How to Get Your Holiday Marketing Right

Christmas, International Women’s Day and beyond!

by Marielle Reussink

Do you celebrate the holidays in your marketing?

Whether you answered yes or no, it’s important to consider what holidays mean, and what your participation (or absence) in celebrating them might imply.

From Deepavali to Christmas, Chinese New Year to Women’s Day, every holiday holds meaning – and that meaning can be very different from one person or group to another. Unfortunately, many brands fail to consider this before jumping on the bandwagon!

It can be risky to take an ad hoc approach to celebrating holidays. On the one hand, if you get your message wrong,you could turn people off or even seriously offend someone. On the other if you abstain, you could lose out on an opportunity to connect with your community and build your brand.

Don’t let this scare you! Grab your calendar and let’s dig in!

Before you send out your holiday communications, there are three questions you should always ask:

What does this holiday mean to you?
What does the holiday mean to your audience?
What does this holiday mean to your brand?

If you can’t meaningfully answer these (or at least two out of three), it’s a good sign that you’d be better off skipping it.

Why?

Because the best communications strategy is an authentic one! If a holiday doesn’t really resonate with you, your audience or your brand, don’t try to fake it. Remember that last holiday marketing campaign that made you cringe (for me, some Women’s Day campaigns come to mind!)... Don’t fall into the same trap!

Of course, if you do have an authentic connection with a holiday, get ready to speak up!

The trick to a successful holiday marketing campaign is to find a way to stand out in the crowd. Remember, you won’t be the only one sending out communications, so you really need to be original, if you want to make an impact.

Be inspired!

To get you inspired, I’d like to highlight two businesses that have pulled this off well:

The Cinnamon Room

Visha, the owner of award-winning home décor business The Cinnamon Room in Singapore, wanted to do something special to celebrate Deepavali, the festival of light, as part of her heritage. She decided to create a video tutorial to show people how they can use flowers to decorate her lanterns and unique candle holders for Deepavali.

Not only has this been a great way to showcase The Cinnamon Room’s products and drive sales, but it’s also a nice opportunity for Visha to connect authentically with her customers around a holiday that’s culturally and personally significant to her.

LUXE Botanics

Instead of trying to get creative around popular holidays, LUXE Botanics finds alternative holidays they know will resonate with their target audience. For example, instead of Black Friday, the award-winning eco-luxe skincare brand joined the Women Led Wednesday campaign to encourage people to use their purchasing power to support women in leadership. This has been highly successful at driving sales, while raising awareness for a cause that’s close to home for Luxe Botanics and their customers. Look out for it again this November!

These are just two examples that I hope will inspire you to think differently about your holiday marketing.

If you take one thing away from this post, it’s that you don’t have to celebrate everything! Instead, put your efforts into making the most of holidays that really matter to you, and make sure your campaign drives an authentic connection between your audience and your brand.