12 Days of Christmas Marketing Campaign
5.00/5Christmas is here and with it comes days filled with joy, family, friends, nice dinners and lots of gift exchanges. It also means that people will be spending time at the mall looking for the perfect gift for their spouse, children, parents, friends, and loved ones. For your brand, hearing Mariah Carey sing “All I Want for Christmas Is You” means one thing: it’s time to launch your Christmas marketing campaign.
This is the perfect time for any business, large or small, to launch a series of promotional efforts aimed at capturing the attention of their target audiences and persuading them to buy their products.
Read on to discover the key to launching the perfect holiday marketing campaign.
What Are 12 Days of Christmas Marketing Campaigns?
When it comes to holiday advertising, there are many different ways to promote your brand and products. There are those who turn to holiday emails, others who dress up their social media profiles, and those who place ads in traditional media outlets.
In recent years, we’ve seen brands turn to the 12 Days of Christmas approach. Inspired by the well-known Christmas carol “12 Days of Christmas,” this strategy basically states that every day, for 12 consecutive days, you will feature a unique offer or deal, or even a personalized gift.
These discounts or special offers help you create buzz around your brand. Everyone will be waiting to see what comes next and take advantage of it. This allows you to attract and convert new customers and encourage repeat purchases.
In other words, the 12 days of Christmas approach allows you to connect with potential customers in a fun and engaging way, resulting in an increase in your sales. Remember, this is a time when almost every brand is fighting for their audience’s attention. To stand out and make it memorable, you need to fill the air with excitement, anticipation and build on the joy of giving.
How To Do a 12 Days of Christmas Campaign?
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the different steps you need to follow to design and implement a 12 Days of Christmas marketing campaign.
Set Your Festive Season Marketing Goals
First things first, 12 days of promotions does not mean 12 days of giveaways. You are not just giving things away for free or at a low cost just because it is the holidays. You are using this as a platform to accomplish something, what is that? Do you want to increase sales? Are you looking to clear out inventory? Do you want to increase foot traffic? Is your goal to increase your database subscribers? Do you want to increase your customer base?
As you can see, there are many different goals you can achieve with a campaign like this. Take the time to think carefully about what your team wants/needs to accomplish and make sure it aligns with your overall business goals.
Try to set your goals using the SMART approach. This will force you to think about the specifics of your campaign.
Plan Your 12 Days of Christmas
Now that you know that you’re going to be running your marketing efforts for 12 days and what you want to accomplish, it’s time to get your mind around stratifying. Plan what will happen each day of the 12 days of your campaign. Think about the deals, discounts, giveaways, and special bundles you can work with.
Create Christmas Content Calendar
You don’t want to leave anything unplanned. It will only cause problems or delays in your schedule. So get on your computer, sit down with your team and start determining what will happen each day.
We highly recommend that you start with something small (10% discount for example) and as you get closer to the 12th day increase what you are offering (buy one get one free or a higher discount).
Make sure your calendar includes information about which offer is tied to which day, how it will be communicated, through which channel, and at what time. The clearer and more consistent you are, the better your results will be.
You will also want to spend some time planning how each marketing channel will help generate buzz about your campaign. For example, TikTok and Instagram are perfect for sharing a daily video about the product or offer you are promoting. Instagram Stories is the perfect place to share user-generated content. YouTube is the ideal place to host a longer video recap of your 12 Days of Christmas marketing campaign. Social ads are a great way to reach a wider audience and increase awareness and sales.
Create a Landing Page Specific to this Christmas Promotion
Ask your web design and web development team to create a holiday-themed landing page to promote your special offers. People should be able to see the deal of the day and have the option to sign up and receive daily email notifications with the new deal. Be sure to include your physical store address, the link to your online store, and social media links so people can follow you there. You can even have a live feed of your posts.
Promote Your Campaign in Advance
Before your 12 Days of Christmas campaign begins, you need to create buzz around it. Use your social media channels, website, email marketing, and any other marketing channels you have to let people know this is coming.
For example, you can have a countdown on your website, posters in your store, buzz posts on social media. Use each channel to share the news, but also ask your followers what they would like to see as part of this special offer. You may find some great ideas that you had not thought of.
Start the 12 Days of Giveaways
Once you have reached the first day of your official campaign, you will want to make sure that you share the offers in a consistent way. You can do this by sticking to the same schedule each day, the same format, and the same social network.
An interesting way to do this is through short videos that can be shared as Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories, or TikToks. They help to grab users’ attention, clearly communicate your offer, and engage them through beautiful visuals. You should also have a special section on the homepage of your website with the deal of the day. The more places you have these announcements, the more people you can reach and convert.
Connect With Your Audience
As you run through the 12 days of holiday marketing, you need to look for different ways to keep your audience excited, engaged, and eager for the next deal. You can do this by soliciting and reposting user-generated content, offering special prizes to those who win short contests, live-streaming the announcement of key deals, and more.
When Should I Start with Holiday Advertising?
There is no specific day when you should start advertising for the holiday season. However, you should aim to have everything ready to launch by the end of August. Most people start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, and the highest peak is the week of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
With this in mind, you should note that your 12 Days of Christmas advertising campaign should run the 12 days leading up to Christmas Eve. Days when last minute shopping is done and people are looking for good deals and gifts. Build buzz around this special campaign from December 1st through December 24th. That way, people will know it is happening, get excited, and wait to buy from you.
12 Days of Christmas Marketing Ideas to Boost Your Sales
So far, we’ve shown you how to create your own 12 Days of Christmas campaign. Now let’s take a look at some ideas of how you can actually run it.
