The quickly changing seasonal landscape between October 31st and January 1st may leave you feeling like you’re on a roller coaster ride. You’ve barely got into Halloween mode before it’s time to switch it out for Thanksgiving, and then there’s Black Friday ads, Cyber Monday marketing ideas, Christmas posters and Boxing Day ads. Can you keep up with the ever changing lineup of celebrations, and does it matter?
The easy way out is to give up on seasonal marketing and keep up your plain vanilla marketing. The benefit of that is much less work—you don’t have to revamp your website content and marketing plan every week, and you can continue using the same advertising that worked all summer. The downside? You miss out on all the seasonal traffic, you don’t attract many new customers, and even your loyal user base begins to feel that you’re not quite keeping up with the times.
Capitalizing on seasonal traffic allows you to capture an ever changing wave of holiday shoppers, maximizing sales and increasing footfall. But it’s more than just attracting new customers. Customizing your website, Instagram feed, or blog for special holidays and seasons allows your existing customers to connect with you as someone real and on their wavelength. The vibe you’re giving out is: we care, we’re here, and we’re celebrating just like you and your kids are.
Advanced planning is critical to success with seasonal marketing. But can you do it and keep your sanity? Here’s the good news: now, you can. Our seasonal guide to visual marketing allows you to plan ahead of time, define your marketing goals, and create visual content for your campaign that will actually give results. This handy guide takes into account all mediums of conventional and digital marketing, from posters and flyers to videos and blog posts. Free online tools like PosterMyWall can help with distribution as well—wouldn’t you like to have those holiday posts appear like magic on the appropriate day? Black Friday sales ideas, Cyber Monday ads, and New Years posters, all pre-scheduled and ready to go when you want them. Don’t waste your brainpower re-inventing the wheel when someone’s already done it all for you.
A Feast for the Eyes: Holiday-Themed Visuals that Can Invigorate Your Website this Season
If there’s one brand that goes for minimalism, it’s Google: the world’s top search engine features a home page with hardly any graphics and barely a dozen words. Even Google, though, recognizes that a little bit of seasonal change is good for the soul, and holiday-themed google doodles and renowned the world over and, in many cases, eagerly awaited.
So take the cue and give your website a bit of a holiday makeover. Seasonal elements—think pumpkins, santa hats or Christmas stockings—can liven up the grimmest logo, and add a hint of playfulness to an otherwise dull display . Your graphics, banners, and other visual elements are all fair game in this makeover game. If you’ve used PosterMyWall to design your graphics in the first place, adding a bit of seasonal spice is super easy. But even if you’ve got an older design you made the traditional way, upload it to their easy-to-use editor and use their graphic design programs to refresh it with a little bit of seasonal bling.
You can also change your color scheme to match a special day— orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas, for instance. If consistency is important to you, though, simply brightening up your website with a few well-chosen graphics is a perfectly acceptable option.
Here are some eye-catching design templates from PosterMyWall that you can use to add that seasonal kick to your platforms:
Harnessing the Power of the People: User Generated Content that Invites Engagement
The Nielsen Consumer Trust Index tells us that 92 percent of consumers trust user-generated content (UGC) more than traditional advertising. That’s no surprise. But did you know that the holiday season is a prime time to inspire your customers to fill their social media accounts with holiday-themed photos and graphics that point viewers back to your website?
You don’t have to start mass producing Christmas greeting cards. Hashtag contests are a much easier way to do this. One highly successful seasonal UGC campaign was the #wishesdelivered campaign run by the UPS on Christmas in 2015. Participants were asked to post their own wishes with the #wishesdelivered hashtag, and UPS would donate a dollar to charity for each share—and enter them into a contest to get their own #wishesdelivered into the bargain. The campaign results? 40,000 hashtag mentions, 80+ PR stories, and 3.5 M video views.
What do you need for a successful user generated content campaign of your own? First off, select a hashtag that is unique and reflects your brand so that every entry points clearly back to you. The #wishdelivered hashtag was well-chosen because UPS is a courier delivery service and it’s delivering your Christmas wishes! Secondly, you’ll also need an incentive, be that a prize package for one winner or a chance for several winners to take part in further campaign-branded events so that people are more encouraged to participate.
