Seasonal angles can be powerful tools for businesses to use in both social media marketing and public relations pitch strategies. For the month of December, the holiday season represents an excellent opportunity to get your brand more exposure. Here are a few things to consider when planning your media pitch angles and social marketing activities for the final few weeks of the year.
- Offers and sales– The weeks leading up to Christmas are an excellent window to showcase special time-limited offers on your products or services, whether that’s a straightforward price reduction, two-for-one offers or free shipping. You may even want to go further and have a different deal or offer each day in the period leading up to Christmas – this can have the benefit of boosting traffic to your website as customers check back each day to discover the newest offer.
- Competitions and giveaways– The holiday period is all about giving, and December can be a great time to build brand visibility by running contests and giveaways where people can win free products or services. Competitions can be a really good way of driving engagement on social media, and can also be an excellent hook for a public relations pitch.
- Charity and social outreach– For many people, the holiday period is also a time for helping out those less fortunate. Research has shown overwhelmingly that consumers today react positively to brands that do good work and engage in social outreach programs. Consider how your business might be able to work with either a local, national or global charity, or alternatively commit to donating a percentage of your business’s holiday sales proceeds to a worthy cause. This type of endeavor makes for a really positive media pitch, and can also be a great way of showing the public the human faces – and hearts – that lie behind your brand.
- Festive fun– Too many businesses are guilty of having a brand image that leans firmly toward the serious rather than the fun. In some cases, that’s perfectly understandable – but the holiday season is the perfect opportunity to show the fun side of your company and its employees. Use live video, Instagram and Facebook stories to invite your customers behind the corporate façade and show the people that make up your team as they prepare for the season.
- Deck the halls– If your business has a physical retail location, such as a shop, restaurant or café, then it’s virtually certain you will decorate it for the holiday season. Your online presence should be no different. Update your website, as well as the profile image and banners on your social media channels, with appropriately festive photographs or graphics that also reinforce your brand image or showcase your products.
The holiday season can be an important time of year when it comes to marketing and promotion of brands – a time when it’s vital to get it right. Hopefully, this list gives you something to think about when planning your social media marketing and public relations pitch ideas over the coming weeks.
