Christmas social media campaigns: 10 things your brand needs to know

Christmas social media campaigns are a vital part of the marketing calendar for most retailers and brands. We may loath the pre-emptive Christmas marketing that seemingly begins as early as October. We may also resent the elf hats and Santa beards that already don the isles of the local supermarket.

But there is a reason brands have begun marketing the big day already, and it’s the same reason Christmas social media campaigns should already be firmly in your plans: consumers are already planning for the 25^th December, and online shoppers are searching for it.

Here are 10 things your brand needs to know about social media marketing at Christmas:

Online shopping peaks weeks before Christmas day

High-street retailers can rest assured that in the week leading up to December 25^th the streets outside their stores will be filled with panicked shoppers. Online, that surge in buying reduces dramatically a week before Christmas day as shoppers worry over delivery and take to the cities and shopping centres.

What this means for Christmas social media campaigns is that you need to get in early. Posting a tweet on Christmas Eve saying you now offer a 10% discount on all orders will not generate sales.

Your social media networks need to live and breathe Christmas for at least the first three weeks of December to have any effect.

30% shoppers have bought directly from social sites

A recent study found that 30% of online shoppers said they have made purchases as a result of seeing social media messages from brands or product recommendations from friends. If you can get your marketing message seen, it can directly affect your number of sales.

48% of shoppers will check your social networks before buying

Research carried out by us here at Fabric found that nearly half of online shoppers will check a brands social media networks before confirming a purchase, particularly if they haven’t shopped on that website before.

As you are more likely to generate new leads during the festive period, you need to make sure that when consumers do review your Twitter feeds and Facebook pages that your brand stacks up, looks trustworthy and entices that click on the ‘Confirm Order’ button.

Invest in some good graphics for your page to look professional, and make sure you are posting updates at least once a day. Use lots of pictures in your messages and try and generate a bigger following. A Facebook page with just 10 likes is hardly going to promote trust in that potential customer.

50% festive shoppers look to social for influence and ideas

That’s right. Half of us will take to Pinterest and Facebook to seek present ideas and product recommendations. This is the most receptive to social marketing messages consumers will be all year, so it makes sense to increase production budget and time allocation to Christmas social media campaigns to take full advantage.

Know where your audience is

No followers does not mean no clicks

Just because you only have 20 followers on Twitter, 10 on Facebook and two on Pinterest does not mean Christmas social media campaigns are a waste of time.

Use hashtags in your messages to reach out to a much larger audience and help generate those clicks that will lead to sales conversions. Also on Twitter in particular, look out for trending hashtags that are somehow related to your brands’ offering and get involved in the conversation.

Women are on Pinterest

When it comes to targeting your client base, you need to know where they hang out online. Women are typically on image-happy sites such as Pinterest and Pinterest. 69% of women also spend a lot of time on mobile games, so an in-app PPC campaign may also be a good choice.

You have to plan now

The big brands will have been meticulously strategising their Christmas marketing campaigns since December 26^th last year. Your business will probably not have the resources to do this, so instead make sure at least a month before you start your Christmas social media campaigns you know what you want to push, what you want to say and what your special offers will be.

Men are on YouTube

If males are your target market, head to YouTube. Men spend double the amount of time as women do watching videos on here, so some streamed video ads may be a good idea. As well as being more active on LinkedIn, men are almost as active on Facebook, so if you are looking for a more concise and focused campaign, Facebook will suffice whilst targeting both sexes.

Here’s an infographic by Quicksprout showcasing the results:

Christmas shoppers love a special offer

Every brand in your niche is promoting similar products. How do you get yours noticed? By promoting special offers.

Festive shoppers are most receptive to free shipping offers, exclusive offers for that particular social network and also loyalty points and rewards.

Don’t forget the night owls

Did you know that in the run-up to Christmas, an entire third of all product related searches on Google are made during the small hours of the morning?

These mobile shoppers surfing the web from their sofas and bedrooms are primed to buy and should be targeted. Why? Because there is less digital noise at this time, and your message has a chance to be heard. And if that user is bored/insomniac enough to be online shopping at 2am, there’s a good chance they will make an impulse purchase.

Make sure you send marketing tweets and Facebook messages between 10pm and 4am to try and grab their attention. You can schedule these using TweetDeck so you won’t have to wake up specially!