With the holiday season fast approaching, now is the time to begin planning for your year-end marketing campaigns.For marketers, this can be an exciting time of year. But it can also be stressful — so much to do, so many ideas to try, and not nearly enough time to get it all done.
Together with Outbrain, the team at Promo has just released a free e-book, Marketing Master Guide for the Holiday Season, to help steer your holiday marketing in the right direction. Inside, you’ll find a whole range of marketing ideas, examples, best practices, tips, and strategies that will help you take your holiday promotions to the next level.
To give you a sneak peek of what’s inside, here are some of the top strategies that you can use this holiday season.
Use Video to Maximize Your Reach, Engagement, and Results
The number one tip for this holiday season: Use video!
If you haven’t already started integrating video into your content marketing strategy, now is the time. Native social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and native open web platforms, such as Outbrain, have all embraced video content and it now receives more reach, engagement, and conversions than other types of content.
Read More: Fast Forward Your Video Content Strategy in 2018
Facebook users watch a combined total of over 8 billion videos every day and social video is specifically proven to drive response and conversions.
In a study conducted by Promo in 2018, 58% of consumers said they react to videos that they watch online. But, more importantly, 60% said they visit a publisher’s social page after watching a video and 70% said they visit the publisher’s website.
Outbrain recently launched a click-to-watch video solution that allows consumers to opt-in to the brand experience, and strengthens native video opportunities for marketers. In recent video campaigns promoted on the Outbrain network, completion rates were double those of YouTube, and triple those of Facebook!
If nothing else, this is the year to invest in video for your holiday campaigns. It can radically change the effectiveness of your marketing, drive more sales, and help grow your business like never before.
Invest in Paid Promotion to Target and Improve Promotions
Paid promotion gives you a way to reach a new, larger audience. You can expand beyond your organic reach to target broad consumer segments that match the demographics or interests of your best current customers.
Paid promotion allows you to segment and precisely target the people you want to reach. This can help you drive more conversions and revenue.
In addition, advanced targeting tools allow you to target your best audience via their true interests – not just what they share in public on their social accounts:
Best of all, paid promotion doesn’t involve a lot of moving pieces. Even an entry-level marketer can quickly learn the basics of running a paid campaign and then test and optimize the campaign over time.
Of course, as you get more sophisticated, there are many more steps that go into optimizing and improving your campaigns over time. But getting started is relatively easy and only takes a few hours of work to set up.
Read More: The Era of Paid Social Media Promotions Has Just Begun
Create Partnerships and Special Offers
Another popular strategy is to create partnerships with other companies so you can cross-promote each other’s content to help grow both your audiences. You can, also, offer an exclusive deal, discount, or product to followers of another page or company.
Many brands have partnered up to share the holiday joy.
One great video campaign was Sonos and Spotify’s recent Playlist Potluck campaign, where they revealed a new feature that lets potluck attendees contribute to the soundtrack for the evening.
Part holiday cheer, part product placement — this was a great collaboration.
Run a Contest or Giveaway to Boost Reach & Engagement
Many companies use viral sweepstakes or other formats to help drive engagement on holiday videos, encourage sharing, and send their campaign to the next level.
Holiday giveaways are, of course, in the spirit of the season. But they also can give your brand a big boost in awareness and goodwill.
Curate Content that Engages
Creating new content is a great approach. But, sometimes, you can simply curate content from other creators to boost engagement and visibility.
Many marketers curate content from other sources to share relevant links or videos with their customers and followers.
This strategy is extra simple to execute and only takes a few hours a week, if you do it right.
On social platforms, you get the added boost of visibility by being the messenger that shares great content with their audiences.
Involve Users/Customers to Tell Authentic Stories
Storytelling is the heart of all great marketing. And that’s especially true during the holidays—after all, aren’t we celebrating because of stories that have been passed down for centuries? You can get in the holiday storytelling spirit by working with your current customers or clients to share their stories with your other customers or followers. The awesome thing about highlighting your customers or clients is that you’re able to give your company a human touch and feel.
Read More: Standing Out When Marketing Noise is Louder than Ever
Space Out your Promotions
The holidays are not just about one day. It’s actually an entire season, which runs from early October through to the end of the year. During this time, consumers are constantly browsing online for gifts, sales, and special discounts. The data shows that CTRs are consistently high throughout the entire period – so we recommend spacing your promotions over the holidays, not just before a specific day, like Black Friday or Christmas.
In fact, while CTRs are high over the whole holiday season, they are particularly high on weekends. So, make sure to amplify your campaigns on weekends, in addition to weekdays, to hit people right before they start their weekend shopping.
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