Competition is fierce among retailers during the holidays.
And it's so easy to feel like you're drowning in the noise.
That's why it (literally!) pays to be proactive about attracting holiday shoppers year-round.
Running targeted and personalized promotions to reach customers can give you a much-needed lift. Especially when your audience is likely overwhelmed with one-size-fits-all ads and offers.
Below we dig into how to optimize your social presence to drive sales during the holidays!
Shoppers want to feel special and appreciated.
No-brainer, right? But it's also easy to forget when you're in "constant content creation" mode.
That's why it's crucial to create content that directly helps your target audience and speaks to who they're shopping for. Gift guides are a super effective way to do exactly that.
From "Gifts for Her" to "Unique Finds," consider how you can hook shoppers with specific gift guides to show off products and provide a helping hand to busy buyers.
Note how these guides are also easily shareable via Stories and DMs. If your holiday gift guides are hitting it off with shoppers, they'll naturally get shared around to boost to your reach.
If there's anything time to ramp up your social media promotions, it's during the holidays.
Bonus points if you've experimented with different types of content and ads throughout the year!
When gearing up for a big gift-centric holiday, consider offering deals that encourage bulk shopping.
Think about it. Shoppers want to cross off as many people on their holiday lists at once. If your brand is willing to take that mental strain off their plates by with BOGOs and deep discounts, that could result in more sales for you long-term.
Social media offers countless opportunities for product discovery. If you have the “Swipe up” feature on Instagram, you can link directly to a discounted product page in your Instagram Stories.
Another idea is to offer platform-specific discounts to up the feeling of exclusivity and encourage followers to take advantage of a super-special deal. Don't forget to promote steeper discounts as the holiday gets closer to snag all those last-minute shoppers!
Bringing influencers into the mix can seriously expand your reach, not to mention provide you with tons of great user-generated content to repurpose on your own accounts (with permission).
Influencers can also help drive your retail sales in-store and online. This can be done through in-person geo-tagging or simply hyping up what brick-and-mortar deals you have running.
Piggybacking on our first tip, check out how this Target holiday gift guide from a creator drove massive engagement.
Food for thought: two-thirds of shoppers engage in social search at some point in their purchase journeys. All the more reason to ramp up UGC to boost visibility when it comes to holiday deals to people will see your brand pop up in TikTok or Instagram searches.
Removing as many roadblocks as possible between buyers and checkouts is crucial during the holidays. One of the best ways to do this is either through social ads or a direct social shopping platform like TikTok Shop. Granted your product catalog is up-to-date!
If you want to reach an even wider audience with your holiday promotions, UGC ads and paid partnerships on TikTok and Instagram can help get you in front of your target audience faster. For example, you can run holiday influencer campaigns coupled with ads to maximize reach.
Just make sure you're prepared for an influx of website visitors from your social promotions. Double-check that your top-selling gifts are clearly marked and easily accessible from your home page so potential customers don’t have to dig through your entire site to find the items they need. Also, confirm that your mobile check-out experience has no drop-off points.
Engaging content is an evergreen expectation on social media.
And if you want to engage customers during the holidays, then post holiday-specific content.
Simple as!
Staying on top of holiday trends on TikTok and Instagram can inspire your own relatable content. For example, you might make a fun Reel providing a couple of gift suggestions from your catalog. Or maybe a TikTok hopping on a holiday audio trend.
You can also find success around the holidays by hyping up limited time or seasonal items.
Starbucks has used this strategy effectively by releasing the same red holiday cups year after year. They're pretty much an annual winter tradition now.
What makes the red cups iconic isn’t just the reliability of their release or their limited-time status: they’re also incredibly social-friendly. Meaning that Starbucks gets free publicity from everyday people posting content.
Take a look at your holiday product packaging. Be honest: is it post-worthy?
If not, brainstorm some ideas to make it pop so you can encourage more UGC as a result.
Brands looking to add more customer content into their social strategy should really ramp up efforts during holiday seasons.
Not only will your audience likely find this content more compelling but your marketing team will appreciate the lighter load. If you need a faster way to get rights-ready influencer content for the holiday season, Statusphere's software can help!
Our micro-influencer marketing platform matches brands with influencers from our vetted network using 250+ first-party data points.
And that includes geotargeting for brands that want to promote products at retail locations.
Statusphere eliminates the most time-consuming pieces of working with influencers in-house thanks to our advanced matchmaking and fulfillment technology. That's how our platform helped Lifetime earn 400+ pieces of content during a single holiday campaign.
Want to see how our platform works? Get in touch with one of our experts to learn how we can support your brand's holiday campaigns with influencer content at scale.
This article was first published in August 2021. It was last updated September 17, 2024.