Start Your Holiday Interactive Marketing Campaigns NOW: 7 ideas

I got my first Halloween email today so you know what that means! Even though it's still back-to-school "season" it's time to get your holiday marketing plans in gear.Don't hate us.The fact of the matter is, if November and December are months when you do a good chunk of business, you can't afford to put off planning your holiday marketing campaigns. It's time to get a plan in motion, today. Not next month, not even next week.We've written posts about Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and we've even written about special shopping days like Giving Tuesday and Super Saturday, so rather than do another version of those, in this post I'm going to share with you a few other interactive marketing campaign ideas you can get going on now, and show you examples from other ShortStack users.

Create interactive customer experiences

If anyone had told you seven or eight years ago that people would be shopping for your products from their phones, you'd have laughed at them. The iPhone was still a toddler and mobile experiences in general were iffy at best.But today is a different story.In fact, given that 58 percent of customers start searching for products and services online  and then complete their purchase in store, it's essential to find ways to reach customers long before they reach for their credit cards. We know shoppers look at reviews, compare prices, and event peruse social media before making purchases. So if information about your company isn't available everywhere, it might as well be available nowhere.Using interactive marketing campaigns, like quizzes, can go a long way toward getting your customers engaged with your brand during the timeframe they're thinking about purchases. Interactive experiences also give you the opportunity to learn more about what your customers' preferences are, and then address them in a way that lets them know you recognize what their wants and needs are.

Speedway "What is your favorite holiday tradition?" Giveway

This was build with ShortStack's Giveaway + Thank You templateWhat Speedway did right: Speedway offered customers who shared their favorite holiday tradition via a short form, the chance to win a giftcard.One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: Speedway could have enabled ShortStack's Refer-a-Friend feature and awarded extra chances to win to anyone who shared the giveaway.

Encourage users to share by incentivizing with points.

Teletext Holidays "Pack Your Perfect Holiday" Giveaway

Built with ShortStack's Giveaway templateWhat Teletext did right: Teletext Holidays, a British travel company, hosted a clever campaign in which they asked people to guess a destination based on what was "packed" in a photograph of a suitcase.  People had to look at Teletext Holidays list of destinations in order to determine the location of the prize package, encouraging folks to spend some time on the company's website.One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: Teletext Holidays could have included a couple more form fields and learned much more about the people who participated in their giveaway. While it's a best practice to ask for only the information a brand needs for a contest, in this case, Teletext Holidays could have learned, for example, about a destination people wished they'd add to their offerings. Or they could have learned people's favorite month to travel and then used that information to expand offerings during that time frame.

Use an extra field to collect information that will help you market to individual tastes and needs

Mesa Alarms Pet Photo UGC

Built with ShortStack's Photo Contest templateWhat Mesa Alarms did right: Mesa Alarms took advantage of people's love of their pets -- and their love of showing off photos of their pets! For this contest, Mesa Alarms was able to collect lots of cute user-generated content and the company's prize -- a Nest security camera -- makes perfect sense for this company. One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: Mesa Alarms could have used ShortStack's email features to send an autoresponder to confirm entry. After that, Mesa Alarms could also have sent a follow-up email reminding people to share their entry, and then sent a scheduled email after the holidays with a special "New Year" offer.

Stay connected with your participants during and after your campaign

Delight prospective customers with creative holiday giveaways

Mati Healthy Energy's "Healthy Holiday Photo Challenge"

Built with ShortStack's Giveaway Calendar template What Mati Healthy Energy did right: Mati ran a "12 Days of Christmas" style giveaway featuring ShortStack's most popular holiday template. For this giveaway, Mati asked people to share a photo that corresponded with that particular day's theme. For example: "Share a photo of your favorite healthy activity," "Share a throwback holiday photo," and "Share a photo that shows what motivates you." Each day for 12 days, people were encouraged to check back and share a new photo.One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: Mati Health Energy could have embedded their giveaway on their website and blog to capture even more attention. The more places a campaign is published and promoted, the more attention it gets.

Embed your campaign directly onto your website

Costello Real Estate and Investments "Google Home for the Holidays"

Costello Real Estate and Investments chose a prize that aligns well with their business What Costello Real Estate and Investments did right: Costello enabled ShortStack's autoresponder email feature and sent entrants a confirmation email that both confirmed entry and encouraged participants to share a unique entry link in order to earn more chances to win. Costello allowed people to enter once a day so they email also encouraged people to visit the campaign more than once.One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: By asking people to "Like us on Facebook" as step 1 for entry, Costello potentially turned people away from their giveaway. Instead, they could have used ShortStack's embedding feature to promote the campaign on their own website and in their email newsletter and in agent email signatures.

Promote your campaign on your website

Build loyalty during the holiday and beyond

Advance Auto Parts Gift Card Giveaway

Built with ShortStack's Giveaway + Thank You templateWhat Advance Auto Parts did right: They had a very focused campaign with an "urgent" deadline. People had just one day to enter. One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: Since Advance Auto Parts collected an email address as part of the entry process, they could have used ShortStack's email features to send an autoresponder confirmation and included a special offer or discount coupon to all the folks who didn't win.

Use an autoresponder to reward aprticipant's with a discount and boost sales

French Press Coffee House's "Buy One, Get One" Campaign

Built with ShortStack's Exclusive Discount template What French Press Coffee House did right: French Press Coffee House did everything right with this campaign. The photography and design are top notch, and the headline makes very clear what people are signing up for. By adding the "reveal discount" feature, they're giving people immediate gratification and motivation to make a purchase. French Press Coffee House is also collecting information they can use for future marketing.One more thing they could have done with ShortStack: For a future campaign they could use our Quiz template to build a "What Kind of Coffee Drinker Are You" quiz and  learn more about their customers' preferences while still collecting valuable leads.

Create your first contest now

Get Started Today. It’s free and we don’t need your credit card.