The holidays mostly center around B2C organizations, but there’s no reason those in the B2B space can’t capitalize on holiday marketing campaigns as well. Here are ten ideas to ramp up your holiday marketing.
Update Your Social Profiles
Update your social media pages with festive images to spread a little holiday cheer. If you’re having a holiday party at work, be sure to take pictures and share them with your audience. Memes and blog articles with holiday cartoons, fun facts and inspirational stories can add a jovial touch to your social media accounts.
Spend Leftover Budget
If you’ve got leftover budget, now is the time to spend it. Many larger companies base next year’s budget off of the previous year’s spend. If you don’t use it, you may see a reduction the following year. Put together a focused campaign that will help you finish the year on a high note. A multi-channel approach that includes blogging, social media, teleprospecting, email and paid advertising will give you the best chance at acquiring the leftover budgets of your target audience.
Social Media Giveaway Contest
This is the season for giving, so why not hold a social media giveaway contest and reward your loyal followers. This giveaway could be company merchandise, a free trial of your product or even a free consultation. The aim here is to do something nice for your prospects, but to also gain their business.
Seasonal Ad Campaign
Since paid advertising is one of the best ways to show immediate results, putting together a holiday themed campaign may be the way to go. Include festive imagery and content in your ads and direct them to a landing page to convert your prospects into leads. A holiday themed piece of premium content or a free offer should be attached to your ad.
Holiday Webinar
Webinars continue to gain in popularity. Hosting a holiday themed webinar that highlights your product and includes a bit of humor and showmanship can be a great way to attract new customers.
Thank You Emails
A simple thank you can go a long way toward nurturing your current customers and making them feel appreciated. According to Clear Seas Research, “The likelihood of selling to an existing customer is 60% to 70%, compared to 5% to 20% for a new one.” Along with your thank you email, consider adding a promotional discount on a product or service that fits their business needs.
Video Greeting Cards
The holidays offer a great opportunity to personalize your brand. Putting together a video greeting card and sending it to your prospects and customers is a nice gesture and can improve brand awareness. For key accounts you may want to develop personalized videos that speak directly to them. These cards can also be published to social media outlets to further your reach.
The Gift Of Content
Educational and entertaining content provides value to your audience along with drawing them in for a potential business relationship. Creating holiday themed emails, blogs and social posts that offer a piece of premium content without the need to provide prospecting information is a great way to continue to build and nurture relationships. Your premium piece should include your contact information and a call to action for those looking to take next steps.
Charitable Donations
Giving to charity not only benefits those you are giving to, it can have a very positive effect on public relations. Promoting the charities that you give to through social media and offering to match a portion of donations made by current customers can do wonders for the image of your company.
Direct Mail
As email boxes continue to overflow, direct mail has become an effective tool to reach high level decision within targeted accounts. Borrowing a page from account-based marketing, take your top 10-100 companies and send them a three-dimensional mail piece that contains an offer on discounted products or services, demo units or even branded merchandise. Something as simple as a coffee mug with your company logo on it can keep your brand at the top of the mind of your biggest targets for years to come.
