The holidays are just around the corner – and you know what that means! It’s time to start thinking up innovative ideas to bring in holiday shoppers. A diversified marketing approach will definitely serve your business well, so plan to use a variety of holiday season advertising ideas to reach your sales goals. Ready to get started? Here are eight out-of-the-box ways to elevate your holiday advertising campaigns for 2022 and beyond.
1. Make a Holiday Gift Guide Landing Page
Let your website drive excitement about the holiday shopping season with the creation of a dedicated holiday gift guide landing page. On the page, you can highlight all the most popular products of the year. Include product descriptions and pricing to motivate people to delight their giftees with each item.
Then, offer a variety of ways to complete the shopping experience with ease, including buying online and coming into the store. Don’t have online shopping set up quite yet? Invite your shoppers to call in their order for curbside pickup or delivery straight to their door.
2. Go All Out with a Gift Card Sales Push
When people simply don’t know what to buy their loved ones, gift cards come to the rescue. So, it’s important to advertise them early and often to drive sales through the season. Include gift cards on your holiday shopping landing page.
Nearly half of all gift cards are sold in December. Gift cards are a great way to drive sluggish first-quarter sales, as studies show that 70% of all gift cards sold are redeemed within the first six months. The fact that some gift cards are never renewed, plus the fact that patrons are often inspired to spend more than the value of their gift cards means that including them in your holiday shopping portfolio makes for an easy money-maker during a busy season.
3. Partner with Community Charities
Partnering with community charities is also a win-win, for sure. You get to help your community while promoting sales at your business. You just need to select a charity close to your heart and help them achieve their goals.
Depending on the charity, you might want to collect donations of food and toys or have people shop for sponsored families. Alternatively, you can donate a portion of your proceeds on certain shopping days. Set up Charitable Tuesdays, for example, and give 25% of your sales directly to the charity each week. Perhaps the charity will have volunteers or children that would come and wrap purchases for donations. There is an unlimited number of ways to inspire sales and help charities at the same time.
4. Put Stocking Stuffers by the Register
Impulse buys are always a part of the shopping experience. So, why not help your customers check all the items off their list by putting lower-priced stocking stuffers near the register? As people wait to check out, they’ll likely see the perfect items to put in the stockings or use as a white elephant gift. Their impulse buys make holiday shopping quick and easy and fun!
5. Do Big Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales
Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are here to stay, so if you’re not leveraging the opportunity, you’re missing out big time. Get ahead of the pack by planning your sales now and creating your promotional materials, including flyers, radio spots, and online ads.
To keep the madness at bay, try to create a shopping system that’s fair, equitable, and well-organized. You could hand out tickets for the most popular items, helping temper expectations well before anyone enters the store.
6. Partner with Complementary Small Businesses
Thoughtful gift-giving is the name of the game for modern shoppers. To make that easier for them, partner with small businesses that offer items complementing your own. As you do that, go beyond products alone to sell people experiences instead, such as date nights, family outings, and health journeys.
For example, jewelry stores might want to partner with wineries and create a romantic gift bundle to remember. Restaurants can partner with movie theaters, while fitness centers are wise to team up with workout gear retailers. Be creative! Think about complementary products and services that go with and enhance the overall experience for purchasers.
7. Bundle Popular Products with Other Items
You must bundle your own products, too, in order to help shoppers complete their purchases quickly and easily. Aim to do the thinking for your customers by putting together imaginative bundles that create the perfect gift all on their own.
You can do that by creating baskets of products they’ll love to give their loved ones. Hit movies, popcorn, and all the fixings often go over well. Blankets, board games, and hot cocoa can make for winning holiday advertising campaign ideas.
8. Plan for Post-Holiday Shopping
The shopping season doesn’t end with the holidays. Afterward, there are ample ways to get people excited about shopping once again, like a fun ‘Santa dropped the ball’ sale. “Did Santa mix up his list and fail to deliver your most wanted items? We have just what you wanted the most!”
Or you can just hype up the shoppers with cash gifts by beckoning them your way with fantastic sales. Keep the partnership and product bundles going through the month's end to help shoppers get what they want.
Lastly, Don’t Wait. Plan Now
Above all else, you need to plan ahead if you want to create holiday advertising campaigns that bring shoppers your way. Don’t wait until the last minute to buy your media, especially since prices often increase as station inventory decreases. When it comes to buying your radio, the earlier, the better - so get on that soon.
By planning ahead, you also focus on supporting your customers during the hectic season, knowing that your marketing is in place and ready to go. So, give yourself that gift this holiday season by getting in touch with Zimmer today for help with ideas, creative works, and planning.