And the third essential you’ll need is campaign advertising. This is where PosterMyWall comes in. Their free flyer maker and online graphic design software makes putting together attractive posters and flyers a cinch, and you’ll have everything you need to publicize your campaign in no time with little to no budget.
Not just that, you can create eye-catching social media graphics to go with your campaign posts to get more attention – these can be downloaded for free from PosterMyWall. If you’re running a large-scale campaign, you will need a high volume of good quality content. PosterMyWall’s reasonably-priced Premium plans let you enjoy unlimited number for your small business marketing.
Engaging Consumers with Online Activities
The action is not all at user generated content, though. Seasonal activities also allow consumers to feel part of your brand, an integral part of who you are and what you’re doing. They don’t have to be fancy: think discussions, polls, and question sessions on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. A follower who has had at least one meaningful engagement on social media is much likelier to become a steady customer than someone who just scrolls by your posts.
Polls can be simple questions (How many cups of coffee do you drink on a daily basis?) or give your visitors a chance to weigh in on a company decision. Even a minute amount of input on the the least significant decision your company makes has the potential to give your followers a sense of ownership. For instance, you could ask your followers which of two tinsel graphics should be used to spiff up your logo, or give them the chance to choose which of two designated products will be put on sale for Cyber Monday.
It’s possible to run an online activity with no graphics at all: type out your options and use a standard background in whatever social media program you’ve chosen. But let’s be honest here: graphics have the potential to set a mood, invite participation, and make your participants feel as if they are talking to the real you. As a side bonus, they make you look professional and put-together.
Hiring a professional designer may break your budget, but it turns out you don’t need to. Free graphic design (or almost-free, budget friendly options) are only a click away with PosterMyWall. Collaboration with your team is easy: for every graphic you design, you can can get feedback in real time and allow editing privileges to team members you designate. Of course, if you don’t feel like doing any design at all, you can simply customize a ready-made template by adding your name and logo. Instagram story ads with interactive polls, questions, and discussion starters are available with a wide range of options for every seasonal holiday. Here are a few This or That templates you can use on Instagram and Facebook stories to spark engagement from your audience:
Seasonal Video
Video is where social media marketing is right now, and seasonal marketing videos can really help you bring a festive, spend-happy holiday vibe to your website or social media accounts. If you’ve stayed away from video because it just seems too hard, this is the time to rethink your stance. Video on landing pages is reported as increasing conversion rates by more than 80%, and 90 percent of consumers say videos help them make their purchasing decisions.
What’s more, producing high quality 4K marketing video is no longer hard. PosterMyWall’s seasonal video templates take the work out of video design, and your customizing can be as easy as adding in a name and logo and doing an automatic resize for all your social media channels. If you’d rather not download large video files, you can have them uploaded directly from your PosterMyWall account to your social media pages.
And don’t forget their handy scheduler, either– so your Thanksgiving-themed Black Friday Sale ads can be aired right when the Turkey’s in the oven, and your New Year Instagram post can appear precisely when the ball drops.
The Season for Giving: Creating Goodwill with a Little Sharing
You’ve scheduled a contest or two, and a half dozen polls. What else can you do to spark seasonal engagement on social media and your website? Well, there’s an old adage that applies very well to marketing: it is in giving that we receive. Give your visitors something they value, and they will return the favor with shares, links, and renewed loyalty to your brand.
This doesn’t mean handing out $10 gift cards to everyone who browses through your website. Even infographics and visually appealing printables give you a chance to please your customers and get your logo out there where consumers will see it every day.
Seasonal recipes like your take on Christmas pudding or Thanksgiving turkey can be shared on Instagram stories or on your website as another way to rack in the ‘brownie’ points. If they’re good, your brand will become a household word around Thanksgiving tables and at Christmas feast everywhere.
Seasonal Marketing: An Effortless Way to Find New Relevance
Seasonal marketing is not something you want to skimp on, but it doesn’t have to be hard, either. Do your planning early, take advantage of the flyer templates and schedulers PosterMyWall has to offer, and then sit back and watch the conversions come in.
