Deck The Halls With Christmas Hashtags - A Marketer’s Guide to Christmas
It’s pumpkin spiced latte season, but is it time to kick back, relax and enjoy the Autumn season? No. It’s time to start organising your Christmas marketing campaigns. During November, most people do their Christmas shopping. This is especially true in light of a certain pandemic, transport delays and other uncertainties. In this article, Moondust, the leading content and social media marketing agency in Belgium is delving into Christmas marketing. Here’s how to maximise your brand’s ROI this season.
Christmas in Numbers
Before we dig out the tinsel and lights, let’s look at some essential Christmas marketing stats.
- The three retail categories with the highest share of total holiday spending are clothing and accessories, gift cards and food and beverage.
- Forget the old stereotypes about women spending more than men at Christmas. Men shop just as much and spend more, with an average spend of over $725 for men and $609 for women in the US.
- Gen X will spend the most at Christmas, spending on average $782 in the US. Millennials come in second, with $609. Both gens are highly accustomed to online shopping with few being concerned about online safety or deliveries. Both gens use Instagram for shopping inspiration with many buying through the platform.
- Baby boomers are more likely than other generations to shop at department stores. This is the generation slowly edging online but still more comfortable spending and choosing gifts in person at a physical store. However, concerns over covid-19 meant that in 2020, 65% of holiday shoppers shopped online rather than in-store to avoid crowds.
- 71% of Christmas shoppers will prefer to shop at retailers who implement sustainable practices.
- And finally, don’t forget that we all like to buy treats for ourselves while shopping for others! The top five gifts people buy for themselves are alcoholic and non- alcoholic beverages, food including meal prep kits, clothing, shoes and books.
Top Christmas Hashtags to Use
#christmas #christmastree #christmasdecor #xmas #merrychristmas #christmastime #handmade #winter #santa #christmasgifts #christmasiscoming #christmasdecorations #christmaslights #santaclaus #natale #gift #holidays #snow #holiday #family #gifts #noel #navidad #christmascountdown #giftideas #christmasgift #christmaseve #christmasspirit #christmasmood #newyear #shoplocal #christmasmagic #christmasvibes #happyholidays #holidayseason
Christmas Marketing Checklist
2021 could be the year when ecommerce sales reach an all-time high. Let’s run through your Christmas marketing checklist. Here are 6 essentials to put in place before you start running your campaigns:
1. Packing and Shipping – Can you do free shipping and what are your timescales for delivery? This can be a make or break for your online Christmas marketing campaigns. It’s important to be realistic about delivery times and know when your cut off will be for Christmas delivery. EG – order by December 15 for delivery before Christmas. This is also great for FOMO and we will come to this later. Another great tip is to offer free customised packaging or gift wrap for the holiday season. For shoppers buying numerous gifts for friends and family, the concept of not having to wrap any gifts will be appealing!
2. Pick Your Product Range – It’s important to know what you will be promoting this holiday season. This will enable you to prepare your copy accordingly. Think about what will sell around Christmas and highlight these products. For example, an electrical store would promote its laptops, smartphones and coffee machines, but items like air conditioning units and security cameras are less giftable!
3. Update Your Website – If you can picture your products in a Christmassy setting then do! You can either take fresh photos or ask your designer to photoshop them into Christmas balls or into a stocking under the tree. Adding that Christmas magic helps shoppers to get in the Christmas mood and visualise your products as potential gifts. If you can update your home page image or video to something seasonal that’s great too. Take your web visitors on a Christmassy journey with winter images, Christmas blogs and even a Christmas navigation. EG- Christmas Gifts Under $50, Christmas Gifts For Him/Her and Stocking Fillers.
4. Include Stocking Filler Items – Talking of stocking fillers, be sure to push these items on your site. Usually these are smaller items around the 10 – 20 dollar price range. If a web visitor hits your site and only sees expensive items it can be off-putting. Stocking fillers will also look great on your social media posts creating intrigue and web traffic.
5. Focus on your Content – Once you have picked your products, ensure that the content on your online store and site is ready for Christmas. Describe how the products make great gifts and use Christmas keywords. You could also create a series of short blogs about the products or a Christmas gift roundup featuring your top 10 picks. Captions for social media will need to be rewritten for Christmas and so will your Adwords ads if you’re running any.
6. Start Remarketing - Remember that time you almost bought that bag but freaked out at the price or got distracted and abandoned the cart. Then you saw it again on Instagram with 10% off and went ahead and bought it? That was remarketing! Remarketing around the Christmas season is especially effective and gives you a chance to remind potential customers that they abandoned their shopping cart. Add a discount to sweeten the deal or free shipping to close that sale. Make sure you’re remarketing on all the channels you’re running holiday advertising on (Facebook, Google, Instagram etc.)
