Top 20 Holiday Promotion Ultimate Guide
Yes. It is difficult to know what you should do to market/promote or bring brand awareness for your business during the holiday season ESPECIALLY if your service based. This guide should help during the holiday season, but many of the promotions are usable for any holiday or non holiday campaigns.
Since this may not apply to everyone, I’m going to use three of our current clients to help give you an idea of what you could do if you are in the same industry i.e. retail, restaurant, professional services etc.
Hoppy Monk – A San Antonio safe haven for any craft beer admirer, local food and family pub that everyone will enjoy.
LUCIO Tailoring – Jaw dropping leather goods craft shop owned and operated by Maria Galvan. If you need a Christmas gift idea for a bartender, barista, or barber friend/family member then you should absolutely check out Maria Galvan’s masterpiece designs with LUCIO Tailoring.
TelResource – A cost advisory services consultant firm that helps small-enterprise business’s save thousands – hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. – If you want a Christmas gift for your business, then you should have a free consultation with TelResource to figure out how much money you could be saving with Telecom, Expense Management or Project Management services.
A handy dandy guide to help your wallet fill with pride.
Lets get to it!
1. Create Holiday Themed Landing Pages
In case you don’t know what a landing page is, it is any page where you want someone to take action. So what a lot of people do, especially in retail is put out advertisements on facebook/instagram and send people to the landing page to try to convert them on an action. It’s fairly straight forward and certainly one of the most widely popular methods to get people to purchase.
LUCIO Tailoring – LUCIO decided to create a system out of their sales process and cut out the middleman from having to ask all these questions- saving them time and money while also providing an intuitive form. For this page, Maria the owner can pivot this in multiple ways between a few of her different buyers and add it into the holiday season.
TelResource “Service Based” – For TelResource or any service based industry it can be a bit more difficult to come up with something like retail providers do but this is where creativity can flourish.
For example, TelResource could send out an ad on facebook/linkedin
2. Film a fun Holiday Video
This one doesn’t have to be a big deal. I feel like so many people get too caught up in the minutia of making a big production out of any video or get scared of putting themselves on camera.
The biggest thing is your intention and genuinely wishing your people a wonderful season with their families. It could literally be as simple as going out during the day (preferably with sunlight around 4-6pm during twilight) to get a quick thank you and Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
LUCIO (Retail) – Maria does an amazing job at giving her audience a peek into her own life with her amazing instagram @allthingsmaria so a video would not be very difficult to switch to at all. Plus she could easily distribute through her instagram and facebook no problem with people being instantly connected.
Hoppy Monk (Restaurant) – Since the Hoppy Monk rarely sends video out to their audience it could be very special when they send out a simple thank you and Merry Christmas to their audience. Plus inviting them out to any events.
TelResource – Thanking people and wishing them a merry Christmas, breaking up the monotony of B2B is super important. We all know that we are in business to make money and build relationships but sometimes its nice just to do something a little silly to show our human side. Sending a professionally silly holiday video may do just the trick.
3. Run Holiday Email Campaigns
This is probably the toughest overall not because it’s actually the most difficult but because people rarely do it. Usually, for some reason, larger companies are usually the ones that do it the most. But shouldn’t that give you a hint that it could actually work?
LUCIO (Retail) – You could start off with a few different flash sales at different times with a Christmas decorated email. A discount coupon code for anyone wanting to buy a gift. A buy one get one free. A sale combo. All with holiday cheer decorated email.
4. Secret Santa Sales
This one is all based around exclusivity. Choose an audience of yours that they will only get access to. That way it’s a secret. Plus everyone loves to feel like their VIP. My recommendation would be to put together a list of your favorite clients and offer them an exclusive deal no one else even has access to so it’s a true Secret Santa Sale.
