24 holiday marketing ideas for your business

It’s that wonderful time of the year when people are looking to purchase gifts and services for themselves and others! It’s key that you are positioned to take advantage of spending habits this holiday season. Below are 24 holiday marketing ideas you’re welcome to take and use for your business. They’re organized into different categories:

Restaurants: If you’re marketing for a food establishment, here 8 ideas you can use this holiday season.

• Offer a free fountain beverage to anyone who posts about your restaurant and tags your business on Instagram.

• Do a BOGO (buy one, get one free) sale for appetizers the week of Christmas.

• Create a holiday special that’s only available throughout the month of December.

• Set up an Instagram-worthy Christmas tree for customers to take pictures in front of to capture the holiday spirit.

• Donate $1 from every order of $10 or more to your favorite charity.

• Run a giving tree at your restaurant in collaboration with an orphanage or homeless shelter.

• Offer a 10% discount on catering for company Christmas parties from now until December 31, 2018.

• Add a little holiday cheer by serving a special Christmas-inspired beverage the week of Christmas.

Holiday specials are a great way to drive additional sales.

Salons and spas: There are quite a few ways to increase foot traffic and total sales during this festive time of year. Below are 7 ways to market your salon/spa.

• Discount select hair and makeup products to any client who brings in a can of food for the local food bank.

• Offer a free 10-minute head and neck massage to anyone who gets their nails done through the month of December.

• Give a goodie bag worth $15-20 of select products to any customers who spend $200 or more in a single visit.

• Promote gift cards on social media accounts as a great option for stocking stuffers and presents for co-workers.

• Sell BFF or “Mom and Daughter” self-care packages that are composed of any three of your services at a 10% discount until the end of 2018.

• Hold a giveaway on Instagram offering a free spa day or free eyelash extensions to the winner.

• Do a Facebook Live video sharing makeup tips twice a week.

Offering a free 10-minute massage to customers who come for other services such as manicures is a great way to increase sales.

Gyms and martial arts academies: Whether your business is a weightlifting gym or a karate school, these 4 tips can be tailored to your needs.

• Offer a special holiday discount on gear such as hand wraps and Gi’s.

• Make a large box available at the entrance so clients can participate in donating to a non-profit you choose to align with whether it’s a food bank or homeless shelter.

• Host an open mat where percentage of entry fee go towards a charity.

• Invite a black belt to teach a seminar with proceeds committed to scholarships for underprivileged youth.

Providing opportunities for people to experience a class is a great way to increase memberships.

E-commerce store for products: The holiday season is the perfect time of year for sales which you’ll get thanks to these 5 ideas.

• Set up a limited-time discount that runs until Christmas day.

• Work with influencers to distribute discount codes to build brand awareness and increase overall revenue.

• Run a giveaway on Instagram to spread the word about new products you’ve released.

• Announce holiday sales on email newsletter.

• Partner with a complimentary company for a holiday giveaway i.e. dog toys and dog treats, workout clothes and workout supplements

Instagram is a great platform for giveaways and gaining brand recognition.

Which holiday marketing ideas will you use for your business? Let us know in the comments below!

Small Business Organic and Paid Social Media Tips You Can't Ignore

Some of the best social media plans involve the implementation of both organic and paid social growth. Depending on your budget and time, you may focus on organic growth and engagement more than paid. Or you can choose to put your effort and resources behind paid social growth and engagement.

Social media is one of the best ways to build brand awareness and increase sales.

Regardless of what your actual game plan is, here are tips for both paid and organic growth:

Organic Growth—The bad news is platforms like Facebook are declining in organic reach. The good news is that there’s something you can do about it.

• Post consistently and stick to a schedule. Consumers are highly likely to visit the social accounts of businesses they’re interested in. They want to see active accounts. Do you have to be posting 24/7? No. If you only have time to post twice a week or three times a week then do it.

• Run giveaways. Giveaways and contests are one of the best ways to drive organic engagement and generate conversations around your brand. Don’t hesitate to run a giveaway once a month or every other week. You’ll be sure to see your reach increase.

• Repurpose and reuse content you’ve already created. Take your blog posts and turn the key points into infographics. You can even take the key points from blog posts and convert them into short, concise videos.

People love giveaways and contests on social media!

• Reply to the comments you receive. If someone took a moment to comment on a video you shared, take a moment to acknowledge them. Engaging with comments is a simple way to increase conversion rates and brand loyalty.

• Are customers posting pictures and videos of their experiences with your brand? Ask them if you can re-share their content. Customer content is an effective way to showcase what you have to offer whether it’s a product or a service.

• Use Facebook Live to your advantage. Facebook ranks live video higher in the News Feed compared to other types of content.

Paid Growth—Depending on your goals and your budget, paid social media growth can be a great way to increase purchases and foot traffic. With practice and research, paid social media growth doesn’t have to be scary or feel risky.

• Always identify your objectives. Don’t throw money at a social platform when you don’t have a clear goal in mind. Your goal can be different with each ad whether it’s simply getting more likes or driving more people to your website.

• Put ad spend behind well-performing content. If you have a blog post or video that’s getting more likes and shares than other content you’ve recently shared, put some dollars behind it. You’ll easily multiply your reach and increase brand exposure.