Christmas Marketing Techniques To Try Now!
#1 Unboxing Videos on TikTok
There’s something exciting about seeing a beautiful gift being unwrapped and the surprise on a loved ones face as they see your gift for the first time. In fact, for many of us, this is the best part of the gifting process. It’s also why unboxing videos are so popular and work so well to generate sales! On TikTok, #UnboxingVideos have 22.2B views and marketers and video creators are having so much fun with them.
Here’ a very simple unboxing video for a watermelon skincare set which shows each of the products being taken out and opened. Note the sound effects and clear background. Because we are talking TikTok, you can be very creative and funny if you choose to be. Perhaps run an unboxing challenge or unboxing fails prank to inspire others to join in.
Making It Happen
Keep your videos to around 2-3 minutes or you will lose your audience.
Use on brand boxes or gift wrap
Keep your background clear or Christmas themed, avoid distractions or clutter
Add some Christmassy music and keep it fun and happy
Use unboxing and Christmas hashtags
Add on screen annotations for each product item or what’s in them
Add a link to purchase the product or shop the range
Recycle your TikTok video on Instagram, Facebook and any other channels!
#2 Flash Sales and FOMO
November is a great time to capture those Christmas dollars, but you need to create some urgency. Shoppers often wait for better deals, payday or simply delay until the last minute. A great way to speed them up is to create a flash sale that only lasts 24 hours or for a weekend. FOMO (fear of missing out) can be created by a limited time offer. That could be a discount on a product range, bonus free products when you spend over X amount or free wrapping and shipping when the products are ordered before a certain date.
Your flash sale doesn’t have to be tacky either. Last year Fletched ran this flash sale ad on Instagram. It has all the elements of a great flash sale. An end date, terms and conditions, shipping info and a discount code.
Making It Happen
Promote the flash sale ahead of time and add a countdown
State the end date and stick to it - never extend a flash sale
Email your database to tell them when it begins and a few hours before it’s due to end.
Create on-brand images, videos or IG reels to remind fans and prompt shopping
Add a banner to your website home page and update your social media banners for the weekend.
#3 Nail Your Services Posts
Instagram is the perfect place to make your holiday game shine! And we’re not only talking about e-commerce. Instagram is the home of foodies, cat lovers and adventurers so if you’re marketing in these spaces, it’s time to polish those posts. You don’t need to be selling products online to get in the mood.
Whether it’s your coffee shop decorated for Christmas, your office dog helping you wrap gifts or your team heading out for a forest adventure, there’s a place for it on IG. If you’re a service based company like a restaurant or café, now is the time to get those Christmas bookings secured. You may want to create a landing page or link to a booking system to take reservations and deposits. Check out this simple save the date post on Instagram:
Or this adorable Christmassy pet post from Railways4.
And other service-based businesses like hair salons, nail technicians and gyms can also jump into the holiday spirit with a team photo and booking availability.
Or just have some Christmas fun like ForestSprings to showcase your team and gain some holiday engagement!
Making It Happen
Let people know if you are open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
Showcase your Christmas menus or packages
Offer Christmas restaurant deals & gift cards
Partner up with relevant influencers
Offer party packages for companies and friends
Update as you book up to show remaining availability
Use holiday hashtags and captions
#4 Run a Social Media Contest
In November why not get your social media fans in the holiday spirit by running a social media contest or giveaway. You could ask fans to tag three friends to win, like, share and comment or enter a contest on your site.
We love this simple example from SheSellsCandles. A nice image, clear instructions and gingerbread is just right for this time of year!
You can also get organised now to run an online advent calendar promotion in December. This is a fun way to keep fans playing along, coming back for more and ensuring they are opted in for future promos.
That’s what Paris Saint-Germain football club did when they created an Advent calendar that unveiled a new promotion or prize to win every day. To enter the draw, participants were asked to provide their contact information in a form. PSG collected 47% of opt-ins to its newsletter and 2,700 profiles per day on average.
Making It Happen
An attractive prize that is relevant to your business. This is preferable to giving away vouchers or cash.
Make your contest easy to share. Don’t ask for too much or people won’t play along.
Catchy images or videos for your social media channels
Great images of the product you are giving away.
Competition terms and conditions. Even if your promo is small, this is still good practice to avoid any negative comeback or deliberate sabotage.
FOMO again, add deadlines and remind fans of the end date.