TelResource (Service) – For TelResource we could do something like putting a list of top 10 – 20 clients and offer them a
LUCIO (Retail ) – This would probably be great to put it as an exclusive deal to send out to her list of only bartenders and send them a new deal for a replacement of their current apron or to act as a backup and give them a sweet sale for it.
Hoppy Monk (Restaurant) – Hoppy Monk has a lot of traffic and different channels so this would be a bit harder to choose but I feel like email would give them a fantastic result. They have an interesting segmentation split . Beerist, Foodies, Locals & a couple more. I’d recommend sending something out to the foodies specifically if possible or just sending out an email to only subscribers.
Keep it exclusive.
5. Black Friday & Cyber Monday Promotions
I know this one is already come and gone but it needs to be said so we can make sure to prepare for next year. Especially if you’ve been missing it every year or haven’t tried. Holidays put everyone into buyers mode for something. Take advantage of it or at least give it a shot.
I’d suggest putting a reminder or a couple on your calendar a month before November so you can finally take full advantage of those two holidays.
6. Holiday Giveaway
Giveaways are a well known tactic to drive traffic to nearly any business. It’s no wonder it’s one of the most popular and widely used strategies out there. You can also create your own rules for it such as “like this post and post a hashtag with #giveaway” or “follow us, like us and comment here with hashtag #LUCIO” or something as simple as just sharing a post to incentivize them.
7. Early Bird Offers
This can be early access to mid year events, seminars, new products or a pre-order.
Hoppy Monk : Since Hoppy Monk has a slew of products, possibly creating a festive beer mug earlier in the year or even holding a pre order for some products to create anticipation for the new year would be productive. Sending out an early bird email would be awesome too.
LUCIO : Again a new product would be great or perhaps a limited edition product where if someone purchases it as early as possible within the month of rollout, they get a hefty discount offer.
TelResource : I see most service based companies doing this for an expo or event that they are holding for their people to shop.
8. Holiday Gift Guide
This would probably be best suited for a retail establishment BUT with some creativity you can for sure craft something unique for your herd. A gift guide is essentially a catalogue of your services and helping your customers find the best solutions for them in a guide format.
Hoppy Monk (Restaurant) : If you own a restaurant, creating a holiday gift guide would be interesting to try, especially if you have particular holiday menu items, holiday combos or specials for food and drinks to delight your customers.
LUCIO (Retail) : Imagine a catalogue with the greatest hits with holiday specials. This would for sure be something anyone in E Commerce or retail could do. Simply make a few combinations in a flyer/poster/infographic format for people to view and download off of pinterest, website, facebook and more.
9. Gift Card Bonus
Mostly for retail but it could always be used as a gift or as a credit for your service.
LUCIO (Retail) – Pretty straightforward but you can use the gift card as a bonus whenever someone purchases in the month of December so it essentially sends a 10$ gift card that can be applicable to their next order in the future. This is great because it gives people a reason to buy again while appreciating a free reward. This builds loyalty and keeps them returning.
Hoppy Monk (restaurant) – Most restaurants have gift cards nowadays but I still see them rarely being used. I feel like the Hoppy Monk could definitely promote these more especially since going there during the Christmas time is so enjoyable. If you have a restaurant, take advantage of people needing to purchase last minute gifts for their friends or family. They may just see your card and think “man, thats right (Jacob or whoever)” loves the Monk. And Boom. Your restaurant saves the day!
10. Free Shipping
Free shipping for any business with E Commerce or shippable products is an easy supercharge for their site. It’s self explanatory but you can use it for so much. If you need to supercharge any ad whatsoever or offer, just add “free shipping” and “voila!” added bonus. Ad supercharged. Give it a try. Unless your in service then you may not be able to add free shipping. Shucks.
11. Donate to charity & Talk about it
Some people may get slightly offended by this but the truth of the matter is that charity and the promotion of the business that does the charity benefits a lot of people including the families that are in the business. After seeing through a business owner’s eyes, you have to realize that they have families too along with their employees. So I say toot that horn. Because if you won’t nobody will.
