The holiday season is the most wonderful—and competitive—time for marketers. With inboxes overflowing, timelines buzzing, and shoppers frantically searching for the perfect gifts, standing out can feel daunting. According to Forbes' holiday marketing statistics, effective holiday marketing can make or break your annual revenue goals.
Fear not. We’ve curated 12 Days of Marketing Magic to help you get your audience's attention, drive engagement, and boost sales this holiday season. Let’s unwrap the magic.
Holiday emails often focus on deals and products, but the most memorable ones evoke feelings. Emotions like joy, nostalgia, or love resonate deeply with customers and make your brand more relatable.
Instead of focusing solely on the product, highlight the experience it creates. For example, if you’re selling candles, emphasize how they make warm, cozy moments during family gatherings. Pair your messaging with visuals that reinforce these feelings, such as a family sharing stories around a candlelit table.
Why it matters: People buy based on emotions, not logic. If your email can make them feel something, it’s far more likely to be remembered and acted upon. Check out our email marketing services to learn how we can help.
Day 2: Win Over Last-Minute Shoppers
Procrastinators make up a significant portion of holiday shoppers, and they often feel rushed and stressed. According to the National Retail Federation, last-minute shopping accounts for a substantial portion of holiday sales. To win their business, your messaging must emphasize convenience and urgency.
Key strategies:
These shoppers need reassurance that their gifts will arrive on time without complications. Tailor your website and checkout experience to make their path to purchase seamless.
If your holiday ads aren’t getting the expected results, the issue may be with your visuals. During the holiday season, the competition for attention is fierce. Simple product shots on basic backgrounds don’t stand out in a crowded market.
How to Fix It:
Make your visuals more festive and engaging to draw attention and boost conversions this season. Explore our content creation services.
Day 4: Harness the Power of Nostalgia
The holidays spark nostalgia. Brands that tap into this emotional trigger forge stronger connections with customers. According to psychology research from Harvard Business Review, nostalgic products, familiar traditions, and holiday references remind customers of their favorite memories.
How to Implement:
Why It Works: Nostalgia creates strong emotional bonds, making your brand part of the customer’s cherished holiday memories.
Interactive content boosts engagement and encourages deeper connections with your brand. According to the Content Marketing Institute, interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content.
Examples:
Why It Works: Interactive content invites customers to participate actively, making them more likely to spend time with your brand.
Urgency drives action. The holidays are the ideal time to implement time-sensitive offers that encourage immediate purchases. Marketing Science Institute research shows that limited-time offers can increase conversion rates by up to 50%.
Tactics to Try:
Why It Works: Creating a sense of urgency compels customers to make quick decisions, avoiding hesitation that could result in lost sales.
With over half of all holiday shopping happening on mobile, according to Google's retail insights, a mobile-optimized website is essential for capturing sales.
Key Optimizations:
Why It Works: A seamless mobile experience helps prevent lost sales from frustrated customers who encounter issues when shopping on mobile devices.
Day 8: Use Social Proof to Build Trust
Consumers trust other people’s experiences more than brand messaging. Social proof—such as customer reviews and testimonials—can strongly influence their buying decisions.
How to Use Social Proof:
Why It Works: Social proof reassures customers by showing them that others have had positive experiences with your brand.
Video marketing is a powerful way to capture attention and convey your brand’s message. According to Wyzowl's video marketing statistics, 86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. During the holidays, videos can help tell a compelling, emotional story.
Video Ideas:
Why It Works: Video content is engaging and memorable. It helps tell your brand story in a more dynamic, emotional way.
The holiday season is a time for giving, and many customers are drawn to brands that give back. Partnering with a charity or nonprofit enhances your brand’s image while supporting a worthy cause.
Ways to Give Back:
Why It Works: Customers appreciate knowing their money supports a good cause. By incorporating social responsibility, your brand builds goodwill with your audience.
Your product’s packaging plays a significant role in the customer’s experience. During the holidays, attractive, festive packaging adds value and makes your product feel like an instant gift.
Packaging Ideas:
Why It Works: Thoughtful packaging enhances the perceived value of your product and reinforces the festive mood.
Holiday marketing shouldn’t end once the season is over. Retaining customers acquired during the holidays is essential for long-term growth.
