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We’re about to enter December which means Christmas is just around the corner! If your brand hasn’t started its holiday marketing efforts yet, don’t panic - there’s still time to assemble a last-minute content plan, prepare some ads and ramp up your Community Management to increase engagement opportunities.
A recent report commissioned by the IPA (the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) has shown that while shoppers may be cutting back on their Christmas purchases this year due to the cost of living crisis, they still want to see brands embracing the festive season with their communications.
• 37% want brands’ content to be festive
• 21% want it to be humorous
• 20% want it to be nostalgic
• 20% want it to focus on value
Read on to discover what’s trending on social media this holiday season and how you can make the most of your brand’s presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to encourage sales and other significant conversions.
Small Influencer Partnerships
In recent years, consumers have begun to lose interest in huge influencers with giant audiences and have started to prefer smaller creators whose content feels more down to earth, authentic and relatable. So, this Christmas, if you want to form partnerships with influencers that your followers will genuinely trust, it’s best to look for those with smaller audiences who fall within the nano and micro categories.
• Nano influencers: Those with 1,000–10,000 followers
• Micro influencers: Those with 10,000–100,000 followers
On TikTok specifically, nano influencers have the lowest CPE (cost per engagement), making them a great choice if you’re on a tight budget. Data also suggests that those with fewer than 5,000 followers have the highest engagement rates compared to those with large audiences, which sit at around 5% and 1.6% respectively - most likely because those with smaller audiences tend to have tighter-knit communities and therefore closer relationships with their followers.
Consumers feel more comfortable making purchases based on these influencers’ recommendations, as their content tends to feel more honest than that from traditional celebrities, which is often filtered and perfected and therefore doesn’t represent the product in a genuine way.
Messaging Campaigns
At the moment, social media users are generally preferring to contact friends and businesses through private messages and DMs rather than public comments. Your brand can make the most of this trend by running click-to-message campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, and by including messaging CTAs in your organic content.
On Instagram this can be done by selecting the ‘More messages’ goal when boosting a post, which will direct people to DM you when they tap on the ad. On Facebook, you can either select the messages objective when setting up a new ad campaign, or add the ‘Send message’ button to a boosted post, where you can then choose to direct customers to either Messenger, Instagram DMs or Whatsapp - or all three.
Promote Seasonal Products
If your brand has launched a limited edition product, collection or menu especially for the festive season, spark excitement and inspire urgency by promoting it on your socials - perhaps with a series of teasers during the run-up to its release, followed by a full announcement on the day it becomes available. Make sure to let your customers know that it will only be around for a short time, so they need to be quick and treat themselves before it’s gone. You could even incorporate your Christmas item(s) into your cover photo on Facebook or X so it’s the first thing people see when they visit your page.
Stories, Reels and TikToks
Short-form video content is here to stay, with 73% of consumers agreeing that they prefer to watch these types of videos when learning about products or services, so make sure to include Stories, Reels and TikToks in your holiday marketing plan. Stories are great for giving your audience a behind-the-scenes look at your business - for example, a clip of your team decorating your location or office for Christmas - while Reels and TikToks are an excellent way to showcase your products or services, participate in viral trends and memes, and inject some fast-paced humour into your content.
For restaurants and food and drink brands, sharing festive recipes is another fun way to engage your social media audience via short-form video. Show your followers how to replicate one of your cocktails or dishes at home, or simply demonstrate your cooking or drink-making skills to entice people to visit your establishment.
Trending Festive Sounds
When a sound clip or song is trending on TikTok or Reels, this means it’s currently being used by lots of creators, giving you an opportunity to participate in a viral moment and therefore boost your reach. Using a trending sound also shows that your brand is aware of what’s popular right now rather than being ‘behind the times’, which can be off-putting for younger audiences.
On Instagram, trending audio is indicated by a little upwards pointing arrow beside its name in the bottom left corner of a Reel. When you visit the audio library during the Reel creation process, Instagram displays the number of Reels that have been made using each track, so you can monitor for trends here too. Additionally, if you have a business account, you can tap on ‘Professional dashboard’ below your bio on your page, then tap on ‘Reels trends’ to see which sounds are popular today. Keep an eye out for Christmas-related sounds that are specific to the festive season.
