.
Here are some of the creative ways to use social media to ensure your marketing campaign succeeds:
During the holiday season, start a campaign that allows customers to post pictures of themselves with your product and tag it for a chance to win something. This will help your post go viral and increase engagement, which means it will be more likely to show up on your audience’s news feeds.
Consider running holiday-themed contests on Facebook leading up to Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Make sure you advertise these on your social media pages as well as on your website!
For more details on this, here’s an excellent video that describes how you can dominate social media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW6kwh8RDJk
3. Go Omnichannel With Your Campaign and Display Ads
Don’t forget about all of those platforms that don’t have a specific shopping season! If you haven’t tried an omnichannel marketing campaign (a multi-channel approach to marketing that brings together multiple platforms and devices), now is the time.
Here are some ideas for using display ads:
Display pop-ups that ask users if they wish to be notified of Black Friday deals or Cyber Monday sales.
Make sure your website displays correctly no matter what device it is being viewed on.
Don’t forget to use Facebook and Instagram ads!
4. Drive Traffic Back To Your Site With Retargeting Ads
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Christmas…
The list of shopping days goes on and on.
While there are many holiday-specific marketing campaigns, it’s important to remember that many consumers are looking for last-minute gifts. Be sure your site is ready to handle this traffic with fast load speed and a smooth user experience.
In addition, make sure you have retargeting ads on all of the sites your customers frequent.
For example, maybe they signed up for a store’s email list but never made a purchase. A retargeting ad on Facebook could remind them of your late-night Black Friday sale and bring back their business.
5. Personalize Every Touchpoint
The holidays are all about creating great experiences for your customers, so utilize this to your advantage when designing your holiday marketing campaign.
For example, when a customer browses your website, add a holiday message that welcomes them—highlight items they have previously viewed to remind them of great gifts they’ve already considered.
Personalize all aspects of the shopping process with dynamic product suggestions and relevant messaging throughout the customer journey.
For example, if a customer is in their cart but hasn’t completed their purchase, retarget them on social media, encouraging them to buy.
6. Promote Gift Ideas
Create a campaign that allows customers to share gift recommendations through email or social media. This will help you drive traffic back to your site as well as engage more people!
Variations of this include:
Instagram: Customers can tag your brand and use a specific hashtag in their Instagram post to help others find the perfect gift.
Facebook: Let customers share recommendations via Facebook comments on your product page.
Twitter: Start a trend on Twitter with a holiday-themed hashtag.
LinkedIn: A simple poll asking for gift recommendations is a great way to engage your LinkedIn audience.
7. Delight Your Customers With a Personal Touch
Holiday marketing campaigns should be all about making your customers feel appreciated and special. With that in mind, make their experience as seamless and personalized as possible by:
Allowing them to choose times throughout the holiday season for special offers and newsletters, including a personalized coupon code that is automatically applied when they check out.
Adding a personal touch to your emails, encouraging them to select a color preference or size option if possible.
Pro Tip: Ensure to wish your customers happy holidays, promote gift ideas that they might like, and share any feedback or photos they’ve shared with you on social media or through email.
8. Make It Easy To Buy
There are so many distractions during the holiday season, making it more critical than ever that your site is user-friendly and free of technical glitches. For example:
For mobile shopping, your website should be responsive and fast loading on all devices. Ensure images load quickly, and there aren’t too many CTA’s to distract the customer. Make it easy for them to share their purchase on social media or view your return policy without having to search for it.
Marketing automation is an essential tool to use throughout the holiday season, so make sure your marketing platform can handle increased traffic and sales.
9. Don’t Forget Quality Control
With the increased sales during the holiday season, make sure you have a team member or automated tool monitoring your site and catching errors that could lead to lost revenue.
For instance, you might have filled your shopping cart with products that aren’t actually in stock, making it difficult for customers to checkout.
If you offer gift wrapping, make sure your team is adequately trained, and enough supplies are on hand.
Monitor your monthly revenue growth to see if the results of your marketing campaigns are leading to increased sales.
Customers may be confused about whether product prices have gone up or down since last year, so it might be worth updating your site.
In a nutshell, the holiday season is the perfect time to implement these strategies for your marketing campaigns and generate increased revenue, so don’t miss out!

Examples of Brands That Run Successful Holiday Marketing Campaigns:
Having discussed the different ways to implement successful marketing campaigns, here are a few brands that have taken advantage of the holiday season for their businesses:
Macy’s emails customers at the beginning of November with suggestions on what they should buy for various people in their lives.
They continue to send relevant emails throughout the month, offering deals, shipping options, and gift ideas that might be perfect for friends or family.
Their emails are always personalized based on whom the email recipient is, making them more effective.
Target offers discounts to customers who sign up for their credit cards so they can easily track their purchase history throughout the year.
They also offer many gift ideas and coupons to customers who sign up and share their personal preferences.
They even send out personalized emails with the items listed based on their purchases in the past year.
Also, the company highlights holiday-specific items so that customers know how much money they could save if they purchase that item.
Walmart sends out another personalized email in December offering coupons and free shipping.
In addition to their email marketing, they have a mobile app that allows customers to save money by scanning the receipt at checkout so they can get coupons based on what they’ve purchased before.
Final Thoughts
If you follow these successful strategies for holiday marketing campaigns, you’ll have a great chance of increasing your revenue. However, it’s important to remember that not every method will work equally well for all businesses as each has different products and target markets.
Decide which strategies will work best for your specific business, and don’t be afraid to test out new ones if you discover that something isn’t working. For the best results, I recommend calling VINK Marketing Studio to discuss your options and get an in-depth analysis of your website. We’ll be happy to help you!
Successful Strategies for Holiday Marketing Campaigns
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