How & When Should You Create a Social Media Holiday Campaign for Your Business?

The holidays create a lot of excitement, don’t they? 

People are decorating their homes for the season, thinking through what they want to buy for friends and family, taking extra time off work, thinking about others more. 

It’s the perfect time to create brand messaging for your business that speaks directly to consumers about what they need and how your product meets that need.

And this doesn’t just have to be Thanksgiving and Christmas; it can be holidays that occur throughout the year, too! Check out this holiday calendar by Sendible (a full calendar of potential holidays you could highlight throughout the year).

Creating a social media holiday campaign, when done right, does require additional thought and planning, but it can be well worth your time. Here are our top strategies for how and when to create a social media holiday campaign for your business.

The How:
How to Create a Successful Holiday Campaign for Your Business on Social Media

1. Identify your ideal client and how they will purchase during the holiday season

Ever scroll through your social media feed and think Facebook is reading your mind? It’s creepy, right?!

But what if it’s not Facebook but the businesses behind the posts that are just so good at their marketing that they really can read your mind and what you’d be looking for this time of year? 

Eureka! 

When you know your audience well and can anticipate what they’re looking for and how they’d like to purchase, you can create social media campaigns and messaging that speaks directly to them. Then you’ll be the one creeping out the consumers on the other side of your campaigns!

How It Can Work Practically

We know at BGD that our ideal clients are either business owners running their own business, or business dreamers currently working a 9 - 5 job while creating their secondary business they hope to run full-time one day soon. 

For this type of person, during the holidays, it is busy. They are either taking time off from their full-time job to work their secondary job OR they have already started up their business and are trying to manage the workload and train new team members to help them. 

They still need to get their shopping done, but they want to get it done quickly. Contrary to many popular business strategies over the holidays, these clientele aren’t necessarily looking for a sweet deal. They want products they can check off their list, and products they can trust. They want to know the product is good and understand how it makes sense for what they need. But they want this information as quickly and seamlessly as possible.

This is actually the case for most consumers and why we recommend a lot of our BGD clients not run many discount deals on the holidays. Most people don’t really need them; they just want to find a product that’s reliable and meets their needs.

2. Consider how your product relates to that holiday

As you create your holiday campaigns, think about how your product relates to that holiday. 

• Do you have a food service or product that would be a great addition to families’ Thanksgiving meals? 

• Do you offer an activity or venue that would be suitable for holiday, team-building events for businesses? 

• What about a subscription box people could give to friends and family on various holiday occasions?
  
  
  

How It Can Work Practically

When we think about December and January as they relate to our product and audience at BGD, we consider that many of the clients who come to us are trying to start their own business, while working a 9 - 5 job. 

At the start of the new year, many are thinking, “New year, new me!” They’re thinking about what they’re going to do differently this year. Are they finally going to quit their job and give their business a shot full-time? If so, what tools will they need to make it happen?

Once we get into our client’s head and know what they would think around this particular holiday, we meet them in that thought!

“Let me set up your branding for your new business to help you drive home your dream job!” 

3. Determine how you will make yourself stand out during the holiday

Now that you know how your client is shopping and how your product relates to the holiday, it’s time to make yourself stand out!

And before you start thinking about “Santa Is Coming!” Holiday Elf memes or Milk Crate Challenges, let’s keep in mind that it needs to be something that: 

1) Speaks to your audience

2) Relates to the holiday

3) Is something everyone else isn’t already doing. And something that won’t cause you any physical harm - like those milk crate challenges! Don’t do it!

You might even default to the standard holiday colors - red and green at Christmas; pink and red at Valentine’s day; red, white and blue on 4th of July - but if everyone is posting things like this (and they will be!), you will be hard-pressed to stand out among the crowd. 

How It Can Work Practically

One of our clients is a Dietitian. Her ideal client is women in their 50s and 60s. She is planning out a Valentine’s Day campaign. As she creates the campaign, she needs to think through a few questions: 

1. How is my target audience purchasing during Valentine’s Day?

They are thinking about love, and probably considering what to buy their kids or grandkids for the holiday.

2. How does my product relate to Valentine’s Day?

Dietary health is self-love.

3. How am I going to make myself stand out during Valentine’s Day?

Many campaigns would post a “Happy Valentine’s Day -- from your Dietitian” graphic on their social pages. That’s boring and predictable!

If you’re scrolling through your newsfeed and that’s all there is, it’s going to be very easy to keep scrolling, right?

A good campaign brings each of these three points together, which helps you stand out!

“You deserve love, too! You deserve to get yourself a gift this Valentine’s Day - the gift of a healthy plan.”

The When:
When to Create a Successful Holiday Campaign for Your Business on Social Media

Now our answer to this will be brief, but it might surprise you! 

If you’re sitting down to create your perfect holiday campaign the night before the holiday, or even a month before, you’re too late.

Not only does waiting until the last minute increase the risk of you not getting the material done in time, but it is also taxing mentally and emotionally.

We recommend creating your social media campaigns three months in advance of those holidays!

How It Can Work Practically

Many people in charge of creating social media marketing campaigns typically underestimate the amount of time and planning required to create a successful campaign so they wait until the last minute. 

Let’s use Samantha as an example. Samantha is running a social media marketing campaign for a toothpaste company. She has underestimated the amount of time and planning required to create a successful campaign. She has waited until the last minute, thinking, I'll get it done; I always have in the past.

But when it comes down to it, she ends up putting together a lackluster product post that doesn’t fully capitalize on the holiday or speak to her target audience. Not only that, but procrastinating stresses the mind and the body. Her ideas for the campaign weren’t as good and she’s so relieved to have it done that she doesn’t spend any time studying the results!  

Don’t be like Samantha. Plan your campaigns in advance, maximize the impact of your posts, avoid the stress and allow yourself time and space to study the results.



What’s Next:
Where Do I Go from Here if I Don’t Have Time to Plan Out These Campaigns 3 Months in Advance?

With three months of planning time (and our professional branding package), you’ll have the marketing materials you need when the holiday arrives. By the time you’re ready to launch, you can just monitor the results because you're not stressing out about the next thing to post.

BGD helps our clients plan ahead. Our branding package comes with 20 infographic assets that are ready to go. All you have to do is pick out some festive colors for the holiday in question and put in the content. 

Our branding packages help you be successful, but our most successful clients start at least three months before launch.