Easy-to-Create Digital Marketing Campaigns for Black Friday and Christmas

Are you someone who says, “No Christmas before Thanksgiving,” or the opposite, blasting holiday music while decorating your home even though the pumpkins are still on the stoop? Either way, there is no denying it: The holidays are here! So for the super planners, and the last-minute folks alike, here are three digital marketing campaigns for Black Friday and Christmas. We promise they're ideas that'll help get you and your customers in the holiday spirit.Don’t think three ideas are enough? Me neither! That’s why I’ve thrown in three bonus ShortStack template suggestions, perfect for both Black Friday and Christmas marketing.

Brown & Haley’s “VIP Nutcracker Experience” Sweepstakes

Traditions are important for most people during the holiday season. Brown & Haley, makers of Almond Roca, know this very well. They created a contest to combine two holiday favorites, Almond Roca and The Nutcracker ballet. Folks can enter to win one of three prizes: an Almond Roca prize pack or one of two Nutcracker experiences. Plus, to get their Facebook fans excited, Brown & Haley are running a daily giveaway contest on their Facebook Page. Digital marketing campaigns like this contest are simple and effective ways to build an email marketing list.IDEA: Use our Marketing Automation feature to send an email autoresponder which includes a discount on your product. This is a great way to make sure folks submit a legitimate email address.

vouchercloud’s “Get Extra With vouchercloud” Black Friday 2017 Campaign

Black Friday....one of the biggest shopping days of the year is approaching fast. If you’re a retailer, it’s important to keep your customers informed about your big Black Friday sales. Vouchercloud, an app that aggregates digital coupons, created a campaign with a full two weeks of Black Friday events, including contests and special discounts. To help people stay informed about special deals, vouchercloud included a newsletter sign-up form on their campaign. This allows vouchercloud to deliver daily deals straight to their customers’ inboxes. Their campaign also contains a couple of cues to convey urgency to their customers. First, there is a countdown at the top of the campaign signaling the limited time available to snatch up the offers. Second, vouchercloud includes a calendar/agenda outlining important days during the Black Friday event. These techniques come in handy, because they urge people to take action.

Norwalk Town Square’s Gingerbread Train Contest

Family-friendly activities are a great way to grab the attention of kids and their parents during the holidays. Norwalk Town Square’s gingerbread train decorating contest is a great idea. Parents need to submit their contact information in order to pick up a free gingerbread train set, head to Norwalk Town Square to pick up that set, then return to the center to drop off their family’s creation. This allows Norwalk Town Square to collect contact info for future marketing purposes, and gets parents and kids to the center at least twice during the busy holiday season -- a smart way to encourage a bit of shopping!You could mimic a contest like this in your store. For example, you could require people to submit a photo they took with a holiday-themed object at your store -- a wall of Christmas sweaters, a candy cane tower, Santa and his helpers, whatever -- in order to be eligible to enter a photo contest.

Bonus! Holiday Template Suggestions

And now, for the bonus round! While all of our templates can be updated to fit your Christmas or Black Friday needs, the following templates are some of my favorites for creating digital marketing campaigns around the holidays.

Win Your Wishlist Template

With our Win Your Wishlist template, folks create a wishlist by choosing from products you provide. Their wishlists are then displayed on the campaign. At the end of the submission period one (or more) lucky winner will win the items on their wishlist. Start your own Wishlist.

How to use it for Christmas marketing

Encourage people to share their wishlists with their friends and family! I suggest setting up an Email Autoresponder after form submission and including the entrant's wishlist in the email. This way they can easily share the wishlist via email. Be sure to include a link to the campaign and a link to your website in the email to make it easier for folks to make their purchases.

Multi-Day Giveaway Calendar Template

Our Multi-Day Giveaway Calendar allows you to create a single campaign with different giveaways that unlock each day. These campaigns are a nifty tool for building email marketing lists and encouraging repeat engagement with your brand. Start your own Multi-Day Giveaway Calendar

How to use it for Black Friday marketing

Most folks think a multi-day giveaway calendar, or advent calendar, is just for Christmas. However, you can use it for any holiday! I think they are perfect for Black Friday. You can set up giveaways each day until Black Friday, all the while reminding folks about your Black Friday sales events. Be sure to send an email to all of the entrants the day before Black Friday so they don’t forget to stop by your store (or website) while they’re out scoring deals.

Recipe Contest

A recipe contest is an awesome mechanism for generating some UGC. People simply submit their recipes to the contest, and rally their friends and family to vote for their entry. The entry with the most votes wins, unless you’d rather do a taste test ;-). Start your own Recipe Contest

How to use it for Christmas marketing

Ask entrants to get a bit sentimental and submit their favorite cookie recipe or Christmas-day dish. Along with the recipe, encourage people to submit a photo of the dish, or take it to the next level and require folks to submit a selfie of themselves while preparing their recipe.Still looking for more inspiration? Check out our blog posts 10 Creative Black Friday Marketing Ideas or Holiday Marketing Ideas 2017: 14 Examples for Black Friday & Christmas.

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