You might be a small business owner, a large corporation, or even a freelancer who wants to share their passion online with their audience.
Whatever category you fit in, taking advantage of social media marketing is a must when it comes to raising brand awareness and expanding your customer base.
While this is a year-round process, festive seasons are particularly great periods to take advantage of your social media platforms and create some awesome marketing campaigns.
Events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the Halloween and Christmas holiday periods provide you with great opportunities to maximize your sales.
With Christmas being one of the most popular holiday seasons, the ways you can utilize social media are plentiful.
That’s exactly why we put the following list together; to inspire you to create the best Christmas campaigns for your followers!
Without further ado, let’s get started with our first idea.
Table of Contents
Idea #1: Create a Christmas Video Campaign
Idea #2: Run a Christmas Giveaway
Idea #3: Offer Holiday Gift Cards
Idea #4: Do a Christmas Countdown
Idea #6: Collaborate with Influencers
Idea #7: Set Up a Festive Photo Competition
Idea #8: Offer a Free Christmas Checklist
Idea #9: Share Some Christmas Recipes
Idea #10: Offer a Free Christmas Gift Guide
How to Plan Your Christmas Social Media Campaign
Idea #1: Create a Christmas Video Campaign
With videos being able to capture viewer’s attention in a matter of seconds, using them in your social media campaigns is a no-brainer.
Actually, in one of his Instagram Lives, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri stated that “video is driving an immense amount of growth online for all major platforms”.
It’s no wonder so many big brands like Coca-Cola and Disney use videos in their Christmas campaigns.
After all, it’s easier to express emotion and put people in the holiday spirit in ways that images just can’t.
Think about what a difference adding Christmas music can do to a social media post.
So far, it’s clear that videos are a great way to get your message across.
Does that mean that any type of video will do?
Not quite.
You need to see which are the right ones for you based on your business and target audience.
Are you an eCommerce store?
Filming your wide range of products would be a good idea.
The following screenshot is from a Harrods Instagram post; it's just one of the many videos created to feature brands that people can find in their store.
You can even promote your holiday sales through videos or create a holiday greeting video to wish your followers a Merry Christmas.
As long as you're creative, the possibilities are really endless.
Let’s move on to the next idea.
Idea #2: Run a Christmas Giveaway
Running a social media giveaway isn’t only good in terms of raising brand awareness, but it's also great at generating more leads.
Christmas contests are a tactic that can create buzz around your brand; incentivizing your existing followers into attracting new ones, in exchange for a chance to win what you’re offering.
Some brands go for free products, gift cards, paid vacations, or even free cash!
Look at the following example from Benefit Cosmetics:
They ran a holiday giveaway on Instagram offering free products, as long as the participant followed the desired social media profiles, liked the post, and tagged three friends.
Such actions increase your awareness and engagement levels exponentially; you're attracting more people to visit your post and they, therefore, discover your brand.
To be precise, Instagram accounts that hold contests grow their followers 70% faster than those that don’t.
Interesting, right?
Especially if you’re a smaller business or just getting started with social media, this is a great way to build an audience who'll potentially become your customers through the right content marketing strategy.
Author’s Tip: Why not host a different giveaway on each day of the holiday season? A “12 Days of Christmas” contest is popular among many brands.
Let’s move on.
Idea #3: Offer Holiday Gift Cards
Do you want something to boost your sales during the holiday season?
Why not offer gift cards to your followers?
They’re bound to love them and, as we just said, they’re a great way to create some extra sales traction.
Author’s Tip: You can offer the gift cards as a prize in a Christmas giveaway, as we covered in the previous idea.
What if you’re a new business or new to social media in general?
A good way to get people to know about you is by offering freebies along with gift cards.
It's fun for shoppers, and for your business, it’s an opportunity to introduce them to new products, highlight underperforming items, and also clean up your stock before Christmas.
Sounds good, right?
Amazon is one of the many brands that take advantage of gift cards, which can of course be tailored for various occasions such as holidays and birthdays:
Simply make sure to integrate them nicely in a social media campaign and your followers will love them!
Let’s continue.
Idea #4: Do a Christmas Countdown
With Christmas being the most anticipated time of the year for many people, everyone gets really excited about it.
Right?
That’s why many brands decide to use Christmas countdowns as part of their holiday campaign.
This not only keeps their followers up-to-date in a festive and fun way, but it’s also a chance to create an awesome campaign that'll increase engagement.
Have a look at the following example by Jo Malone London, a UK based perfume company:
What the digital marketing team did was create a beautiful pattern in their Instagram profile, also known as the “checkerboard”.
This pattern consists of two themes - one is usually a darker color than the other - posted in alternating order to create that checkerboard effect.
One type of post is the countdown for Christmas while the other one’s about the brand itself.
This doesn’t mean that you need to follow the same tactic to create a Christmas countdown, but being creative about it is a great way for you to succeed.
All in all, countdowns are easy and fun; simply decide what their format will be, e.g. posts or Instagram stories, and what the best social media platform is for you to set them up.
Let’s move on.
Idea #5: Incentivize UGC
If you’re not taking advantage of user-generated content (UGC) in your Christmas marketing campaign, then this year is your chance to get involved.
After all, what’s better than content created by your followers themselves?
That’s right!
With UGC, not only do you incentivize your followers to create original content for you, but you also gain extra exposure through various social media accounts at the same time.
UGC is often mistaken for influencer marketing and, while they’re similar in many ways, with UGC you don’t have to pay influencers to promote your brand.
You can simply call on your followers to upload a post using your product while adding a specific hashtag like Starbucks did for Christmas 2016:
As you can see, it called on its followers to upload creative photos on Instagram using the new holiday cups and adding the hashtag #RedCupArt.
The result?
Over 1,000 posts of Instagram users sharing high-quality photos of Starbucks' Christmas cups; some of them were so great that the company even uploaded them on its own profile.
So not only did it gain a lot of brand exposure but it also got some awesome free content to upload!
Overall, UGC is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote your brand and it provides authenticity; you give your followers the freedom to get as creative as they want.
Also, UGC can be repurposed and shared both in a brand’s organic feed as well as in any paid social media campaigns a brand may be running.
Author’s Tip: Using a tool that'll allow your brand to connect with creators in your niche and produce UGC at scale can be really helpful.
Depending on the nature of your brand, you’ll be surprised at the variety of content creators can come up with; from holiday-themed photos to showcasing different types of looks using specific products, e.g. Christmas party looks, date night looks, etc.
Let’s move on to our next idea.
Idea #6: Collaborate with Influencers
Over the years, influencer marketing is getting used more and more by brands around the world who want to establish their social media presence.
This is because social media creators with a large following have proven to be very valuable for companies, especially during the holidays when people tend to buy more products.
The most popular platforms for those creators have proven to be Facebook and Instagram - 71% of their users say that they have an influence on their Christmas shopping decisions.
It’s no wonder why so many brands tend to focus their marketing efforts on them.
Take Daniel Wellington; a watch company based in Sweden that collaborates with various influencers to promote its products using the Facebook Branded Content Tool and Influencer Whitelisting.
What should you pay attention to when creating your own influencer marketing campaign?
First of all, finding the right creators is crucial since there are many things to look at, such as metrics, demographics, and categories.
You’ll then have to decide: what your campaign goals are, what your budget is, how you’ll contact the influencers, and much more.
This is why using a trusted platform to help you along the process can be of great help.
To sum up, we strongly recommend using influencers in your next holiday marketing campaign to reach your audience.
Another idea is coming up.
Idea #7: Set Up a Festive Photo Competition
Setting up a festive photo competition is a great way to promote your business and can be a part of your user-generated content strategy as well.
What this means is that you inform your followers about the photo contest and they have to come up with the best possible photos based on your guidelines.
What the winner gets in return is entirely up to you.
Look at the following announcement by The World Federation of Public Health Association:
It aims to create a photo contest around the role of public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While it may not be related to Christmas, we're sure you can think of many holiday-themed photo contests to run on your profile, around local Christmas food or decorations for example.
Simply make sure everything is aligned with your brand and that you set your goals; is your goal to raise brand awareness? Create a UGC library? Form a community?
Whatever it is, festive photo contests are both an exciting and efficient Christmas marketing idea.
Let’s move on.
Idea #8: Offer a Free Christmas Checklist
Although Christmas is a wonderful time of the year, it’s true that it can get quite hectic.
Gifting, shopping for your loved ones, cooking, and social gatherings are only a few of the many things the average person has on their mind during the period.
That’s where checklists come in; a great way to stay on top of the many Christmas tasks that need to be done.
Some brands have identified that need and stepped in to offer such checklists for free, as part of their social media strategy.
Do you want to stand out?
Why not select different topics and offer a tailored checklist around each one?
For example, you can create a list of must-see Christmas movies or must-try Christmas food.
The possibilities are endless; simply choose which channels you’ll use to upload them to - such as Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and so on - and your followers are bound to love them.
Let’s move on, shall we?
Idea #9: Share Some Christmas Recipes
If you’re a chef, food blogger, or own a brand around cooking and cuisine, don’t be afraid to share your Christmas recipes online to put your followers in the festive spirit.
After all, who doesn’t enjoy some delicious food ideas during the Christmas season?
As part of your holiday social media campaign, we recommend you gather the recipes you love the most and repurpose them into different content formats.
From Instagram posts and stories to YouTube and TikTok videos, your followers are definitely going to love this type of social media content.
The following post is from Jean Patrique’s Instagram account, a kitchenware retailer that sells various cooking equipment.
Since the nature of the company is around food and cooking, it only makes sense for them to create recipes and share them with their followers.
Overall, recipes are great marketing ideas and create perfect holiday themes for your social media accounts.
Moving on to the last idea we’ve got for you.
Idea #10: Offer a Free Christmas Gift Guide
With a handful of holidays happening in December, November is usually when people start planning their holiday shopping.
You can help out consumers by putting together a gift guide.
After all, they say that holidays are a marketer’s best time of the year since, according to a study by Sprout Social, social media influences holiday purchases for 1 in 3 Americans.
A guide with various gift ideas your brand has to offer works great as a social media Christmas campaign.
Look at the following Instagram post by Natura:
It’s a great example of a free gift guide where users can tap on the products and start thinking about who they’re going to give them to for Christmas.
If you’re a retail or eCommerce store, this idea should be a no-brainer; just think how many of your products can sit under a Christmas tree with successful holiday marketing ideas such as this one!
Now, let’s see how you can plan your Christmas social media campaign step-by-step.
How to Plan Your Christmas Social Media Campaign
With Christmas coming up, it’s time to start planning your social media campaign for the holiday season.
Meetings, strategies, and content calendars are just a few of the things you’ll need, but let’s have a look at a step-by-step process to help you set up a plan.
Step #1: Understand your audience
First and foremost, you need to understand who your audience is.
This mainly means two things:
- Looking at demographics
- Identifying what your followers want to see
Is your brand mainly followed by men or women? What is the main age group? Where are your followers from?
These are a few of the things to know before setting up your campaign, in order to make sure it’ll appeal to them.
You’ll also have to be aware of what type of content they like; images, videos, reels, and stories are just a few of the things you can test out.
All in all, creating a campaign that's tailored to your audience and that’s aligned with your brand is key to any successful Christmas marketing idea.
Moving on to the next step.
Step #2: Define your goals and objectives
The second step is to decide what you want to achieve by the end of your campaign.
Is it to increase your sales? Raise brand awareness? Or maybe just increase your follower numbers?
Whatever your goal is, it’s super important to define it early on and plan your actions with it in mind.
The reason why this is important is that you’ll be able to understand whether your campaign was successful or not, once it’s finished.
What you can do is set some measurable objectives, such as to reach X number of impressions or an X number of sales, and see if your campaign helped you reach them.
Let’s move on.
Step #3: Create your campaign
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for; it’s time to actually create your campaign!
You might want to get started with a festive photo competition like the one we’ve started creating, as you can see right below:
Or you might want to jump straight into creating a festive video campaign.
Your call!
We hope that our guide gave you enough ideas about what your social media campaign can be all about.
Once you’ve settled on an idea or two, it’s time to get organized.
What tools will you need? Who’s going to be involved in it?
These are only a few of the questions you need to answer in order to create any piece of content.
After all, graphic design, video editing, copywriting, and digital marketing are the core skills you or your team should have in order to set up a campaign.
Moving forward to the last step.
Step #4: Promote your campaign
Congratulations! Your campaign has been created and it’s time to share it with your audience.
Some of the things you need to think of during this step are which platforms you’re going to upload your campaign on, as well as when.
Creating a content schedule is an essential part of the whole process and will help you stay on top of your marketing efforts.
Will you upload your campaign before Christmas? During it? After New Year’s Day?
Whatever your timeframe is, make sure to communicate it to your team and stick to it for optimum results.
Let’s wrap this up and close with some final thoughts.
Now Over to You
There you have it.
We hope that you found our ideas on how to create a Christmas social media campaign useful.
Whether you go for a Christmas countdown, a giveaway, a photo competition, or even a collaboration with influencers, make sure to also keep our step-by-step guide in mind.
After all, support is something we all need.
Especially if you opt for partnering with influential creators for scaling UGC production, don’t hesitate to book a demo with us so we can guide you around our tool and show you how it can help you get the most out of your paid social campaigns.
Thanks for reading!
.avif)
.avif)
.avif)
