If your business derives most of its revenue from holiday sales, you should already be implementing your marketing strategy to catch the eyes of clients, both new and old. Because approximately 56% of people complete their holiday purchases before the month of December, it’s absolutely essential to begin the actual marketing process in late September to early October. That means you should begin your planning process in early August of each year.
In order to take full advantage of the season, savvy entrepreneurs prepare a diverse social media strategy that will wow their clients with a clear brand promise and incentives to become a loyal customer. Let’s dive in to learn Equivity’s tips and tricks to harness the power of social media in your holiday marketing plan.
Plan Your Social Media Strategy Now
Before you post, make sure that you have clear guidelines for how you present your brand generally and how you will specifically present the brand on social media platforms.
A brand guide provides practical guidance for presenting your brand in a consistent way across all platforms. Examples of such guidance include, logo design, your corporate colors, the fonts you will use in corporate communications, and the voice in which your company communicates. The latter is particularly important in social media, where you need to decide on the level of formality of your posts. You should also consider how your voice will translate to various social media platforms. For example, if your corporate voice is formal, it will translate well to LinkedIn, but perhaps not so well to TikTok.
Once you know how you will present your brand, think about how you will translate those guidelines to social media specifically. How often should you be posting? Will the rate of posts increase as the holiday season progresses? How will you engage long-standing clients while working within your brand guidelines? Will you rely on video content, introduce contests, or publicize promotions? The earlier you can answer questions like these, the more time you will have to perfect the execution of your strategy.
Test Your Strategy Early
An early roll out of your strategy gives you the opportunity to test and optimize your campaign. For example, you can run targeted ads on a limited budget before holiday buying begins in earnest. The performance of these ads will provide important information, such as what content engages your audience, what ad presentation generates the most interest, and which ads result in the most conversions.
Paid ads are a powerful asset in your social media toolkit and can build buzz & brand awareness around your offering that will constantly position you in front of your ideal audience.
Create Scroll-Stopping Video and Graphic Assets
It’s no secret – —video and well-designed graphic assets dominate the social scene on nearly every platform. Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, and others were created as a visual medium. The algorithms were specifically designed to allow those with visual assets behind their posts to rise to the top in a bid for maximum engagement.
This can be more difficult than simply creating and writing a post, which is why you should…
- Invest (or Search!) Platforms and Services for Help
Creating image and video content can be time consuming, but it need not be expensive. There are several free services that can help your company design professional-looking ads, infographics, and video content. - Learn the New Trends (and stay on them!)
Social media sites like Instagram are also constantly rolling out updates to provide a more immersive experience for their users. One of the reasons we suggest outsourcing your marketing is that just keeping up with platform updates is time consuming. Yet using new features can pay off in the long run, allowing you to create content that your competitors haven’t caught up with.
Influence Your Audience with Social Media Influencer Partnerships
In a culture obsessed with social media, you’ve likely heard mixed things about influencers. Why are influencers so powerful, and what can they add to your social media plan?
Well, just about everything.
Influencers give the audience what it ultimately takes to bring you a conversion: Social proof and a testimonial that they can TRUST your product and brand offering. So many companies have benefited from this that 85% plan to work with influencers within the next year for marketing purposes. It is a minimal upfront investment that can net you incredible returns.
- Be Platform-Specific
While some influencers have such a large reach that they can be recognized on every platform, many platforms have their own specific “brand” of influencers…such as creators who rose to fame in the early days and keep earning followers. A good example of this would be Dixie and Charlie D’Amelio, the famous sister-influencer duo that brought TikTok to fame. - Be Flexible
Influencers are artistic and may bring fresh ideas on how to elevate your brand on social channels. Be open to the idea of flexibility in your marketing strategy, as they may have insights on how to make the algorithm and audience preference work for you!
Don’t Wait!
For so many businesses, the holidays are make-or-break. Now is the time to make sure that there is a plan in place to get the most out of all of your social media platforms. If you enter prime buying season with a consistent look and voice for your brand, optimized ads and ready-to-go organic content, you can focus on filling the uptick in orders, rather than trying to capture sales with untested posts.