5 Ways to Market Yourself After the Holidays
December 12, 2018
Around the holidays there’s a market for just about any product or service, and anything can be promoted with the right hook. After the holidays pass and you edge into 2019, however, what can you do to recreate that holiday buzz in your social media marketing campaigns? There are different schools of thought on the subject, which is why we’ve collected 5 of the top marketing tips for the coming year.
Here are 5 ways you can beat the “holidays are over” slump and ring in 2019 with a social media bang!
1. Make it Exclusive: It’s great to include all social media followers, new or old, to your events, promotions, and contests. This is a good way to draw in newcomers and promote content sharing. From time to time it’s also okay to make things less inclusive and create promotional experiences, discounts and sales which are exclusive to existing customers.
The key to an exclusive marketing campaign is not to promote it to the entire public, as this could leave some people feeling left out. Instead, you want to market directly to those who are receiving the offer via e-mail, private message, or some other individual messaging approach. Letting your long-term customers know they are appreciated goes a long way in terms of brand loyalty, and it will help perk up sales in the new year when shopping is less fruitful.
2. Create a Grand Gesture: The phrase “go big or go home” is rarely used in marketing, as it’s often made up of many small steps to reach a realistic end goal. Some marketing experts recommend the opposite. Following the mass success of a holiday marketing event, beat the New Year lull by thinking big and creating a grand gesture for your clients. Create a new social media feed, start utilizing automated messaging bots, or release a new product. If there was ever a time to think outside of the box and do something risky, this is the time.
By introducing something novel to your consumer base, you draw everyone back in, creating a whole new reason to shop. The holidays are a reason in and of themselves, but January brings little need for commerce. Don’t let your customers take a shop-cation, make it worth their while to take notice of your brand and get involved.
3. Top Follower Promotion: Social media opens the doors to several unique contest ideas and one is the “top follower” style promotion. This invites your Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram users to prove themselves as your top followers through shares, likes, images of themselves with your product, whatever you choose to use as a marketing concept. The idea is that the top 10-100 of these individuals receive a reward. Think big, but not “break the bank” big. For example, if you often give out 10% off your final purchase coupons, this isn’t a great prize. You want it to be one of a kind. A free product, 3 free samples, 50% off one item in your cart, or 25% off your next purchase, are all great prize offers.
4. Branch Out and Try Reddit: If you haven’t heard of it or have heard of it but never gave it a try, Reddit is where you need to take your business next. This is a sharing site where more than half the population of the United States visits monthly. That’s a whole lot of new followers, and these Reddit subscribers can add to your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram numbers as well should they like what they see in your Reddit campaign.
Before creating an account and a marketing plan, take a trip over to Reddit and see what the site is all about. Visit some of the subreddit pages which focus on sales and discounts, such as ThriftStoreHauls and more. The end goal is to get your brand included in some of the high traffic commerce related pages; comment, private message, and make yourself known by sending some of your promotional events and coupons toward Reddit. After a while, your brand will begin to appear by itself through the help of some loyal users.
5. Get Personal with Your Followers: The personal touch goes a long way and creates some exciting new buzz after the hustle and bustle of Christmas has calmed down. Through Facebook live video or a LinkedIn video post, show your followers who you are as a business and a brand by giving a glimpse of the behind the scenes team, the office, the warehouse, or anywhere else that might spark the interest of your followers.
For many consumers, big business and small business alike is just a series of brand names, products and services. By showing them the humans behind the brand, you make your business more personal to them and create community spirit and a whole new kind of brand loyalty. Plus it’s a fun way to spice up the ol’ social media feed after all the excitement of the holidays is set aside for another year.
Whatever you choose to do to kick start your 2019 social media feed, remember to keep using the high-standards of search engine optimization and online marketing your brand should be used for. Only post content which is unique, engaging, and relevant to your brand, and stay on top of customer messages and comments to keep positive energy flowing and negative energy at a standstill.