The holiday season is the perfect time for brands to engage with their target audience in a new and fun way. Consumers are planning their annual holiday shopping, and there’s a general sense of festivity in the air.
To put your brand on consumers’ wish lists this year, consider launching a dedicated holiday marketing campaign. Take advantage of the holiday spirit to expand your customer base and maximize sales so you can start off the new year on the right foot.
The holiday season is full of opportunities to win over new customers, but you’ll also face heavy competition. To stand out, you’ll need to optimize your marketing campaigns and holiday customer service across multiple channels. We’ve rounded up 10 strategies for a successful holiday marketing campaign to help you get started.
*Note: The brands and examples discussed below were found during our online research for this article.
Why should businesses update their marketing campaigns during the holiday season?
The holiday season is one of the busiest times of year for many companies, especially those in the B2C space. Consumers tend to spend more during this time of year as they’re purchasing holiday gifts for loved ones. Deloitte projects that the average American will spend $1,778 on holiday shopping in 2024, an 8% increase from 2023’s numbers.
Updating your marketing efforts during this time of year can help you capitalize on this period of heavy spending and boost your revenue overall. A well-crafted seasonal campaign will get the word out to both new and loyal customers about your holiday products and deals, improving brand awareness during this pivotal time.
Although this season is short, holiday deals can attract new long-term customers. Investing in your holiday marketing strategy now can set you up for a successful year ahead.
When building your marketing campaigns for the festive season, it’s important to get started early. Today’s holiday shoppers often start planning their gifts well before December rolls around, especially as events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday get bigger and bigger. In fact, 45% of holiday shoppers plan to get started before November. Working on your holiday campaigns in the fall can help you get ahead of the competition.
10 strategies and best practices for optimizing holiday campaigns
Looking to build a standout marketing campaign? Here are 10 marketing ideas and best practices to put all eyes on your brand this year.
1. Develop a holiday campaign calendar
The holiday season goes by fast, so you’ll need to plan a detailed campaign schedule in advance to ensure you don’t miss anything. Collaborate with leaders across your organization to identify important deadlines like new product launches, limited-time promotions, and retail events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Then, build your schedule for social media posts, holiday advertising campaigns, and other marketing strategies. Ensure your entire team can access the calendar to help prevent missed deadlines.
Best practices:
- Use a digital project management tool like Asana or Trello to keep tasks organized. Assign each task to the corresponding team member—this will help you identify who’s taking ownership of which tasks at a glance.
- Break down bigger projects into small milestones. Steps like content creation, ad launches, and email blasts should all be scheduled on the calendar to prevent confusion.
2. Segment your audience for targeted campaigns
Targeted ad campaigns help you appeal to different subsections of your audience, which can help you stand out during the busy holiday shopping season. You might create one campaign that appeals to first-time buyers and another for return customers, or you could segment campaigns by demographics like age or location.
By running a targeted campaign, you get the opportunity to address your customers’ specific interests and pain points. This can help move them through the sales funnel faster.
Best practices:
- Use digital marketing tools that offer customer data management and segmentation features, like Google Analytics, HubSpot, Klayvio, or Twilio Segment. This can help you decide which groups to focus on.
- Find subtle ways to tailor your messaging, visuals, and special offers to each segment based on their behavior.
- Track the performance of each segmented campaign throughout the holiday season and make adjustments as needed.
3. Optimize landing pages for increased holiday traffic
Creating landing pages for your holiday campaigns helps to reel customers in. Landing pages are the sites consumers land on after they interact with your brand’s marketing campaigns. If someone scans a QR Code for Black Friday shopping, they’d be taken to a landing page focusing on sale-specific information and products.
Bitly helps you create personalized landing pages with ease. You can choose from an extensive library of customizable templates and integrate each landing page with the rest of your online marketing ecosystem.
Best practices:
- Test your landing pages to ensure they load quickly and work on mobile devices. Busy customers won’t want to wait for a page to load.
- Include clear, seasonal calls to action to engage visitors, such as “Shop Now For Last-Minute Deals.”
4. Run social media holiday contests and giveaways
Social media platforms are some of the best places to build awareness about your upcoming holiday sales, especially if you’re looking to reach a younger audience. Forty-three percent of Gen Z consumers begin their online product searches on TikTok rather than using a search engine.
A creative social media campaign can send brand awareness skyrocketing and engage your target audience quickly. Social media marketing can be competitive, particularly during this time of year, so one way to stand out is by launching exclusive holiday contests and giveaways. These events generate excitement and create a sense of urgency to pull your target audience to your page.
Best practices:
- Offer holiday-themed prizes that your target audience won’t be able to resist, like limited-edition versions of bestsellers or influencer collaboration products.
