Key Tools for your Social Media Holiday Marketing
The 2021 festive season is going to be different. It appears as though everyone is ready to put the events and fallout of the last year behind them and take on this one with gusto. According to Emarketer, U.S. holiday retail sales are predicted to increase 2.7% to $1.093 trillion in 2021, with e-commerce accounting for a record 18.9% of all holiday retail sales.
And right on cue, the major social media platforms have put out guides highlighting the best social media holiday marketing tools and solutions to aid your campaigns. We have had a thorough look at these guides ( so you don’t have to), and in this blog post, we will share a breakdown of the principles and suggest critical tools and best practices per platform.
We narrowed the scope of this blogpost to cover more traditional social media tools and some others that you might have overlooked for your Holiday marketing campaigns. Here are the platforms we will be considering this week.
Facebook & Instagram
According to Facebook’s holiday guide, the central focus for businesses this season should be to “help your products find the right people.” They have discovered that the top 4 needs of Holiday shoppers affect the way people shop and buy. They are:
1) Community and Connection
2) Engagement and Entertainment
3) Anticipation and Occasion
4) Inspiration and Spontaneity
In response to these needs, Facebook developed the “Facebook Discovery Commerce” function. The system comprises several sophisticated components and tools whose goal is to help businesses anticipate Shopper’s needs.
Here is a high-level snapshot of how to use the Discovery commerce System.
The guide also proffers marketing opportunities, specific tools, and actions to help marketers meet the shopping needs of their customers. You can read Facebook’s full marketing guide here.
Snapchat
Snapchat wants to give your business the gift of results this holiday season. Unlike other platforms, the Snapchat community has a unique path to discovering and eventually buying products around the Holiday season called the “Snapchat Celebration Cycle.” This is valuable data for those who use social media for their holiday advertising It’s a great way to visualize the customer journey from initial awareness all the way through conversion and pick the right tools for each stage.
With this information in mind, we’ve highlighted five ways to win this Festive Season on Snapchat. Get the complete Festive season guide here.
1. Follow the celebration cycle: from discovery all the way to purchase.
2. Start smart by starting early: With the holiday season starting earlier and earlier each year, you need to launch your campaigns early so you can stay top of mind when shoppers are ready to buy. According to Snapchat, over half of the community starts shopping before mid-November.
3. Create meaning: According to Snapchat, 85% of the Gen Z population in the US watched shows on Discover in November and December 2020, so using contextual video ads within Discover will help you drive results.
4. Keep it real: Snapchatters want to interact with brands that use authentic messaging that speaks to their values.
5. Drive social sharing: Create digital experiences that make Snapchatters want to tap ‘Share.
A unique social media platform, you have probably never considered Reddit a valuable option for your cross-platform Holiday advertising. According to Reddit, however, holiday purchases start with research on the forum. In addition, 85% of users who did Holiday research on Reddit made a purchase based on their research.
Given that Reddit is heavily community-based, it’s no surprise that users turned to their trusted communities to make purchase decisions.
Reddit Holiday Campaign Through the Marketing Funnel
- Discovery: Take advantage of Reddit’s auction efficiency to get in front of the right audience
- Consideration: Inform, engage and guide to increase your business chances of being discovered.
- Purchase: Reach users right when they are ready to buy.
Discover insights, timelines, and a sample strategy for your next holiday campaign through Reddit’s season guide.
Informally referred to as the number one source of inspiration, Pinterest plays a significant role during the Holiday season. According to Pinterest, people come to them first when planning their holiday shopping compared to a leading search engine.
The key to success on Pinterest during this festive season is to start early. It’s important to note that Pinterest users are always shopping. The platform reports that 75% of its users are more likely to say they’re constantly shopping vs. people on other platforms. To this end, Pinterest allows businesses to run campaigns that optimize for online or in-store sales.
Pinterest Shopping ads
According to Pinterest, “When brands add Collections or other Pinterest Shopping ads to campaigns, they drive 3x the conversion and sales lift, and twice the positive incremental return on ad spend.”
Pinterest Shopping Ad Tools to Use this Holiday Season
- Connect to Shopify: You can connect your Shopify store to your Pinterest business account directly in the Shopify app. Your entire catalog will become browsable on Pinterest in just a few clicks.
- Verified Merchant Program: People love to shop from brands they trust. Including that “verified” badge on your profile will increase your brand authenticity and promote brand loyalty. Businesses can earn theirs by applying here.
- Retargeting: This feature allows you to reach the people who have not yet made up their minds about your product. Pinterest allows you to retarget based on what people are looking for or by what’s in their cart.
- Automatic Bidding: Get more results efficiently with this feature. Pinterest will dynamically adjust your bids over time to deliver the maximum number of conversions for your budget.
Pinterest’s holiday guide offers even more information around holiday shopping personas, timelines, creative suggestions, and holiday season best practices.
You may have your social media holiday marketing already planned out, nostalgic creatives and all! But the above best practices and tools are what will take your marketing initiatives from great to extraordinary. We hope you’d consider incorporating some this festive season.
If you’d like to take your holiday marketing to the next level and scale growth for your business, we can help!
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