Christmas Social Media Giveaways
Depending on your goals, you may choose to go the giveaway route. Here you choose 12 products that can generate a lot of buzz among your target audience and give each one away for free for the 12 days.
It’s imperative that you clearly state the requirements to win each day. Make sure this information is included in each daily giveaway post so people understand what they need to do to enter. For example, brands ask participants to follow them on various social networks, like the giveaway post, and mention 3 friends. But be creative and align the terms of the giveaway with your marketing goals.
Daily Deals and Flash Sales
This is the perfect way to increase your sales. Every day for 12 days, announce a special deal or flash sale on your most popular products. To make it even more exciting, you can add an extra discount for early birds and include a countdown timer to let people know how much time is left for each sale.
Be sure to clearly state what product is on sale and for how long. You want to avoid confusion or angry customers.
One-Time Product Bundles
Pair products that naturally go together and offer them as part of your 12 Days of Christmas series. For example, if your business is dedicated to selling coffee, you can start Day 1 with a special offer on a set of coffee pods. Day after day, you will offer special deals on related products that make your coffee irresistible; it can be a set of cups, spoons, sweeteners, milk frothers, and even your coffee maker.
Use this as an opportunity to encourage customers to buy from you again and again.
Christmas Email Marketing Campaign
Leverage your database to engage users in a countdown to Christmas Eve. Use catchy subject lines and include hints about the deal of the day. Include quizzes, surveys or any form of interactive content to understand if people are interested in your offers and what they would like to see there.
Limited Edition Products
Use this Christmas campaign to launch limited edition products and encourage people to buy them. Not only does this help your brand connect with your audience, but it also creates a sense of FOMO in your customers that leads to excitement, engagement, and sales.
Continuing with the coffee example, you can create a special holiday flavored coffee for the season, a red coffee maker, a red milk frother, and even his and hers holiday coffee mugs. Be creative and think of different ways to use your current products to launch li
Photo and Comment Contests
Your Christmas campaign can be based on a photo and/or comment contest. Each day, you would ask your followers to share a photo of themselves using your products or a video explaining why they want a particular product to enter a contest to win it. On other days, you can simply ask them to write something in the comments section (it can be a joke, a story, a sweet memory, or anything else related to your brand). This way, you increase your engagement, get a lot of user-generated content, and create buzz around your brand.
Be creative and create a mix and match of actions that your followers must complete each day to enter your contests and win different products each day.
Best Christmas Marketing Campaigns to Get Inspired
To help you get in the Christmas spirit and get creative with your holiday marketing efforts, here are a few examples of what other companies have been doing. Keep in mind that these examples are not necessarily related to the 12 Days of Christmas campaigns, but are a great source of inspiration.
John Lewis
Every year, the John Lewis department store tugs at the heartstrings of thousands of people with its Christmas advertising. Through music and inspiring stories, the brand has been able to connect with its audience in an emotional way. 2024 is no exception.
This time, the brand explores the concept of how hard it can be to find the perfect gift if you don’t look in the right place.
The story is led by Sally, the protagonist, who enters John Lewis department store at the last minute to look for a gift. As she browses the dress racks, she takes a trip down memory lane and her relationship with her sister. We see pictures from when they were children, teenagers, young adults and more. But at one point, Sally makes her way back into the store with a perfectly wrapped gift in her hand. She meets her sister and gives her the gift.
Google Assistant
Back in 2018, Google was able to take us all down memory lane with its holiday ad. The brand remade the iconic Home Alone film, featuring Macaulay Caulkin using Google Assistant products to scare the burglars out of his house.
The campaign was one of the most viewed of 2018. The reason is simple: it connected with our inner child, it took us through memories of Christmas spent watching this movie, it made us connect with our traditions.
Macy’s
The department store is running a campaign like no other. They don’t advertise their brand or products. They are simply giving you the opportunity to use festive stationery, write and mail your letter to Santa. For every letter they receive, they will donate $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation.
This is a clear example of how not every Christmas campaign has to sell to be effective. Customers appreciate when brands go the extra mile to help everyone have a merry Christmas and enjoy a few moments away from their troubles. Since 2003, Macy’s has donated more than $142 million to help seriously ill children.
Key Takeaways
- 12 Days of Christmas Marketing Strategy: This strategy involves offering a unique deal or promotion each day for 12 consecutive days, building excitement and driving sales.
- Set Clear Goals: Before launching the campaign, define specific objectives like increasing sales, clearing inventory, or growing your customer base.
- Plan and Organise: Create a detailed content calendar outlining daily offers, communication channels, and timing to ensure smooth execution.
- Leverage Multiple Channels: Utilise various marketing channels like social media, email marketing, and website promotions to maximise reach and engagement.
- Connect with Your Audience: Foster interaction through contests, user-generated content, and live streams to build a stronger brand connection.
Conclusion
The key to a successful Christmas campaign is twofold: understanding who your target persona is and being able to connect with them on an emotional level. This can be achieved through the 12 Days of Christmas strategy or simply by creating the perfect holiday ads. Whichever way you choose, remember that it must be visually appealing, emotional, memorable and engaging. To achieve this, we strongly recommend working with a specialised advertising agency.
Remember, you can choose to create special products for the holidays, just as Starbucks does with its cups of coffee. You can launch a moving piece of advertising like John Lewis. Or you can launch a video to announce that Christmas has come, like Coca-Cola. This is your time to shine and capture the attention of potential customers, and with the 12 Days of Christmas marketing strategy, you can even convert them into returning customers.
