Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and for marketers everywhere, this means some last-minute scrambles to ensure marketing campaigns are well-planned, scheduled, and meeting their goals before year’s end. It can also be an especially stressful time of year, since Thanksgiving marks the official start of the holiday shopping season—the pressure’s on, and you’ve got to be ready for anything! (Once the turkey settles, that is…)
For that reason, we thought we’d give you a few tips for making sure your Turkey Day video marketing plans are up to snuff. With the right videos on the calendar and the promotional strategies to match, we’ll help you knock Thanksgiving out of the park, gearing you up for the winter and end-of-year holidays to come!
What better way to give thanks for what you have than spreading your wealth? Whether it’s through a donation drive, a food drive, a community event, or time spent helping others, show your audiences what this holiday is really about: giving back to those who need it most.
Filming a video can help spread the word about an organization or nonprofit you support that’s doing a good thing. If you feel a little self-aggrandizing doing that, you can also create a simple video with text and graphics or stock video that urges those watching to give back in their own unique way. Just remember: you don’t want to sound condescending or cocky—make sure to keep your message sincere and not showboat your efforts.
Whether it’s a personalized video thanking a specific client or customer, or a video that shows how grateful you are for your employees, your good fortune, or the support of your backers, a thank you video could be just the thing to set you apart from your competition and help you close those end-of-year sales.
Whatever you choose, be sure your message is authentic. This is one occasion where low-quality filming might work to your advantage—the less “produced” this video is, the more its message will resonate. Pick a bright, beautiful location and film your company’s CEO or pick a few managers who can speak from the heart, showing their gratitude and providing some holiday cheer.
Got a special holiday promotion? Use video to help spread its reach further online, on your website, social media channels, email, and more.
Video during the holidays is a great way to grab users’ attention—remember, including a video on your landing page can increase conversions by more than 80 percent—and, paired with the fact that the holidays are a prime shopping season, increasing the reach of a holiday promotion means you’ll get a lot more sales in a shorter amount of time.
Promote your holiday deal with a short, 15-second video you can run on organic and paid social posts. Embed that video on a promo landing page, and drive traffic to that page with ads and dedicated emails. You can even embed that video in your email signature or embed it in a banner on your website.
What’s the most creative way you can think of to tie the Thanksgiving holiday to your brand? You might not sell greetings cards or own an organic sweet potato farm, but almost anything can connect back to the feelings brought on during the holidays.
Got an app? Show how it improves efficiency during a hectic trip to the grocery store for that last-minute turkey. Own a real estate firm? Showcase the beautiful memories made inside your childhood home during the holidays. The options are endless—just be sure your commercial is emotional, evocative, and memorable.
Don’t have the resources to create your own video content? Run a holiday contest asking your audience to do it for you! Have them submit a selfie or selfie video using your product or service, providing a customer testimonial, or recommending it to a friend—this will give you plenty of video content you can tease out during the holidays, string together for a longer, more impactful piece, or use in future marketing campaigns. With the added credibility, you won’t just make a few holiday sales, you’ll increase your brand’s positive associations, brand recall, and trust.
Be warned—depending on your product or service, this may not work for everyone. A video of your client using your HR management service to organize paid time-off requests won’t be the most enthralling content you can create. Think creatively and see if there’s a way this can work for you. For instance, Coca-Cola knew Thanksgiving would be an amazing time to promote their #shareacoke UGC efforts.
Eighty-two percent of consumers said they prefer live video content to regular social posts from brands—use this to your advantage during the holidays! Livestream a Thanksgiving-themed industry Q&A or other virtual event that brings your customers and employees together.
These two days, the Friday and Monday immediately following Thanksgiving, are huge for retail and online sales. If you’re able to promote something in a big way these two days—or just one—do it! Use all of the tips above to create a well-rounded video campaign for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Use fun video callouts wherever you can, including your website, and pay particular attention to highlighting the exclusivity and money-saving aspects of your deal.
The winter holidays are coming up fast – if you haven’t got your holiday video calendar ready to go, call us! Our experts can help you formulate a video plan that’ll spread cheer and inspire your audience, all while bringing in more sales and encouraging some year-end shopping.