While hearing Mariah Carey everywhere right after Halloween might be slightly annoying (to put it mildly), a longer Christmas season is actually a good thing. See, the longer it is, the less rush for gifts, more time to schedule all the parties, and even more time to get into a festive mood. So, despite the awfully hackneyed Christmas music blaring in malls, grocery shops, and even gas stations, a prolonged period might actually bring back the joy of the consumer-driven festivities.
If you look at it from a business perspective, things get even better: there’s more time to figure out your strategies, stretch an influencer campaign for a longer period, and reap double (if not triple) the benefits. And if this is going to be your very first season of influencer collaborations and promotions, we might have the help you need – a short and comprehensive guide on strategizing your Christmas campaigns.
To begin with, we should once again tell you just why you should be thinking about
Influencer Marketing For Christmas Campaigns
While loads of Christmas sales (about 49% to be exact) happen during Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, there’s still that 51% percent to be fought for. This, naturally, suggests that the winter holiday shopping season is part turmoil, part fierce competition for businesses to drive sales and be the ones on the top of their customers’ minds.
And while influencer marketing is nothing new or jaw-droppingly memorable from an audience’s perspective, 90% of marketers are hands down for its effectiveness. Let’s rewind a bit to the ‘nothing new’ part – all we mean is that this is a tried and tested way to promote your business and drive sales, but you can always make it as exciting as you’d like. And if you’re interested in seeing some examples of stellar Christmas influencer campaigns, check our blog space for an article dedicated to just that!
Anyway, let’s go back to the point where – the importance of influencer marketing over the winter holidays season. From micro- to nano-influencer and megastars of the social media world, there’s always the right influencer for your goals. And with plenty of them to choose from, you will surely find the ones that just click with your brand values and vision of the perfect campaign. However, you might want to consider micro-influencer first instead of opting out for the most-followed people on social media platforms. Here’s why:
Micro-Influencers And Their Incredible Engagement Rates
We did a whole article on why sometimes collaborations with micro-influencers work better, but here’s a reminder – the number of subscribers is not necessarily a determinant of success.
Why so?
Well, in the case of micro-influencers, their smaller congregations of followers are often more engaged than those of influencer megastars.
Why so?
Smaller influencers are often representatives of a very small niche, meaning that their followers are united by their interests and often form a tightly-knit community.
And what happens when an influencer has this loyal following? They become key opinion leaders. And if mouth-to-mouth recommendations still work like a charm these days, then getting a recommendation from a person you really trust (i.e., a micro-influencer) definitely influences purchases.
If you’re curious about the numbers, here’s one – micro-influencers have an average engagement rate of around 17.98% on TikTok compared to macro’s 6.2%. Impressive, right? Even big brands like the legendary Hugo Boss know the perks of collaborating with micro-influencers, and they did so in 2020 for their #MerryBOSSmas campaign, which has been viewed over 4 billion times since. And that’s just one example!
While all influencers do an exceptionally good job of putting your brand’s name out there, these niche ones are more likely to make a lasting impression on their audiences. Worth considering, right? And you’re probably thinking about the next step here, which is:
How To Properly Execute a Collaboration With A Micro-Influencer
Easy – treat them as your premium customers! That is, target influencers already interested in your industry, have common values with your brand, and, most importantly, have an audience whose interests have common ground with your products.
Now, when you’ve discerned the influencer you’d want to collaborate with, you could contact them via their social media accounts, or you could leave it for the Agenic platform. Either automatic messaging or live chat, it is much easier when everything is in one place. Less chaos, one might even say.
Once the contact has been made, remember that these micro-influencers truly know their audience’s likes, dislikes, and the best way to approach them, so trust your creator with campaign ideas. They are liked because of who they are and how they communicate, after all, and if you want your promotion to have that coveted organic vibe, leave some space for creativity in your campaign brief.
This brings us to the next step, which is the possible structure of your collaboration. Here’s one excellent idea:
Advent Calendar
No, not the chocolate kind, but rather one where the main stars are influencers. And chocolate or the influencer-kind, an Advent calendar is no good without gifts. So, for launching your own digital Advent calendar, you’d need to think of giveaways and collaborating with several influencers to best reach your target audience and/or niche groups. This calendar system has many advantages, but it works best in promoting your bestsellers, rewarding your community for their loyalty, and generating loads of engagement (like, share, comment, etc., to be eligible for a prize).
Take, for instance, this campaign by La Redoute, which they launched on TikTok a couple of years ago. In it, they collaborated with influencers and gave away a pair of sneakers each day from December 1st to the 24th. La Redoute also did not forget the importance of assigning a special hashtag to the case (in this instance, it was #laredoutexmas) that helps gain visibility. And visible, they got – over a million views of the hashtag! So, considerable gains in visibility on the platform and also among the Gen-Z audience.
Of course, your Advent calendar doesn’t necessarily have to be as big as a pair of sneakers each day; smaller gifts also work just fine as long as they cater to the interest of your audience.
The Promo Code
Okay, you’ve probably already used this trick at least once before, but during the holiday season, it’s a real lever to boost your sales. See, it’s really easy for your influencers to communicate to their audiences when they have a personal promo code, and when it has that personal touch, it is so much more appealing to the followers. Besides increasing the flow to your website, a promo code is also a pretty cool KPI to quantify the purchases made via it. So, don’t dismiss a promotional code just because it has been done before; it just means that it works!
Christmas Contests
Not up for an Advent calendar? Then a festive contest catered to your target audience’s interests might be your next best bet. Make the rules easy to follow and the conditions as simple as liking your post, commenting by inviting their friends, sharing the content piece, or something similarly easy to achieve. We probably do not need to tell you that this approach significantly stimulates engagement rate, right? First, however, find out which content pieces – posts, stories, reels, or whatever else – resonate the most with your influencer’s audience. This is one of the key aspects of your contest becoming viral and pushing the maximum possible reach. And when it does, be prepared for a whole slew of new followers and subscribers.
Co-branding: A Match Made In Holiday Heaven
Co-branding, a combination of two brands from different sectors, can be a match made in heaven and the answer to every Christmas gift seeker’s headaches. A unique offer composed of products from each brand is always a definite win-win situation, gaining visibility and driving sales for both. Now, merge this with influencer marketing, and you have yourself a bomb. Indeed, this creation constitutes an exceptional endowment for influencers and an appealing prize to be won in a contest for the audiences. Find a friendly business, plan your co-branding event carefully, trust your creator, and enjoy the success of your one-of-a-kind gift pack.
Christmas Wishlist
The wishlist is one of those tried-and-tested promotion means that will most likely never go out of fashion. And the reason for it is truly very simple – it gives excellent gift ideas. And once you trust the influencer you are following, their ideas of the perfect stocking stuffers might be as compelling as the ones you come up with yourself. Indeed, a whole wishlist of your products or just inclusion into an influencer’s own might be big on visibility and sales drive, especially if combined with a promotional code. So, do not hesitate to supplement your strategy with it – you can never go wrong.
Although the holiday season presents fierce competition among brands, you can always find your place by collaborating with the right influencers. Plan it as early as possible, trust your influencer with the creative part of the brief and enjoy the season!
