The holiday season is a great opportunity for small businesses to connect with their audience and drive sales on social media. While the best thing for businesses to do to prepare is to plan ahead, we’ve already reached Q4, so not much time is left between now and the start of the spending season. Here are some quick campaign ideas that can help you boost your social media efforts during the holidays with just a little bit of prep.

Instagram Giveaways

If you’re looking to increase brand awareness, gain more followers, and promote your products, running a giveaway on Instagram is a fantastic option. Not only are they simple to set up, but they’re also effortless to participate in.

The How-To:

• Start planning now by choosing your goals (increase in followers, more brand awareness, etc).
• Decide what you want to offer and how you want participants to enter (follows, likes, comments).
• Have a method of choosing the winner (here’s a free tool to help).
• If possible, find another small business to partner with for your Giveaway, increasing the visibility of your post, and both of your platforms.
• Most importantly, check out Instagram’s rules for promotional giveaways to ensure your content or profile doesn’t get in trouble.

One note about giveaways: If the giveaway is not brand-relevant (giving away a cooler for a dental practice), you might not be reaching and engaging with a true long-term target audience. It’s fine to have a goal of short-term follower growth as long as you are prepared for a follower drop off after the giveaway.

Customer Appreciation

The holiday season is a perfect opportunity to express gratitude towards those who matter most, and this should certainly include your loyal followers, employees, and customers. As a brand, it is important to show your appreciation for their continued support. One way to achieve this is by launching a customer and/or appreciation campaign.

There are many ways to express your gratitude and admiration for your followers. You can leverage user-generated content (UGC) to shout-out your customers and foster a sense of community, further strengthening the relationship between your small business and your followers.

The How-To: 

• If you don’t already encourage your customers to share their photos and tag your small business, start doing so through your website, email marketing, in-store signage, and on social media. 
• Be sure to check your mentions, messages, and tagged posts on social media daily. 
• Share the posts (with credit to the original poster) in your feed, on your stories, and even in your email marketing. Thank your customers for their patronage and for sharing their posts on social media.

Giving Back

The holidays are about more than just consumerism. They’re also about compassion, community, and giving back to those in need. Some businesses choose to forego Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales in favor of donating their time and money to worthy causes. When consumers see that your values align with theirs, you don’t need to rely solely on special sales or discount codes to drive purchases.

The How-To:

• Choose a local charity that could use a little extra help during the holidays, like food banks, soup kitchens, and places that give gifts to children in need.
• Decide on a type of “giving back” campaign and get your followers involved.
  • A donations campaign: encourage your followers to like, comment, and share your post in exchange for a dollar amount donation (for every comment, you’ll donate $2, for every like, you’ll donate $1, and so on). 
  • A collections campaign: ask your customers, clients, or patients to bring in a small toy or nonperishable food item to place in a collections box at your store or office. 

Free Resources

Not all small businesses are commerce-based. But there are still opportunities to gain more traction with your target audience during the holiday season. Free downloadable resources are a great way to offer something tangible to your customers and collect email addresses for future email marketing campaigns. 

The How-To

• Think back to what your customers address the most when they talk to you. If you run a law firm, do you see an uptick in DUI/DWI calls during the holidays? For insurance companies, do you see an increase in inquiries for life insurance? Whatever your industry, there’s always something you can offer that your audience won’t think twice about before downloading.
• Use your expertise to create a compelling downloadable and printable resource (worksheet, checklist, challenge, or a sample of a resource your clients pay for).
• Utilize social media to send your audience to a landing page where they simply enter their email and receive the free resource.
  • Add the link to your social media posts.
  • Use Instagram Stories to share a direct link.

What are you waiting for?

Thanksgiving and the subsequent spending holidays will be here before you know it. By customizing these easy-to-do campaigns to align with your marketing goals, you can effectively connect with your audience and drive sales, brand awareness, and more during the holidays. 

Need a little help? 

As a social media agency, we are here to help you however you need. Whether it’s just for a holiday-based project or you are ready to level up your social media with full-service marketing, strategysmith is ready for a team up. Don’t wait another moment to ask for help.