How to Create a Legendary Social Media Marketing Campaign for the Holidays

IT IS NOT TOO LATE. WE REPEAT, IT IS NOT TOO LATE. 

Maybe you got busy. Too many holiday parties. Too many cocktails. Too many lineups while holiday shopping. Maybe you got busy and you forgot to create, strategize and implement a holiday marketing campaign on your social media that would be legendary. But you know what? That’s okay. Lots of people forget, but the good news is this… today is only December 10th. That means that you have 15 more days until Christmas and even more until New Years. It also means that your audience is likely starting to take vacation and naturally spending more time on their cell phones scrolling to see what companies just like yours are up too (promotion hunting? Yup). In fact, some studies have shown that almost 70% of shoppers don’t even start their holiday shopping until the week before Christmas! So stop, take a breath, and follow these easy steps to create a legendary social media holiday campaign right now.

Step 1: Get Together and Get Creative. If time is precious, you might just throw up any old BOGO sale on your social media platforms and see if it takes off. But we’d highly recommend gathering your most creative team members over a carton of egg nog and engaging in some creative “anything goes” brainstorming. Start the meeting by asking the following questions: 

• Can you choose 1-2 products or services that you can focus on your online campaign on?
• Can you launch an online contest targeted to your demographic that makes sense based on current events right now? 
• Do you have a product line you can transform into a witty jingle that team members can perform online? 
• Is there a notable and memorable hashtag you can create around a product or service you are selling this holiday season? 
• Do you have any charities that you can partner with to cross promote your campaign while giving back? 
• Can you create a video or photo series or even infographic series that touches on heartstrings over the holidays and invites users to join in for a chance to win? Some simple and easy to implement ideas include:
  • “Tag a Friend” for a chance to win contests
  • Video contests (get everyone to submit a contest entry with a video dance etc)
  • Share a photo contests (ask people to share a photo related to your theme and tag you and your hashtag for a chance to win)
  • Multi-Day giveaways. Ask users to check back and tag one friend every day up until Christmas for a chance to win.
• Do you have a way to integrate inspiring client stories to help push a sale? I.e. UPS #wishesdelivered campaign

Step 2: Delegate and Deliver. With a time crunch like this one, you have to work as a team and delegate. Once the idea has been generated, send it to your top designers, copywriters and social media managers to work together to get it online ASAP. Remember that key date of one week before Christmas and lock that in as your deadline. Once the campaign is complete, do not forget to do all of the following: 

• Make sure you have created a landing page to catch your campaign on your website so you can get website visits or emails in exchange. 

• Blast your campaign across all of your social media platforms and send it out in your holiday newsletter. 

• Send your campaign to local newspapers, magazines and bloggers to increase engagement offline too. 

• Reach out to your staff and ask them all to share the campaign at different times using your campaign hashtag (you might even make this ask at your holiday party). 

• Be sure to track engagement so you can adjust and adapt as the campaign rolls along. 

Step 3: Boost and Boost Again. Most social media platforms give you the option to easily boost your post to a specified target audience that you choose. This is a great time to make that investment on your super creative campaign. For as little as $50 to sponsor a Facebook post, you can get thousands of impressions. If the campaign is emotionally, personal, visually impactful and easily sharable, the possibilities are endless. 

Step 4: Capture Those Post Holiday Sales. Consider how much money is spent after the holidays – from gift cards to ‘holiday money’ to new year’s resolutions – there are endless opportunities to take your holiday campaign well into the year new. Think about this step even while you are developing your initial campaign and make sure there is a connection – a way – to loop back to the campaign you launched in December and make it relevant with New Year’s Resolutions. Another option? Redevelop the same campaign concept but tailored to New Years. 

Four simple steps. Two busy weeks. You can do this. And if you can’t but you desperately want to, call our team at Skyfall Blue right now at 1-613-286-3289 and we are here, happy and full of creative juices ready to help! Or email us at: [email protected].