The Holiday Season Is Gold For Brands
The holiday season is one of the happiest times of the year. Cozy fires, good food, laughter… who doesn’t love the holidays?! Well, besides the Grinch. Outside of the fun spent with family and friends, the holidays are an excellent time for brands to capitalize on the massive influx in product purchases.
From Black Friday sales to massive holiday themed marketing campaigns, brands are doing anything and everything to maximize their profits during this peak season. Throughout all of this madness, there’s one method that has proven to be the most effective way to target consumers during the holiday season… influencers! In this blog, Hollywood Branded discusses four ways brands can utilize influencer marketing during the holidays to achieve their goals.
Why Use Influencers?
In a time where consumers are increasingly using social media and online blogs to find different gift ideas for the holidays, influencer marketing has become the most effective strategy for brands to reach prospective consumers.
Why is that? For starters, influencers are the best way for a brand to authentically resonate with their desired consumer base. Influencers have built their ‘influencer status’ by creating content that their consumer base enjoys. They know what does and doesn't work.
Secondly, influencer marketing can add to your already existing holiday content strategy. While several brands use influencers to drive sales, influencers are really just content creators. During a time like the holidays where brands are competing for consumer attention, having enough relevant content to be pushed through that brand’s social channels is imperative to having any Holiday success. Influencers can help streamline this content creation process.
Tips For Using Influencers In Your Holiday Strategy
1. Identify an influencer who is active in your category. When it comes to influencer marketing, it’s important that a brand chooses an influencer that makes sense for their respective category. Influencers are only capable of promoting products that resonate with their audience base. When deciding on which influencers to use, brand marketers must be diligent in their research. Look at the influencer’s content and see if they’ve ever promoted products in the past that are similar to yours. Check in on their audience demographic breakdown. What may seem like a fitting influencer may not actually be the right influencer to use. For example, let’s say you’re looking to promote a new bikini for Christmas. At first thought, a bikini model may seem like the perfect influencer because she takes tons of photos in bikinis. But, if you were to take a second to look at the people that are liking and commenting on her photos, you may find that the majority of these people are men. Are men going to buy the bikini? While some may, men probably aren’t going to be your target consumer.
2. Include a clear call-to-action in your influencer strategy. All influencer marketing campaigns, especially during the holidays, should include a call-to-action. This call-to-action can be a call for viewers to “swipe up” or “click the link in their bio”, it can be encouraging followers to follow a brand’s account, participating in a competition, etc. Whatever it is, be sure to provide your influencers with actionable language and traceable links to place in their posts. In doing this, you will be able to expedite consumers to your purchasing page as well as gather data on how well the campaign is performing.
3. Start early. To maximize results, always start your holiday influencer campaign a few weeks prior to the actual date of the holiday that you’re celebrating. A lot of people like to purchase their gifts weeks, or even months in advance. By starting early, you’ll be able to get your brand in front of perspective consumers multiple times, increasing the likelihood that viewers will move forward to purchase your product.
4. Consider utilizing the help of an agency. Getting help from experts can do wonders for a brand, especially during pressing times like the holidays. By onboarding an agency to help create and manage an influencer campaign, brands will increase their chances of having successful results. Here at Hollywood Branded, we are experts at creating successful campaigns. To learn more about how we can help your brand achieve its holiday goals, check out our podcast.
We Wish You A Happy Holiday!
The holidays are full of opportunities for brands. As a brand marketer, it's up to you to get creative on you can use your resources to best target your customers during this pivotal time. If you need any help, Hollywood Branded is always here. We've been building rockstar campaigns for the last 11 holiday seasons.
On a side note, the entire team here at Hollywood Branded wishes you and yours a happy holiday season! Enjoy!
Want to learn a few ways that other brands have successfully utilized the holiday season into their marketing? Check out a few other blog posts we've written on holiday brand marketing!
- 4 Tips For Using Influencers This Holiday To Increase Sales
- 5 Tips To Get Your Brands Instagram Holiday Ready
- The Top 5 Holiday Product Placements
- Wes Anderson And H&M Team Up For A Brilliant Holiday Celebrity Endorsement
Want to learn more about the best ways to leverage influencer markeing into your branding campaign? You can utilize our Influencer calculator for free!
