14 Festive Season Marketing Strategies to Increase Sales

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The holiday season is like the Super Bowl for ecommerce businesses. It’s that time of year when customers are in the mood to spend, and if you play your cards right, your online sales can skyrocket.

But how do you cut through the noise and grab your slice of the festive pie?

One way is by implementing creative holiday marketing ideas that resonate with shoppers and stand out from the competition.

In this article, we’ll share 14 proven holiday marketing strategies that will help unlock the secrets to boosting your sales during the holiday rush.

Let’s get started!

What is festive marketing?

Festive marketing (also known as holiday marketing) involves crafting marketing campaigns that tap into the holiday spirit.

It’s about leveraging the excitement of the holiday shopping season to connect with customers on an emotional level, encouraging them to purchase your products as gifts, treats, or simply as part of their celebrations.

From Black Friday to New Year’s Eve, each holiday offers unique opportunities to engage with your audience.

Why the festive season is important in ecommerce?

For ecommerce, the festive season is the most critical time of the year. It’s when people are not just willing but eager to spend.

Consumers are hunting for the perfect gift for their loved ones, looking for deals, and indulging in holiday cheer, which makes them more receptive to marketing messages.

This period can make or break your annual sales targets, with many businesses earning up to 30-40% of their yearly revenue during the holiday shopping season.

How to increase sales during the holiday season: 14 proven tips

So, how do you capitalize on this festive frenzy?

Here are 14 proven holiday marketing strategies to boost your sales and make the most of the busy holiday season.

1. Build an email list before the holiday season

One of the most effective ways to ensure a successful holiday season is by building your email (or SMS) list well in advance. The reason? Your email list is a direct line to potential customers who have already shown interest in your brand.

When the holiday rush begins, having this list means you can reach out to them with personalized offers, exclusive deals, and festive content that drives them to your store. This is a crucial part of a successful holiday marketing campaign.

To encourage sign-ups, you need to provide something of value in return. This could be a helpful guide, a discount on their first purchase, or even early access to your holiday sales.

Popups, when used strategically, can significantly boost your sign-ups. Take a cue from Obvi, a brand that effectively used a popup to build their SMS list before the holiday season. They offered an irresistible incentive—be the first to know about their Black Friday deals.

Obvi preparing for holiday marketing strategy with a list building popup

To get started, here are some templates you can use to build your email list:

2. Add a festive theme to your online store

One of the easiest ways to get your customers in the holiday shopping spirit is by giving your online store a festive makeover. The visual appeal of your website plays a significant role in influencing customer behavior, and a holiday-themed design can evoke the excitement and joy associated with the season.

Start by incorporating festive colors into your website’s design. Traditional holiday colors like red, green, gold, and silver can instantly create a festive atmosphere. Also, consider adding seasonal banners and holiday-themed images.

Lazada, a leading ecommerce platform, does an excellent job of transforming its site for the holidays.

Lazada holiday marketing strategy

If you don’t want to go all out with a full festive redesign, you can still create a seasonal atmosphere with minimal effort.

A quick and effective way to do this is by updating your main banner with a festive headline, as Gymshark does.

Gymshark holiday marketing strategy

3. Create special offers and discounts

When it comes to boosting holiday sales, nothing captures the attention of shoppers quite like a well-timed deal. Create offers that are genuinely valuable to your customers.

Consider bundling products together to create a package deal that offers more value than if the items were purchased separately.

Take Waterdrop, for example. They excel at creating enticing holiday bundles, such as their Christmas gift sets that include water bottles paired with their signature microdrinks.

Waterdrop holiday marketing gift bundles

You can implement this marketing strategy by identifying products that naturally complement each other.

For instance, if you sell beauty products, you could bundle a facial cleanser, toner, and moisturizer into a skincare gift set. If you’re in the tech space, consider offering a holiday bundle that includes a tablet, protective case, and a pair of headphones.

Another effective holiday marketing strategy is offering discounts on popular or seasonal products. You could run a promotion where customers receive 20% off their purchase just like Bubble Skincare does.

Bubble Skincare holiday marketing strategy promoted on website

4. Use festive-themed popups to promote your discounts

Popups are one of the most effective holiday marketing campaign ideas. When designed and timed correctly, festive-themed popups can significantly boost conversions by capturing the attention of visitors and driving them toward your special offers.

However, it’s crucial to strike the right balance—your popups should be engaging, not annoying, to avoid driving customers away.

