4 Holiday Campaign Strategies | SMH Branding
Every year, when the festive holiday season rolls around, we see a boost in digital marketing campaigns across all industries.
Beauty brands tend to do well during the holidays, when gift-giving is at its highest.
The health and beauty industry tops $80 billion in annual revenue in the US alone, and is set to rise even higher in the next few years.
In other words: beauty is one of the strongest industries around. Not only should you expect it to continue growing throughout 2022, but an increasing portion of the sales will come from digital sources. With more customers buying via their smartphone, the opportunities for online sales will only grow.
What do you need to do first?
To build your campaign first: You have to know your audience. This goes for marketing in general. If you don’t know who you’re addressing, your message is only going to fall on deaf ears. So, all year you need to be studying your audience to figure out what they would love and buy into.
For example, if you are a skin-care company, you should probably focus on gift-sets, rather than your anti-aging serums, because most people aren't going to buy an anti-aging serum as a gift. If you are a company that does not have gift-type products, then you can put your energy into capitalizing on Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.
Next, when you start designing your festive campaign, do your best to stay on-brand while mixing in some holiday style. Try not to be to crazy with the color scheme. If you usually use a muted color palette, don’t suddenly switch to super bright reds and greens - stay true to your brand. You can still include festive elements - snowflakes, candy canes, reindeer, in a way that works with your brand, but try your best to not be tacky.
Finally, don’t be afraid to partner with other brands. Of course, the business world is competitive, but working with other brands, instead of against them, can boost your reach, expand your audience, and help you bring in new customers. You can do a product exchange with another brand and offer a giveaway of their products for your incentive. Also, partnership between a company pushing its influencer-endorsed eye shadow palette may be a fantastic match for a brand with a eyebrow gel that’s currently trending. Work together to reach mutually-beneficial goals.
4 Holiday Campaign Strategies
Beauty brands are launching their festive campaigns on social media daily and competing for an ultimate spot on your holiday shopping list. If your brand is going to stand out, you’re going to need data-driven insights when it comes to targeting and budgets. Most importantly, you’re going to need knockout creatives to entice consumers to click.
To help you engage your potential buyers on the days leading up to Christmas and New Year, I gathered four of the best holiday marketing strategies I’ve seen in recent years year.
- 12 Days of Giveaways
Show off your creativity with 12 Days of Giveaways! This is a great opportunity to have some fun and interact with followers on all your social media channels. Think about which product you’d like to feature and any pattern that you can highlight for 12 days. Many of these giveaways are hosted through Instagram only, or across all social platforms, and involve following the brand and tagging a friend.
- Giveaway idea 1: Post about the giveaway on your Instagram page and let your followers know they can win 10% off their next purchase for participating. To enter, all they need to do is tag a friend in a comment and already be following you. Then, you pick 1 winner and announce the winner on social! You could also consider sending a mass text or email blast through the Klavyio app to let your clients know about the giveaway!
- Giveaway idea 2: You don’t have to give away 12 things in 12 days! You could host a photo contest in December by asking clients to post about your business and the service you provided. Each customer that posts and tags you will get $5 off their first service in 2021. OR you can pick 1 lucky winner to win a $100 gift card.
- Partner with a Nonprofit Organization
‘Tis the season for giving back! One of the best ways to get in the holiday spirit is to partner with a nonprofit organization. This is an opportunity to show off your values and align your brand with another company that has a similar vision.
This digital marketing campaign idea is great to kickstart during the holiday season and continue into the new year.
- Inspire Holiday User Generated Content
Another fun campaign idea is to encourage your followers to create unique holiday inspired content using your products. Along with being a great way to get user generated content for your social media, it brings incredible user engagement and even more exposure for your brand.
The best way to keep track of holiday UGC is to use a branded hashtag and inspire users to create different ways to show them using your products. This also helps build up brand credibility and help you discover loyal followers who genuinely love your brand.
- Influencer Marketing
Brands are actively strengthening the exposure of their campaigns by utilizing the power of influencer marketing. Partnering with popular influencers allows your brand's content to be seen by a greater audience, influenced by a reputable spokesperson.
You should start your influencer outreach in October/early November for the holidays (the earlier the better!). This gives you time to negotiate with the influencers you want to collaborate with and get them your products. Remember that many people start their holiday shopping in November, and getting influencers to start posting in November will also give you content that you can promote in December.
Make a list of influencers you want to target. If you are targeting influencers on Instagram here is a pro-tip: use the Instagram "save" feature, to keep track of influencers that you want to pitch. Finding the right influencers can take time so saving them as you come across them will save you time in the long run.