Retention Strategies:
Why It Works: Retaining customers is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Nurturing post-holiday relationships ensures continued loyalty and revenue.
Final Thoughts
The holidays are a time for connection, celebration, and giving. By focusing on these values in your marketing campaigns, you’ll drive sales and create meaningful customer experiences. With these 12 strategies, you can make this holiday season your most successful yet.
Want to implement these strategies for your business? Contact Lunara Digital today for a free consultation.
Today, there are many social media platforms you can use to market your business. Some have become more popular than others with the rise of smartphones and tablets.
One platform that has seen tremendous growth in recent years is Instagram. With roughly one billion monthly active users worldwide, it’s an excellent place for small businesses to market their products and services.
However, because Instagram is such a visual platform, it can be challenging to know where to start if you’re new to social media marketing.
This post will discuss how your small businesses can use these 3 Instagram strategies to help grow your small business audience, and engagement and lead to conversions.
Using hashtags is a great way to get your Instagram posts in front of more people. Make sure to use relevant, popular hashtags that will bring up the right content for those who are searching for it. If you try using less-popular tags, you’ll limit yourself as fewer people search for these tags.
Add your key hashtags in the first comment on your photo or video to increase exposure.
When you want to feature specific hashtags, place them at the end of your post text. This ensures they are seen by everyone who visits your profile and doesn’t get hidden somewhere in all the comments.
Creating a community around your business is an essential part of Instagram marketing. It allows you to build relationships with people interested in what you have to offer. Being honest about what your company does and being personable can help instill trust among potential customers so they will be more likely to buy from you when the time comes.
The way to build a community on Instagram is to interact with users, liking and commenting on their posts to show you’re listening. You can also create a poll to determine what your followers want to tailor content relevant to them.
As you interact with others, it’s essential to make sure your content is relevant and engaging. This ensures that people will want to return to see what new photos or videos you have posted. If your audience sees that your account is inactive for too long, they may lose interest in following you altogether.
Videos allow you to show your followers what makes your business special, and they’re easily digestible for social media users with short attention spans. Plus, seeing videos of actual customers talking about their experiences with your products or services can help instill trust.
Since Instagram stories are only available for 24 hours, you’re more likely to get your followers’ attention with this feature. You also have a longer time frame in which to tell your story, and people will be able to see it multiple times if they miss it when it first appears on their feeds.
Video consumption on social media is rising, so marketers are experimenting with using video most effectively. One way you can test is by doing a “day in the life of” series for your business or product line.
Another example is to create content that shows what happens during each step of making your products and upload it using Instagram stories. You can also create a video showing off your company culture and post it on Instagram.
Here is a list of video ideas that you can post:
Small businesses can use Instagram influencers as part of their strategy, especially if they don’t have the budget for advertisements or promotion on social media sites like Facebook.
The first step is to find influencers in your industry that have a large following. You can do this by searching hashtags related to your business or location, then checking out the profiles of those who regularly use these tags.
Once you’ve identified some likely candidates, look at how many followers they have and what kind of content they share. This will give you a better idea of whether their audience is likely to be interested in your products or services and how they can help boost awareness about your company.
To contact an influencer, send them a message explaining what kind of content you’d like them to create for your business. You should also offer some form of compensation, whether it’s free products or money. Just make sure to have a specific contract in place so there won’t be any issues if you decide not to work with them anymore after the first round of posts.
In addition to working with influencers, you can also post about them on your Instagram account. If they have many followers and their content is relevant to what your business offers, it’s likely that these people will want to follow you.
You could even respond or tag the influencer in some of your posts so they’ll be more likely to see it. This can help instill trust and encourage them to promote your business in the future or even work with you again down the line.
If you are looking for a way to expand your business online, Instagram may be the answer. The photo-sharing app has quickly become one of the most popular social media platforms on the web and is now being used by many businesses as their marketing arm. Moreover, users have found that using this platform can help them grow their small businesses faster than ever before. It is easy to see why so many companies are taking advantage of this opportunity.
As a bonus, there are plenty of tools out there designed specifically with Instagram in mind – meaning it’s never been easier to take full advantage of what this platform offers. Do you need some help getting started?
Contact us here, and we will work together to create a successful Instagram strategy for your small business.
