The run-up to Christmas is a seriously exciting time for businesses and a time when the right marketing campaign can really boost your sales. Christmas is a season when brands have a captive audience because shoppers are looking to buy, and stores need to work harder than ever on their marketing because the field is so competitive. However, this does not mean that businesses can afford to neglect their marketing strategy during the holidays.
Why Use an Influencer Marketing Campaign at Christmas?
Influencer campaigns have long been heralded as the most effective marketing tool that modern brands can (and should!) utilize to promote their products. Influencers have a special kind of appeal for shoppers. They’re authentic, personable, and give off an aura of relatable glamour that many customers want to emulate.
Christmas is the perfect season to use these traits because Christmas is a holiday about connecting with others and demands a personal touch. Influencer marketing campaigns are, undoubtedly, the best way to achieve this. Follow our 6 tips for more ideas on how to build a great Christmas sales campaign!
Organize Your Christmas Calendar
Planning your Christmas marketing campaign is all about timing. Of course, Christmas itself revolves around a certain date, but there are other important sales markers within that calendar. Your preparation for your Christmas marketing campaign should start well in advance so that you can prepare for both early shoppers and last-minute buyers.
If you’re utilizing influencer marketing this holiday season, research and reach out to your influencers in plenty of time. Work with influencers to take advantage of pre-Christmas sales, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or run a sales campaign that takes you all the way through December. With an estimated 70% of Christmas consumers making last-minute purchases, starting your marketing early will acquaint potential customers with your brand. Associating your influencer marketing campaign specifically with Christmas will then pay off when it comes to people making spontaneous purchasing decisions nearer the time. You’ll be the first ones they think of!
Plan Your Marketing Budget
If you’re planning a substantial influencer marketing campaign, set money aside for this well in advance. Although some micro-influencers will advertise for free (or for reciprocal promotions), if you’re working with serious heavyweights, they will expect to be paid for their service. Make sure to factor your campaign plans, as well as money to pay your influencers, when devising your budget. Even if you’re sure you can make a profit from the Christmas sales, cover yourself financially first. This way, you can re-invest everything you earn back into your business!
Identify Your Products and Offers
Do you know what you’ll be selling or promoting this Christmas? During the holiday season, people are primarily looking for great value for money. Christmas is expensive, and people will want to cut corners where they can with cheap and cheerful deals. Influencers can help you with this as influencer marketing often uses product offers like discount codes, giveaways, or customer reward schemes.
If you want an example of an industry that uses influencer marketing to promote offers or bundles, the gaming industry can be a great source of inspiration. Online gaming sites, like book of ra, often offer promotions and discounts that give new customers added value. Advertising promotions through an influencer who is popular on Twitch, Twitter, or YouTube is an effective way to bring fresh eyes to the deal. Not only does the brand reach its own staple audience, it also gains exposure to the influencer’s own audience. Although this is an effective year-round marketing strategy, generous bundles and promotions are particularly popular on Christmas.
Tell a Story
Everybody remembers their favorite Christmas advert. From Fairy Liquid to John Lewis, traditional marketing understood that a good Christmas advert tells an effective story. And this story should capture some Christmas magic along the way!
Although traditional marketing concepts, like TV advertising, are far from cutting edge today, the principle still applies. When selecting influencers, choose people whose content and message resonate with your brand. This will lead to a healthy working relationship and allow you to bounce ideas off each other. If you love influencers who make great storytelling content, reach out to them and suggest you help put together a Christmas-themed marketing campaign.
Use Creative Content Marketing
Remember, successful holiday marketing doesn’t just supply bargains, it gives your customers a Christmas shopping experience. Don’t just hope that customers will stumble upon your products during the Christmas rush. Influencers can bring all sorts of creative and festive ideas to the table, from a 12-days-of-Christmas Instagram countdown to Christmas vlogs featuring your products.
You can do your part, too. Customize any product pages you have with a Christmassy vibe, and ensure that any links your influencers use to direct their fans land on your festive page. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your content. Instead, allow influencers to help you with this.
Analyze Your Performance
You shouldn’t view Christmas as a one-off event that you prep frantically for and then forget about. Instead, businesses should analyze their Christmas sales in the aftermath and use this to plan ahead in the new year. Look at your sales numbers and see if using influencers hurt or helped your profits. Are there ways that you can repackage leftover Christmas stock for New Year or January sales? By analyzing when and where your customers spent Christmas money, you give yourself a significant edge for the following year and a new customer market development.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, influencer marketing is absolutely cutting edge in today’s sales landscape. Whether you’re only using influencers to help with your holiday marketing, or you want to make it a year-round thing, we hope our ideas have helped. Good luck with your Christmas marketing campaign!
How do you plan your Christmas marketing campaign? Have you worked with influencers before? How did this boost your sales? Let us know in the comments!
Author’s Bio: Thomas Glare has worked in a whole host of sales roles, from insurance to gaming. He is known for being great with money and once turned a 10 euro bonus win on his favorite slot into a small promotions agency. He now runs this full-time and blogs on the side.