How to Market Your Business During the Holiday Season

Promoting sales and offers during the holiday season is tempting for many business owners. We know consumers are looking for deals, and are prepared to spend. But as a service provider, we caution you from falling for the “sales season” trap! We talk about this more in our last blog. 

However, whether or not you offer a sale, you still have to find a way to cut through the holiday noise and continue to effectively market your business. Since so many businesses are leveraging the holiday season to promote their products and services, it makes it harder for your business to stand out from the endless content, ads, and promotions. 

This blog will provide you with marketing tips for making your business stand out from the rest during the loudest marketing months of the year. While all of these strategies can be used throughout the year, it’s especially important to keep them in mind during the holiday season so you have the best chance of connecting with your ideal clients.

Align Your Marketing Efforts With Your Brand Mission 

First and foremost, it’s critical that you stay authentic to the mission and goals of your brand. The idea is to demonstrate your business purpose to your audience and show how you consistently work to fulfill it. 

When your business follows through with your vision and delivers what you promise your clients, you’re steadily building trust with your audience. By cultivating this trust, you’ll be able to nurture client relationships and encourage them to continue to engage with your business. Once your audience knows that you uphold your brand values, you’ll be able to collect social proof–like reviews and testimonials–to help promote your brand.

Tailor Your Marketing To Your Audience

You should always focus on marketing to a specific audience, but it’s especially important to narrow in on your niche during the holiday season. Your messaging strategy needs to be on point more than usual to make sure you’re connecting with your target clients. There’s no benefit to spending energy trying to appeal to a larger audience during this time of year.

Double down on your strategy to target your specific audience rather than casting a wide net. Ask yourself where you can offer the most value to your clients, and what type of audience is most in need of these services. 

• What specific pain points do they have? 
• How do your offers help them? 
• Why would they choose to work with you instead of someone else? 

When you narrow down your audience, you can focus on targeting groups that have real potential to become clients, instead of people who might be only vaguely interested in your brand. 

Once you zero in on who you’re targeting, it’s a good idea to frequently and consistently create marketing content that appeals to these ideal clients. During the holidays, a larger volume of marketing content can help you grab – and keep – the attention of your audience. This time of year, you’re not just battling marketing noise but things like family obligations, holiday parties, and end of year tasks. You’ll need to be persistent to see results.

Add A Personal Element

Marketing that appeals to your target audience on a personal level can help engage your audience and keep them interested in your business. Be creative in the way you present your message. After all, you want your business to stand out!

Try to speak to your audience as if you were speaking to each client personally, one on one. One option for adding a personal element is to create content based on personal experiences or past client experiences to show what you offer and why. 

Infuse Your Messaging With Emotion

People tend to be more nostalgic around the holiday season, which means you can resonate more with your audience by tying proper emotions into your messaging. Use emotion to your advantage by diving into the why behind your brand, telling humorous anecdotes, and sharing impactful images. Lean into the feelings of how your past clients have felt after working with you to inspire others to work with you as well.

Establish Your Priorities 

It takes a lot of work to cut through the holiday noise. If you’d rather spend the end of the year connecting with family, setting next year’s goals, and relaxing from a busy year, you’re not necessarily making a bad business decision! Don’t feel like you have to promote your business during the end of year rush just because everyone else is. Your marketing efforts should feel aligned with your goals, life priorities, and emotional needs. 

If you do decide that holiday season marketing feels right for you, we offer customized marketing strategies to give your business the foundation it needs for future growth, and we’d love to help you create an action plan for success! If you’re looking for clarity and direction during this season, reach out and let’s start the conversation. We offer customized marketing strategies to give your business the foundation it needs for future growth, and we’d love to help you create an action plan for success!