For inspiration, take a look at BlendJet’s holiday sale popup. They’ve mastered the art of creating popups that not only highlight their discounts but also reflect the joy of the season. Their popups feature vibrant holiday imagery, with clear and compelling messaging that draws customers in.

BlendJet holiday marketing popup

Creating festive-themed popups doesn’t have to be time-consuming or complicated. With our ready-to-use templates, you can design and launch beautiful, effective popups in just a few minutes.

Take a look at them here:

5. Add countdown timers on sticky bars

Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective ways to drive holiday sales, and countdown timers are a powerful tool to do just that. By adding countdown timers on sticky bars, you can remind your customers when the sale is ending.

When customers see that an offer is available for a limited time, it triggers a sense of urgency and the fear of missing out (FOMO). This psychological trigger can push hesitant shoppers to complete their purchases sooner rather than later.

Try these templates if you’d like to implement sticky bars with countdown timers:

6. Designing festive email marketing campaigns

Your email marketing campaigns should scream “holiday spirit!” From the subject lines to the content, everything should be on theme.

Visuals are a key element in any festive email marketing campaign. Use holiday-themed images, colors, and designs that evoke the warmth and excitement of the season. This could include snowy landscapes, twinkling lights, cozy fireplaces, or gift-wrapped presents.

Holiday email marketing campaign example

The holiday season is about spreading joy, so don’t miss the opportunity to connect with your customers on a personal level. Start your emails with a warm holiday greeting.

Holiday email marketing campaign example

Personalization can significantly increase the effectiveness of your email campaigns. For instance, you could send personalized product recommendations based on what the customer has previously bought.

Holiday email marketing campaign example

7. Collaborate with influencers to promote festive products

Influencers can help you reach a wider audience and add credibility to your festive promotions. Partner with influencers who align with your brand to showcase your holiday products. Their recommendations can be the nudge that followers need to make a purchase.

Here are some collaboration strategies to promote your festive products:

  • Holiday gift guides: Collaborate with influencers to create holiday gift guides featuring your products. These guides can be shared on their blogs, social media channels, or even in email newsletters. For example, an influencer might create a “Top 10 Holiday Gifts for Fitness Lovers” guide that includes your fitness apparel or gear.
  • Unboxing videos: Unboxing videos are incredibly popular, especially during the holidays when people are looking for gift ideas. Partner with influencers to film unboxing videos of your holiday gift sets or special products. These videos allow followers to see your products in action and can build excitement around your holiday offerings.
  • Holiday giveaways: Run a holiday giveaway in partnership with an influencer. For example, you could ask followers to enter by liking the post, following your brand, and tagging friends. This not only increases brand visibility but also drives engagement and introduces your products to new potential customers.
  • Instagram takeovers: Consider hosting an Instagram takeover where an influencer takes over your brand’s Instagram account for a day. They can share behind-the-scenes content, holiday shopping tips, and exclusive deals with your followers, providing a fresh perspective and attracting their own followers to your account.

8. Make sure that your website can handle the increased traffic

Imagine this: It’s Black Friday, your holiday promotions are live, and customers are flocking to your site in droves, eager to take advantage of your deals. But then, disaster strikes—your website crashes, leaving frustrated holiday shoppers unable to complete their purchases.

This nightmare scenario is every online retailer’s worst fear during the holiday season. To avoid this, it’s crucial to ensure that your website is fully optimized and capable of handling the surge in traffic.

During the holiday season, your server will be under more strain than usual, so it’s essential to test its capacity and scalability. Here’s how:

  • Load testing: Perform load testing to simulate high traffic volumes and see how your website performs under pressure. Tools like Apache JMeter or LoadNinja can help you identify bottlenecks and weaknesses in your system before the real traffic hits.
  • Stress testing: Beyond load testing, stress testing pushes your website to its limits to see how it handles extreme traffic spikes. This can reveal potential points of failure and help you prepare for worst-case scenarios.
  • Scalable hosting solutions: Consider upgrading to a scalable hosting solution that can handle traffic spikes without crashing. Cloud-based hosting services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure offer scalability features that automatically adjust your server capacity based on real-time demand.
  • Content delivery networks (CDNs): As mentioned earlier, using a CDN can not only improve load times but also distribute the traffic load across multiple servers, reducing the risk of overload on any single server.
  • Monitor traffic in real time: Use real-time monitoring tools like Google Analytics or Pingdom to keep an eye on your site’s traffic and performance. This allows you to respond quickly if your site begins to slow down or experience issues.