• Know which platform is the best for your ideal customer and the type of content you are sharing before committing ad spend. Depending on your ideal customer, Twitter may be a better choice for your ad campaign. Or it could be Pinterest or Instagram. Do your research and know your customer.

• Sponsor posts that share informative content. When you have content that answers the questions of clients, you’re more likely to get a return on your investment.

Drive sales with targeted social media ads.

• Be patient with your social ads. This is key especially if you’re new to paid social growth. You may not get the results you’re expecting with the first ad campaign you run or the first video you boost on Facebook. Keep experimenting and keep tweaking your ads until they give you a positive ROI.

• Remember to optimize your ads for mobile. More and more people are engaging with brands on their smartphones. It’s in your best interest to design copy, images, and videos to look good on mobile.

• Stick to your brand. Your paid posts should blend seamlessly with your organic posts. Ads should be consistent with your brand as a whole and give your followers the best experience possible.

Social media marketing doesn’t need to be stressful or scary. If you have any questions about organic and paid social growth, email Josh at josh@jamiascreative.com!

4 Ways to Drive Traffic on Facebook on a Low Budget

Having a small marketing budget may seem discouraging when it comes to trying to earn attention on Facebook. Facebook’s algorithm changes over the last few years have made it more difficult to gain exposure by only posting on your business page. Depending on the number of likes and followers, you may only be getting 1–2 likes per post. You may be tempted to ditch Facebook all together.

Time spent on Facebook per user per day: 20+ minutes

Don’t do it. Don’t ditch Facebook. These statistics should help you understand the opportunities available.

• Facebook monthly active users: 2.2 billion

• Facebook daily active users: 1.47 billion

• Percentage of US adults over age 50 that use Facebook: 50%

• Percentage of US adults aged 25–49 that use Facebook: 80%

• Share of US Internet users, aged 14–17 that use Facebook: 65%

• Percentage of millennials (15–34 year-olds) that use Facebook: 91%

• Time spent on Facebook per user per day: 20+ minutes

• Percentage of active Facebook users that visit it multiple times a day: 51%

Tapping into Facebook gives you access to more customers.

Facebook still has the attention of many people around the world. This is especially key if you’re an e-commerce business. You can’t ignore the opportunities it presents. That being said, here are four ways you can drive traffic on Facebook on a low budget:

Stick to a schedule: Human beings love and find comfort in predictability. One of the ways to do that for both current customers and potential customers is to stick to a content schedule. You can do this by creating a content calendar with a layout of the posts you plan to share on Facebook. Each post shared needs to have a purpose. This purpose can be anything from encouraging followers to sharing a video as a way to enter a giveaway to notifying followers of a limited time offer.

Sticking to a schedule will help you be consistent.

After you’ve determined what types of posts you will share, schedule each post on Facebook using the Facebook scheduling tool. Using this simple tool will allow you to auto-publish content throughout the week which will save you time.

If you’re wondering how often you post, the question you should ask yourself is, “How much time am I willing to put in?” We recommend posting three times a week whether it’s Monday/Wednesday/Friday or Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday. Remember that the key is sustainability. Don’t do more than you’re actually willing to do. It’ll lead to burnout and frustration.

Experiment with $5 to $10: Just because you don’t have a $1,000,000 budget doesn’t mean you can use Facebook Ads. One of the best things about Facebook for businesses is how easy it is to set up and run an ad. Putting ad spend behind a Facebook post is called “boosting.” When you boost a post, you set the budget and duration of time the ad will run. You can put ad spend behind any post you’ve created from videos to a photo album. The minimum ad spend required is $1/day.

For as little as a $1/day, you can advertise on Facebook.

Depending on your goals, you can boost posts with the main goal of getting more likes and comments. You can also boost posts that are focused purely on getting Facebook users to click on a website link you’ve shared.

Facebook Live videos: Facebook puts priority on Facebook Live videos. Say your normal reach per post, is 15 people or 100 people. A Facebook Live video will often get a multiple of your usual numbers. This can mean the amount of people reached can go from 15 to 200 or 100 to 600. We know this because it worked for our Facebook pages.

Are you not sure what to talk about on Facebook Live? Here are a few topics you can tailor to your own business:

• 3 ways to create the perfect winter outfit with [insert you products here].

• How to save time and money to doing these three things

• Here’s a sneak peek at our winter catalog

Your Facebook Live videos don’t need to be long. They can be as short as 60 seconds if that is what works best for you. Keep the video moving and focus on creating value for your customers.

Create a Facebook Group: Do you have a Facebook Group for your fans to hang out? Creating a Facebook Group is an effective way to build a community around your brand. Facebook tends to reward group activity with better organic reach than business pages will receive at times. You’ll provide an environment for your customers and clients to share and exchange ideas and help each other provide solutions to the problems they’re dealing with. You will also be able to stay on top of the latest trends and conversational topics in your industry.

Invest in your brand’s community with a Facebook group.

For more on Facebook groups, visit this link for more on how to run a Facebook group.

Now that you know how to drive traffic from Facebook on a low budget, start implementing these tips. You’ll be able to benefit from Facebook’s massive user base and achieve your business goals!