12. Send a special gift
This can be something as small as a book or a bigger gift like a bouquet of flowers or anything thoughtful you would think that your people would enjoy. A thought like this is so powerful because people rarely do it, even the bigger companies who have the “time.”
Hoppy Monk : You could send out a special email promotion/facebook/instagram audience or even a free dessert with any meal for your customers so they can come in and enjoy the delicious Holiday menu.
LUCIO : To your most VIP members or whoever is the highest paying customers or a certain social channel, offer them a free leather care kit with the purchase of any leather apron, for this holiday season only.
TelResource : For professional services many people give books, fine wine, high end bottles of Tequila, Champagne (just make sure the person drinks), and pens. You can always try and liven it up as long as you think about what the other person may really want. Since this will usually take a bit more time to think of your VIP’s try choosing just 5 and going with that.
13. 12 Days of Christmas Holiday Promotion
Tis the season for the 12 days of any type of promotion. This year Amazon is doing a crazy “12 Days of Deal sale” with a special landing page, special functionality, a countdown clock and more. These guys are the masters of promotion. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a page or 12 out of their book every once in a while or any chance you get.
14. Holiday Video Promotion (Email)
This is more focused on a particular promotion of a product in a holiday style that has nothing to do with you other than the offer itself. Be creative with this one. It could be anything from a promotion of a product or even a holiday sales commercial.
15. Writing a letter (thank you note)
This can’t be stressed enough. The simple act of writing a handwritten note to your people can make a tremendous impact. Even if it just says “Hey Larry, Have a Merry Christmas! Thank you for letting us a be a part of your family”. Simple. 90% of so much promotion is just showing up.
16. Throw a holiday party or event
People love parties. Even if you don’t. They like to feel special and included. And many people are so busy hustling especially as they age, that they socialize less and less . So this could be a really beautiful and fun event. It doesn’t even have to be anything fancy, just pick a great meeting place “ahem” the Hoppy Monk for example and the fun will already be there. Just host with the intention of making sure everyone else should have a better time.
And if you see someone that is all on their lonesome, then hang out with that person. Make them feel welcome and who knows, they may help you land your next big deal, customer or open your eyes to another opportunity.
Just make sure to show up!
17. Promote your friend’s businesses
I hope I’ve made it perfectly clear on how you can promote others businesses. I’ve done it at least 20 times already and the blog hasn’t finished yet but you can always write a blog that links up with another company. You can host an event with another colleague (Hoppy Monk does this nearly every month) and you can email special offers to your list.
18. Top customer rewarding system
Some people may already have this in a reward checkout system where you give people a credit every time they purchase or something like that. Hoppy Monk has the Hoptimist Club which is a reward system of some kind. For more service based this would probably fall more inline with a masters circle or some of your Top VIP customers and sending them a special gift of some kind.
19. Bring Your Pet Day
Bringing morale up in your own establishment can do wonders for your current employees attitudes. This doesn’t have to be all about your customers. Some of it should reflect how you believe in your employees and helping them loosen up to enjoy their time at the company.
20. Treat yo customers
Let’s bring it home with a solid message. Try on every occasion to do something special for your customers. Inside sales are amongst the highest in conversion because people are 10x more likely to purchase from you if they already have. This is why treating your current customer base well is so important.
And I know you probably have already heard this before. You know this, you’ve been in business forever yada yada, but are you doing your absolute best with it? Can you improve? I hope so. If not someone else will.
I hope this helps. Please comment after trying one of these tactics and let me know if they helped you at all. We will be trying as many of these as possible and continuing others. I just wanted one place where someone could go back and use this as a checklist for holiday or even non holiday promotions.
Happy Holidays and good luck!
P.S. If you need more ideas or want full previews of what companies actually did for their companies and what they offer, Infusion Soft does a fantastic job at displaying all the different ad creative you could want. Check it out here
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