Users with personal or creator accounts have access to a huge variety of Reels sounds, but if you have a business account, you’ll likely see a ‘This sound isn’t licensed for commercial use’ label beside many popular songs. It’s best to steer clear of these ones in order to avoid copyright infringement. Sounds that are okay to use will have an ‘Original audio’ label beside them, so don’t panic - even as a brand, you’ll still have access to plenty of trending clips!
On TikTok, simply visit the trending songs section of the Creative Centre to browse the most popular clips from the last 7 days. You can even view detailed analytics for each one and filter out those that aren’t approved for business use. You can also monitor for trending sounds by tapping on a song name when viewing a TikTok, which will take you to a page showing the total number of TikToks that have been made using that clip. Alternatively, you can visit Tokchart.com, a third-party database which, although not officially affiliated with TikTok, displays a chart of the most commonly used sounds this week, sortable by location.
TikTok Shops
TikTok shops allow brands and creators to add a dedicated Shopping tab to their profiles and sync their product catalogues to the app to create mini storefronts. These products can then be tagged in videos and live streams, and accessed via a tappable link (similar to Instagram’s shopping sticker for Stories) which will take them to your online store for checkout. Once you’ve set up your shop, you’ll then also have the option to run ad campaigns that direct users to your storefront, making it even easier to facilitate sales.
TikTok shops are rapidly growing in popularity, with 55% of users saying that they have made a purchase after seeing a brand or product on the platform, and 49% of them admitting that TikTok plays a role in shaping their purchasing choices - so if you haven’t set up a shop for your brand yet, the holiday season is the perfect time to get started.
Offers, Deals & Discounts
Save your customers some cash this festive season by offering a range of special deals and offers and promoting them on social media. This could include a discount on products from a particular range, buy one get one free, free delivery, or a free gift when they purchase a specific item.
Posts about discounts and sales are actually the most valued type of social media content for 72% of consumers, so you can be confident that they will perform well for your brand. When it comes to the specific types of offers preferred by customers, 55% of them say that money-off deals are their favourite kind, so offering a discount on a Christmas-related product or collection is a good option to try. Shoppers are also 4-5 times more likely to make a purchase from brands that offer free shipping, so launching a free delivery period for the holiday season is worth considering too.
Enhanced Customer Care to Meet Demand
With customer enquiries increasing by a huge 75% over the Christmas period, the need for a comprehensive customer service strategy becomes even more important than usual at this time of year. Because of this, it’s a good idea to expand your social media customer care team before the rush begins, in order to prevent your current staff from becoming overwhelmed by the sudden rise in message volumes.
If you’re unable to do so, consider outsourcing your social media customer service or live chat to an external agency like 3sixfive next year. Our dedicated team of experts can take control of your social media inboxes and website live chat plugin, responding to every enquiry promptly and using your brand’s tone of voice for a seamless experience. It’s an ideal option if you don’t have enough time or resources to handle your customer service in-house, leaving you to focus on the rest of your Christmas marketing activities - plus it can result in tangible ROI for your business.
Competitions & Giveaways
Christmas is all about giving and being generous, making it the perfect time to launch a competition or giveaway on your social media pages. As well as benefiting your audience, competitions are great for your business too - they have a 3.7% higher conversion rate compared to other CTAs, plus Instagram accounts that hold contests grow their followers 70% faster than those that don’t.
Depending on the nature of your brand, the prize could be a product or bundle, a gift card, a meal, a hotel stay or a free ticket to your location. To build even more excitement, consider running an advent calendar-style series of giveaways throughout December with a campaign-specific hashtag.
Check out our guide to running a successful competition on social media to learn more about the rules and best practices!
Summary
Which tips are you planning to incorporate into your festive marketing strategy? Whether you’re going to use them this Christmas or save them for next year, we hope these suggestions will boost your brand’s social media results and increase your customer connections, no matter your size or industry. Find us on X @3sixfivepro and tell us about your favourite festive campaigns, or get in touch with our expert team to find out how we can provide additional support during the holiday season in 2024.