- Make your contest or giveaway easy to enter and provide clear instructions on how to do so.
- Spread the word with themed hashtags and Bitly QR Codes.
5. Measure campaign performance and optimize
One of the biggest benefits of launching a digital marketing campaign is the ability to access and track consumer data with the click of a button. Once you’ve launched your campaigns for the season, continue to track their performance and make changes as needed to keep your audience engaged.
Luckily, many of today’s marketing platforms offer built-in analytics, which makes this process easy. You might use Bitly Analytics to track clicks and scans for your QR Codes and short links, sorting traffic by location and device. You can also use Bitly’s API to integrate with other platforms and collect other valuable consumer data.
Best practices:
- Use multiple tools to broaden your data collection efforts. You might use both Bitly Analytics and Google Analytics to track performance across multiple channels.
- Wherever possible, set up automated tracking for priority KPIs so you don’t miss any crucial data points.
6. Create holiday-themed ad campaigns
Join in on the festivities with holiday-specific ad campaigns. These could be campaigns specific to a single holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or New Year’s, or a more general campaign focused on winter festivities. Using seasonal imagery and language helps your ad campaigns feel timely and relevant.
To expand your reach, make sure to launch campaigns across multiple channels. This could include social media, Google Ads, or display networks. Depending on your customer base and their media habits, you could also create corresponding print campaigns.
Best practices:
- Set up retargeting campaigns using platforms like Google Ads or AdRoll to show your ads to customers who have already expressed interest in your site.
- Once you’ve launched your campaign, track its performance using analytics tools. Monitor for engagement levels, conversion rates, and other key metrics.
7. Use seasonal keywords for SEO optimization
Seventy-six percent of American consumers plan to buy the majority of their gifts online this year. Since so many people are using the internet to find the perfect gifts, you’ll want to ensure your website is easy to find via search engines.
Using SEO best practices throughout your campaign can help prevent your holiday marketing content from getting lost in the shuffle. Focus on including seasonally appropriate keywords throughout your website and your marketing campaigns.
Best practices:
- Use platforms like Semrush, Moz, or Google Keyword Planner to find holiday-specific keywords with the potential for high traffic.
- Update your existing content to include seasonal keywords where they fit.
- Monitor your SEO performance to identify which keywords are most effective.
8. Leverage email marketing for holiday promotions
Email marketing campaigns are an effective way to get existing customers excited about your holiday offerings. Tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact can help you build your email list and campaigns.
To build anticipation, create a series of emails to send over the course of the season. This could include holiday gift guides, exclusive promotions, or new product features.
Best practices:
- Personalize each email’s subject line and greeting with the recipient’s name to make the message more engaging.
- Add CTAs throughout the email to encourage action and link to relevant landing pages on your site.
- Track your open and click rates with a tool like Google Analytics to measure the efficacy of your campaign.
9. Create engaging holiday-themed content
Incorporate holiday themes in your content strategy to build on your audience’s excitement about the season. Focus on content that’s both entertaining and valuable to your audience. Fun holiday trends to include in your marketing strategy this season could include gift guides, decor ideas, recipes, or other preparation tips. Share your content on social media and on your website to broaden your reach.
Best practices:
- Incorporate interactive elements like quizzes or polls to generate more engagement.
- Use Bitly short URLs to direct your audience from email or social media to your website content. With Bitly Analytics, you can track engagement in real time.
10. Implement a holiday referral program
With a referral program, you can leverage existing customers to help you bring in new ones. During the holiday shopping season, many people like to recommend their favorite brands to others and share gift ideas. A referral program incentivizes both new and existing customers to act on these recommendations.
Best practices:
- Offer exclusive gift cards, discounts, or limited-edition products to both new customers and the existing customers who refer them.
- Promote your referral program in your social media and email campaigns.
- If you already have a loyalty program, provide reward points for holiday referrals.
Maximize your holiday sales with proven strategies
To create a memorable holiday marketing campaign, capitalize on the season’s unique opportunities for brand engagement and growth. By planning ahead with a well-structured holiday calendar, leveraging customer segmentation, optimizing landing pages, and integrating engaging social media strategies, you can connect with new and returning customers. This helps maximize campaign performance to keep your brand top-of-mind amidst fierce competition—translating into both immediate sales success and long-term customer loyalty.
Using Bitly for holiday campaign planning makes it easy to connect your marketing assets and move customers through your sales funnel smoothly. From easy-to-use short URL creation and management to custom landing pages, Bitly provides the products marketers need to personalize, measure, and maximize engagement. With features like Bitly Analytics for real-time insights, Bitly ensures you can make data-driven decisions to simplify your marketing efforts, drive meaningful results, and boost the customer experience along the way.
Ready to build a memorable holiday marketing campaign? Get started with Bitly today.