9. Create holiday-focused category pages

Make it easier for holiday shoppers to find what they’re looking for by creating holiday-focused category pages.

Start by identifying the key gift categories that will be most relevant to your customers during the holiday season. These categories should be broad enough to appeal to a wide audience but specific enough to help customers find what they need.

Some popular examples include:

  • Gifts for her
  • Gifts for him
  • Gifts for kids
  • Stocking stuffers
  • Holiday party essentials
  • Tech gifts
  • Luxury gifts
  • Budget-friendly gifts

These categories can be tailored to fit your product offerings and target audience. For instance, if you sell beauty products, you might create categories like “Skincare Gifts” or “Makeup Must-Haves.”

Amazon's holiday-focused category pages

Optimize these holiday-focused category pages for SEO to drive organic traffic to your site. Use relevant keywords in the page titles, meta descriptions, and product descriptions to improve your search engine rankings.

10. Implement personalized product recommendations

Personalized product recommendations are powerful because they make the shopping experience more relevant and convenient for your customers.

Instead of wading through countless product pages, customers are presented with items that match their interests, previous purchases, or browsing behavior. This not only saves them time but also increases the chances that they’ll find something they want to buy.

Popups are an effective way to display personalized product recommendations based on a customer’s real-time behavior. For example, if a customer has been browsing your holiday gift guide for men, a popup could appear suggesting popular items from that category, such as watches, wallets, or grooming kits.

Timing is crucial for these popups. Consider triggering them when a customer is about to leave the site (exit-intent popups) or after they’ve spent a certain amount of time browsing a specific category.

Check out our holiday-themed product recommendation popup templates:

11. Set up cart abandonment popups

Cart abandonment is a common challenge in e-commerce, especially during the holiday season when customers are comparison shopping, waiting for better deals, or simply getting distracted.

But just because a customer leaves your site with items still in their cart doesn’t mean the sale is lost.

By setting up cart abandonment popups, you can remind customers of the items they’ve left behind and encourage them to complete their purchase. Sweeten the deal with an additional discount or free shipping offer.

You can also highlight that stock is limited, just like Obvi does in the example below, to increase urgency.

Obvi holiday marketing cart abandonment popup

If you’re looking to set up cart abandonment popups quickly and effectively, here are some templates you can use:

12. Leverage retargeting ads

Use retargeting ads to remind customers of the products they viewed but didn’t buy. These ads can help bring back visitors who might have gotten distracted, giving them a gentle nudge to return and complete their purchase.

Not all visitors are the same, so segment your audience based on their behavior on your site. Common segments include:

  • Cart abandoners: These are users who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase. Retargeting these users with ads featuring their abandoned items and a special offer can be highly effective.
  • Product viewers: Users who viewed specific product pages but didn’t add anything to their cart can be retargeted with ads that showcase those products, along with similar items they might like.
  • Homepage visitors: Users who visited your homepage or a specific category page but didn’t go any further can be retargeted with ads that highlight best-sellers or special holiday promotions.
  • Past customers: Customers who have previously purchased from you can be retargeted with ads featuring complementary products or special holiday deals, encouraging repeat purchases.

13. Ask for feedback

Customer feedback is crucial for improving your future campaigns.

Asking your customers for their opinions on their shopping experience is a smart move. Not only does this show that you value their input, but it also provides you with actionable insights that can make your next holiday campaign even more successful.

You can use feedback popups that show up right after someone finishes a purchase:

14. Analyze data and gain insights

After the holiday season winds down, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and dive deep into the data. This analysis is crucial for understanding what aspects of your holiday campaigns worked well and where there’s room for improvement.

By closely examining key metrics, you can uncover valuable insights that will help you refine your strategies for future campaigns, making them even more effective and profitable.

Look at metrics like conversion rates, average order value, and customer acquisition costs to gain insights that can inform your future marketing strategies.

Analyze how customers interacted with your site, what they bought, and how they found your products.

Assess the performance of your various marketing channels—such as email, social media, PPC ads, and retargeting—to determine which strategies delivered the best return on investment (ROI).

Plus, you need to understand which products sold well and which didn’t to inform your inventory and product development strategies for the coming year.

Wrapping up

The holiday season is a golden opportunity for e-commerce businesses, but success requires more than just good products.

By implementing these 14 strategies, you can enhance your holiday marketing efforts, delight your customers, and, most importantly, boost sales.

So, get started now by including holiday-themed popups in your marketing strategy: