It’s the most festive time of the year! The holiday season is the perfect time to thank the ones you love most and surprise your friends and family with gifts. The holidays are also a busy time to boost eCommerce sales with social media. While you start to create gift guides and roll out your new holiday collection, you’ll also want to consider how you can revamp your social media strategy to enhance your social media presence and get your brand noticed by your target audience. In this blog, we’ll discuss the importance of social media and look into innovative ways you can adjust your current social media strategy to align with the holiday season.
The Power of Social Media in Holiday eCommerce
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing channels you can use during the holiday season. Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest – each platform has its advantages and can help increase brand visibility during the holiday season.
According to a study done by GWI, social media users spend an average of two and a half hours a day on social media platforms. During this time, social media users are actively shopping for new items for themselves and searching for inspiration for gifts to give to their loved ones.
As an e-commerce business, you can capitalize on the demand with innovative holiday-centric content that speaks to your offerings and resonates with your target audience.
Setting the Stage: Preparing Your Social Media Channels
Each social media platform you regularly utilize provides a new opportunity for your e-commerce to thrive during the holidays. Whether you’re creating Pinterest boards with gift ideas or using user-generated content to promote your winter collection – each platform you use deserves a unique, innovative approach.
Although your strategy may differ across each platform, you’ll still want to maintain consistency. Here are some tips for preparing your social media platforms for the holiday season:
- Update your bio, profile image, and cover photos across each channel
- Use similar colors and messaging in your content
- Stay consistent with your holiday marketing campaign
- Consider updating your profile picture with a holiday flair
Get creative, and don’t be afraid to have some fun with your holiday campaigns. However, you should always maintain consistency to increase credibility with your target audience. If your holiday messaging isn’t the same or similar, it can be offputting for the consumer and impact your overall brand image.
Crafting Irresistible Holiday Content
Here’s where you can start having fun with your holiday social media strategy. The content you create during the holidays doesn’t always need to follow brand guidelines. That means you can have fun with the visuals, fonts, and colors you incorporate into your content.
Some of the most popular content types for the holiday season include:
- Instagram Carousels
- TikToks and Instagram Reels
- Video Content
- Gift Guides
- Product Showcases
- Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales
- Discounts, Promotions, and Special Offerings
- Holiday-Centric User-Generated Content
Every business is different. While building your strategy for the holiday season, don’t be afraid to get inspiration from companies you admire. This can help you get creative with the content you create. Throughout the holidays, you’ll want to analyze what type of content is performing well on your platforms and look for innovative ways to mimic it throughout the holiday season.
Social Media Advertising Strategies
If you have the budget, paid advertising can be a worthwhile investment, especially during the holiday season. Paid advertising can help you strategically target a specific audience, increasing brand visibility and helping you maintain your competitive edge throughout the holiday season.
One of the most popular and effective advertising strategies is retargeting. Retargeting is when you target your ads to social media users who are already familiar with your brand. This type of advertising has a significantly higher conversion rate and ROI than traditional prospecting advertising.
Leveraging Influencer Marketing
Did you know that over 50% of millennials trust products that are promoted by influencers? Influencer marketing provides an authentic way to engage with a new audience.
Collaborating with influencers during the holiday season is an innovative way to increase credibility and get more eyes on your brand’s offerings. Whether they’re sharing a gift guide or a tutorial on using one of your products, these small initiatives can lead to a significant uptick in revenue.
If you plan to use influencers in your holiday marketing strategy to increase sales, you’ll want to be considerate of their research. It’s typically best to give the influencer the creative freedom so they can develop content that complements their feed.
Measuring Success and Making Adjustments
Data and insights will help you better understand what resonates with your target audience and doesn’t. This will help you optimize your strategy and look for new opportunities to improve your approach in the future. Before implementing your holiday social media strategy, you’ll want to set clear and measurable KPIs. These KPIs will help guide you through the holiday season, keeping you on track to increase conversions and see the results you want to see for your strategy.
Every social media platform has its own data and analytic tools you can use to understand the effectiveness of your campaigns better. If you’re looking for one platform to track and measure your data, consider Hootsuite or Sprout Social.
You’ll want to regularly check in with the success of your content every week. This will help you revise your current strategy and improve your ad campaign effectiveness.
Take Your Holiday Social Media Strategy to the Next Level
If you’re e-commerce doesn’t have a well-thought-out holiday-centric social media strategy planned out and ready to go – you risk losing sales to your competitors. The holiday season is the perfect time to revamp your strategy and build a stronger connection with your target audience. Whether it’s influencer marketing or more video content – this type of content can help you maintain your competitive edge all season long.
If you’re looking for a social media agency to help you adjust your strategy – we’re here to help.
Contact the Socialistic team today to learn more.
