How to Build an Effective Holiday Influencer Campaign

October 30, 2020

It’s also the best time of year for your business to maximize holiday season sales. The “Holiday Shopping Season” arrives early this year with Prime Day on October 13th, so if you’re only reading this now – it’s time to prepare to sleigh your 2020 holiday campaigns!

We prepared 5 ways to prepare for an effective holiday influencer campaign.

But first, let’s unwrap some stats

Over the Christmas period:

  •      61% of adults will purchase clothing and accessories.
  •      30% will purchase electronics.
  •      20% of buyers will give cash or a gift card.
  •      Men spend on average $725
  •      Women spend on average: $600
  •      46% of Christmas shopping is done online.

5 ways to prepare for an effective holiday influencer campaign:

1. Plan

A campaign without planning is like a sleigh without reindeer, it just won’t go anywhere. Planning is essential for success. Pull your marketing team together and develop your holiday marketing plan, setting SMART goals that are clearly defined and can be measured.

Specific: Don’t fall into the trap of using “increase sales over the holiday period” as your goal. Your goal/s need to be clear and specific. For example: between October 31st and December 20th, we need to drive 5,000 unique visitors to our website and convert a minimum of 25% of those visitors with an average sales value of $45.

Measurable: Your goals need to be measurable. The above is a good example of this. You’ll also need the technology to measure your goals and maximize your opportunities. Make sure you have Google Analytics installed on your website and that you’re making the most of the Facebook pixel for retargeting customers.

Attainable: While there’s nothing wrong with a ‘blue sky’ number, you’ll need to be realistic with finish line numbers. Steps to reach these goals also need to be attainable. You don’t want to create any unnecessary hurdles. Only Santa can deliver gifts to people with no chimneys.

Relevant: This is particularly important when it comes to influencer campaigns. Your goals need to be relevant and you need to steer clear of vanity metrics. One million likes might sound and look great, but is this the best metric to measure the success of your campaign? Start with setting goals for sales and work backward, laying out exactly what needs to happen before someone makes a purchase.

Timely: Ground your goals within a timeframe. When will your campaign run? How long will it run for? What tasks do you need to complete to launch and run your campaign and how long will each task take?

Tip: Include your goals and the influencer’s deliverables in a contract so that they are 100% clear on what is expected of them, by when.

2. Shop around for the right influencers

When you know what you want to achieve, start shopping for influencers that will tell your brand story and ignite excitement for your product and/or service. There are loads of online platforms that connect you with influencers. Consider partnering with an agency, like adQuadrant, who offers stellar expertise in helping you source and partner with authentic influencers who are seeking long-term relationships with brands.  

Research and select influencers that not only have a large following but also have high engagement with authentic responses to their followers’ comments. Assess the authenticity of their content – people want authentic content – and assess their ability to tell a compelling story. Storytelling is a powerful tool for brands over the festive season.

Of course, you’ll need to make sure that your influencer has access to the audience that you want to reach. Don’t be shy to request stats from your influencer.

Tip: Choose an influencer that will not only have the most impact but that is also in line with your brand values. For example: If you sell ethical make-up, make sure your influencer hasn’t done campaigns for unethical makeup products.

3. Get creative!

There are hundreds of thousands of businesses vying for people’s attention over the holidays. How is your campaign going to be different? Even Santa gets tired of drinking milk, be the one who offers him a beer! What guidelines are you going to give to your influencer to stand out from the crowd? Be clever, be bold, be different. How will your campaign get people talking, commenting and converting?

Here are 5 calls to actions typically used in influencer campaigns:

  • Coupons and discounts: Supply your influencer with discount codes to share with their followers (the easiest and most effective call to action in the book.)
  • Samples: Offer free samples to followers to trial the product before they buy.
  • Competitions: Run a competition to gain engagement and build awareness (this strategy doesn’t always get people buying, but it gets your brand and product in front of people to consider.)
  • Opt-ins: If one of your SMART goals is to grow your database, you might ask your influencer to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Once they’ve signed up, you can activate a nurture sequence offering them ‘limited time’ offers or discount codes.
  • Call-to-actions to visit social channels or your website: A simple call to action to visit your online store or social channels for more information or to access the special offer.
4.  Millennial tactics

Maximize on millennials! According to a recent report published by PWC, millennials drove Christmas spending YoY. How will your campaign appeal to the millennials? Millennials are environmentally conscious, they embrace technology (and are willing to spend money on it), they crave meaningful experiences and desire authenticity. Millennials also value education on how a product works and how it can improve their lives. They are ‘doers’ and are willing to take action if you give them a good reason to. Bear these things in mind when building out your influencer campaign.

5. Incentivize

Supplement your compelling pitch with incentives influencers can access before, during and after the campaign. Think of your pitch as the tree and incentives are the bright and shining star on perched on top!

  • A unique and mind-blowing experience during the campaign.
  • Merchandise instead of or in addition to cash.
  • Monthly promo codes after the campaign ends.
  • Exclusive offers or early access to new products.