Halloween kick-starts the holidays. ‘Tis the time to be jolly and cash in on the consumer’s spending spirit. Holidays give way to marketing campaigns, sprouting faster than mushrooms. Every business works out marketing campaigns. However, not all succeed. Holiday small business marketing is all about Smarketing or Smart Marketing.

Here are a few examples of significant brands cashing in with the intelligent Holiday marketing campaigns. Check these 19 excellent holiday campaigns and use some of the strategies in your small business marketing campaign.

Holiday marketing campaign success stories

Another fantastic source of inspiration is Shark Tank. The show not only sharpens our innovation and creative streak but also helps hone your selling skills. Businesses that pitch on their special holiday episodes also provide tremendous insight into the opportunities that you can tap into niche or theme products.

The Living Christmas Company is a live Christmas Tree Rental company – to Tipsy Elves and their quirky, signature, Ugly Christmas and Tacky Christmas Sweaters. These and many others are a great example of how we can tap the Holiday Market. Watch here.

Scotty – from The Living Christmas Tree Rental gets a sweet deal from Mark Cuban for a 40% stake in his company and $150,000 investment. Tipsy Elves, on the other hand, last year itself had $900K in sales!  Watch here.

Another excellent holiday campaign that took the world by storm was the WestJet Christmas Miracle. The Canadian airline embarked on a project to perform 12,000 mini-miracles. The campaign celebrated the true spirit of giving with this campaign.

Next, we have the REI OptOutside campaign, where REI made a bold move and closed all their retail stores on Black Friday. Employees were given a day off, and the customers were encouraged to reconnect with one another and nature. While the campaign was risky, people raved about it long after Thanksgiving was over.  

Target’s ‘My Kind of Holiday’ offered its customers a personalized shopping experience. They combined their unique value offers with desired products to help people extraordinarily celebrate the holidays. The campaign extended to social media to spread the word with its own hashtag #MyKindOfHoliday. 

Here are 11 tips to start your Holiday marketing campaign immediately. 

11 tips to jump-start your Holiday marketing campaign

1) Emails Overhaul Hallmark

Emails overhaul Hallmark this holiday season. The fact that was using an app or email to wish your colleagues, near and dear ones – no doubt about it – is a lot easier than snail mail and traditional greeting cards. So, here is a brief Holiday Email Marketing Report that you can download and get ahead of the game.

You can also keep it simple and make it fast with this excellent Email Marketing Holiday Calendar and Planner 2016 – 2017. Or trust the champs – MailChimp – of email marketing with their season’s best tips and advice for your email marketing campaign strategies.

2) Adjusting Social Media for Holidays

Utilizing social media to reach your audience, especially during the holiday season, is a great and effective way to increase your sales. Here’s a tip you could follow, start frequently posting on Instagram. Why? Because according to the Holiday eCommerce Revealed study by Shopify, Instagram ranks as the #1 most successful non-paid platform to acquire new followers or subscribers. 

So, post social media content for a holiday. Add new creatives with discounts or deals for holiday-related products. You could also share lifestyle tips or new ways to improve gift-giving during the season. 

3) Publish Holiday Content

If you already have a blog or newsletter, then this is the perfect time to tweak it. Add content that targets your customers’ needs during the holidays. For example, if you see cookware, add new holiday-themed recipes that customers can make using your products. But, whatever you do, remember to include relevant keywords to improve your rankings for organic search.

Publish guides, how-to’s, and best gift ideas to show your customers you care. Adding comprehensive and quality content will attract new customers and remind previous customers why they chose you in the first place.

4) Partnering with other Businesses

As a small business owner, you need to get your business out there as much as possible. One of the best ways to do that is by teaming up with other companies. Look for complementary businesses that work with your brand, and connect with them to develop a comprehensive strategy that will help you both.

Collaborations are a great way to amplify your brand presence and to get people to buy. So, try pairing with products or services that go hand-in-hand with your brand. For example, if you sell cookware, then team up with a furniture store or a cafe.

5) Collaborate with Bloggers and Influencers

We all look actively look for gift ideas just before the holiday season, or we turn to our influencer gurus to give us ideas about what’s trending in the market. To get your business the value it needs, you need to collaborate with bloggers and influencers. That does not mean that you should connect with anyone and everyone who has a large audience. You need to collaborate with those people who connect with your brand.

Let’s say you sell cookware. It would not help if you collaborated with beauty bloggers or influencers. You need to connect with food bloggers or food influencers who have fans interested in food and cooking.

6) Develop a particular holiday product

Next on our list of tips is creating a unique holiday product. This tip may not help really small businesses, but it is a great way to get people interested in your brand. Let’s say you run a clothing and accessories line; you could create a holiday-themed collection that is stylish and in-vogue.

Another good idea is to create products that are not overly tied to the holidays but is also available during other periods, like limited-edition speakers. You can send out pre-order emails with discounts or deals and generate a buzz of excitement during the holiday season.

7) Decorate your website

To ensure that your customers know that your brand is going big this holiday season:

1. Decorate your business for the holidays. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, then start decorating the store based on the holiday.
2. If you sell through a website, add holiday-themed creatives to your site.
3. Add decorative pieces to your emails and newsletters.
4. Highlight the holidays with collections and pieces that are specific to the season. 

But, remember, while being creative, you need to make sure that your website or your store is not hurting others’ sentiments. Make sure you understand the holiday and plan according to it before you actually start the process of decorating for the season.

8) Join the community

People will always support others who support the community. For the holiday season, consider partnering with your community. Try giving back to the people who helped build your business. Depending on what you sell, you could always make a one-for-one donation, like TOMS shoes, or donate a percentage of the purchase to an organization like Everlane.

During holiday seasons, people are looking for worthy causes to fight for, so helping your customers give back to the community will help convince them to make a purchase and help make them happier. 

9) Create Unique Holiday Value Props

When creating different holiday strategies, remember to explain to your customers why they should buy your products in the first place. Make sure you tell them how your products solve their problems, especially during the holiday season.

Think about what makes your products unique, especially during the holiday season. Make sure you include those factors, especially when targeting a holiday audience. Start by updating your website to reflect the holidays, and make sure that you add value props to all social media posts, promotional materials, and email campaigns.

10) Offer Special Gifts for Holiday Season like Gift Wrapping

Shopping for the holiday can be extremely tough and stressful. So, going the extra mile by offering your customers a bonus will help increase sales and reward you with loyalty points.

So, you could offer customers gift-wrapping or seasonal decorative items to make sure they have all their bases covered.

You could also include holiday-themed cards with season greetings. If you offer delivery services, then you could also have free delivery options. If your customers buy in bulk, then you could offer them a small free product or service—anything to make customers understand that your brand is big on special events.

11) Host a Special Holiday Event

Hosting an event is a great way to connect with customers and visitors to your business. You don’t need to spend too much money, but a little goes a-long way. You could add unique games or wheel pop-ups to your site to make it more exciting. You could offer unique gifts or hidden surprises when people shop at your store. You could even host free tutoring sessions or webinars to help connect with your customers.

If you have an online business, you could also try partnering up with a popular retail store and host an event.

Wrapping Up

When planning your Smarketing list, make sure that you consider the products you sell and the audience you target. Ensure that you target the right audience; otherwise, you just might be showcasing Christmas-themed products to Hanukkah celebrating households.