The holidays are just around the corner and every marketer and business owner knows this is the perfect time of the year for great sales and increased customer engagement. Nobody wants to spend their vacation time working on social media campaigns, though. It goes without saying that these campaigns should be scheduled ahead of time.
A social media holiday campaign involves two key aspects: preparing your posting and advertising plan, and customizing your profile pages. Today we will discuss your Facebook™ page, exclusively, as well as the other relevant activities to take care of, ahead of the holidays.
Why It Is Important to Customize Your Facebook™ Page
The answer is simple: for the same reason you decorate your house for the holidays, both outside and inside. It’s in order to show that you embrace the holiday spirit, and you want to share your love for this time of year with your followers.
Don’t forget the fact that you can use your cover photo to promote a special discount or sales campaign throughout the holiday season, completely for free. This is one of the key reasons brands make efforts to replace both their profile and cover photo with specially designed ones, in tune with the holiday season of the moment.
Start Your Campaign Ahead of Time
An effective Facebook™ holiday campaign starts 3 months ahead of the holiday. The sooner you get people to focus on your special events and discounts, the more active followers and qualified leads you will have banked when the critical moment arrives.
Imagine your followers have their own holiday preparations to make, are interested in their friends’ plans, and are also invited by other brands to pay attention to their special campaigns. You’ve got to be active. The competition for your followers’ time and attention is huge, and the sooner you start, the more likely you business is to win a place on their agenda.
In addition to this, people love to have their holidays shopping done ahead of time – a survey showed that 42% of women finish all of their gift purchases for the holidays by November.
Plan a Varied and Season Oriented Content Mix
Some of the most engaging social media activities around the holiday season are contests. Everyone loves to win prizes, and they especially love to do it during the holiday. You can think of dozens of holiday themed contests which relate your products to the joyous holidays, and getting people to spread the word and invite their friends to participate.
At the same time, remember that not everything you post on your Facebook™ page should be sales related. Show some love to your followers with inspirational quotes, cards, and videos in which you send your personal wishes to them. Why not give away something from time to time? It does not have to be an expensive item – people are not fussy about what they receive for free. They will remember, however, that you did offer a holiday gift.
Plan Your Ad Campaign Around Your Content Mix
More than during any other time during the year, your Facebook™ ads must blend perfectly with your content mix during the holiday season. Take time to A/B test, to adapt, and to come up with something creative, always focusing on the holiday spirit as part of your call to action.
At this point it is appropriate to increase your Facebook™ ads budget. This can be justified by two considerations:
- It is recommended to run various campaigns in parallel during the holiday season. Different people are looking out for different gift ideas, so try to satisfy as many of them as possible;
- Holiday ads have a significantly higher ROI than any other campaign during the year, so the money will return to you with a good margin.
Focus on Mobile
This last tip is one which, in truth, should be the core of your Facebook™ marketing strategy. Most people use their mobiles to connect to social media, or to make purchases from ads they see on Facebook™ and other platforms. When you plan your ad budget, make sure you invest the biggest part of it in mobile ads. This does not mean you should stop creating ads for desktops, but your main target should be mobile device users.
Don’t Stop the Momentum
Once the champagne has been finished, the cake eaten, and the confetti swept away, your post-holiday campaign should continue in strength. Many people look forward to special discounts after the holidays on items they want for themselves. Don’t disappoint them – offer them great special offers for the post-holiday budget, as well.