Every year, Christmas social media campaigns are on the marketing calendar of almost any brand. We all know those videos that make you tear up, evoking the Christmas spirit and infusing hope in our daily lives. That’s the most impressive type.
But even if you’re not a huge brand with an even bigger budget, you can create an effective Christmas social media campaign and adapt it to your business goals.
With our Christmas social media post ideas you can:
- promote your brand,
- sell more during holidays,
- and get more customers.
The last few weeks of the year are probably the hottest season for marketers. Starting from Black Friday all the way to Christmas and then the New Year, the holiday season madness is real. But while Black Friday promotions are usually about heavy discounts, Christmas campaigns can be a breath of fresh air with more creative approaches to sales.
And the reasons are pretty obvious – we’re all shopping for gifts. According to the National Retail Federation in the U.S., consumers start gift shopping in early November. This of course helps spread budgets and avoid last-minute shopping stress. And all in all, they plan to spend an average of $998 on holiday-related purchases, including gifts and decorations.
If you haven’t started your Christmas campaigns yet, you’ll likely only catch the last-minute shoppers. But the good news is that there will still be a considerable percentage – even though, according to Klarna, up to 40% more shoppers want to have a head start on their Christmas shopping this year than the last.
Another interesting fact is that more than half of consumers will turn to social media for their holiday shopping this year. This is why social media is where you should be ready and waiting for them with your Christmas offers.
Now, if you’re still looking for holiday social media campaign inspo, take a look at these examples of Christmas social media campaigns and how you can adapt them for your business.
And if you’re already running yours, bookmark this post for next year. After all, creating a good social media campaign will probably take some time, so you’ll have a head start, too.
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Christmas social media campaign ideas
Let’s take a closer look at some captivating social media campaign ideas for Christmas, and how you can adapt each idea to your business.
A Christmas-themed video campaign
This is probably what comes to mind when you’re thinking about a Christmas social media campaign. We’re all used to beautiful, feel-good videos released each year by many brands.
Like John Lewis, notorious for their Christmas ads, with the latest one released just a few weeks ago.
Videos are a great format, super shareable on social media, and I probably don’t even have to convince you about that with any stats that I now look up on the Internet.
They have viral potential, and if they’re touching (or shocking, controversial, or unconventional, like this ad by a Polish jewelry brand Yes, entitled “I am a woman”), they’re bound to spread around.
And even if they’re not directly linking to your online store but are more focused on brand awareness, they can likely lead to increased traffic (whether online or in your physical locations).
But that’s for big brands, right? That’s what you might think.
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
Even if you don’t have the resources of a big brand, you can still center your Christmas marketing campaign around a video – whether you’ll be doing it with an award-winning advertising agency or using the hands and brains of your in-house marketing team, however small it might be.
It’s the idea that counts – and you never know what will catch on next year, so it’s definitely worth exploring it.
A multi-video campaign
What if you could combine your video with the – very appropriate – advent calendar format (who doesn’t like advent calendars?) Or the 12 days of Christmas for the period after Christmas leading up to the New Year and beyond, revealing a new part of the story each day.
I know, doing 12 videos (or even 24) is even more work, right? But to (maybe) get you inspired, here’s how Nordstrom did it:
Okay, they worked with celebrities and obviously had a substantial budget. But you don’t have to take it literally – maybe there’s another way you can use this idea?
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
Plan a series of social media content (whether 24 days of advent calendar-style or 12 posts post-Christmas) to show different parts of your offer. These can be different products, different perks, or just different parts of one story you want to tell.
(To do that, you can use NapoleonCat’s social media publisher – that way, your posts will sit in the content calendar ahead of time, waiting to be posted automatically, while you focus on other stuff. And there will be plenty to do, I’m sure.)
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A series of deals
If you don’t have the capacity to record a video campaign, you can use that same concept for other things – like a series of deals.
Here’s an example by Petcube – their 12 days of gifting presented a new deal every day for 12 days.
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
You don’t have to give everything away at one time. Think about dividing your social media content or promotions into smaller chunks to get your followers engaged over a more extended period. Social media algorithms will approve 😉 And so will your customers.
Again, if this sounds like too much work, be smart about it. Schedule your content beforehand using social media scheduling tools like NapoleonCat.
And if you’re worried about too much engagement in the comments (is there even such a thing? 😬), use a social media management platform to manage the conversations and provide timely responses. (The Social Inbox in NapoleonCat WILL be your friend.)
A carefully curated Instagram Christmas feed
In a similar vein, you can use your Instagram feed to visually mimic an advent calendar and engage your followers with timely, esthetically pleasing posts. Like the ones from Jo Malone.
They cleverly combined product-related posts with conversational content, spreading the engagement on their Instagram profile over several weeks, all under the same hashtag #SeasonOfScent.
Though they don’t seem to be doing the same thing this year, their feed is still impeccable and a pleasure to look at:
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
Plan your Instagram feed visually around the advent calendar idea. There are many apps you can use to design your perfect grid. Then schedule them in your social media calendar to get published automatically on your account.
If you use image carousels in your posts, you can mimic an actual advent calendar, with hidden surprises your followers will appreciate as they swipe.
Use this not only to promote specific products (and, better yet – link directly to your online store) but also to engage your followers in relevant conversations, asking questions they’ll want to respond to.
User-generated content campaigns
Don’t have ideas or resources for content creation? Savvy marketers know that the best content can come from your customers. This can be as easy as creating a contest or a dedicated hashtag if you have an engaged community.
Just like what Starbucks did asking people to share holiday-inspired photos with a Starbucks red cup as the centerpiece, all under the hashtag #RedCupContest.
It’s a great way to get your audience engaged around your brand – and for you to get some really cool content to reshare on your social media profiles. Plus, your customers will feel appreciated when you share and tag them on your profile – a win-win for everyone.
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
It might be enough to ask your customers to share their photos with your product – asking them to use a hashtag and tag you in their picture.
You can make it into a contest and reward the best photos and most engaged users. Using a social media management tool to monitor the hashtag and the engagement around your campaign will also help you keep on top of the submissions – and evaluate the engagement-generating potential of your campaign.
A Christmas gift guide
Now, this is a simple idea to help those undecided shoppers get Christmas gifts from your store. You don’t have to create just one gift guide – but post more of them, dedicated to different types of shoppers, depending on what you’re selling. And your social media profiles are a great place to share them, of course.
You can find great examples of quick Christmas gift guides on the Uncommon Goods Instagram account – where they either post short slideshows as videos or image carousels with several photos.
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
Post your own gift guides on Instagram or Facebook. Using Instagram shoppable posts, you can direct your viewers straight to the product pages in your online store, shortening the path to purchase. Last-minute shoppers will surely appreciate this! 😉
Depending on what you’re selling, create different types of guides – based on your customer personas (like men/women/kids, etc.) but also, e.g. gift value (“gifts under $50”, etc.)
Spread out your guides across the weeks leading to Christmas, scheduling your content for automated posting, just as with other examples above. You have engagement and possibly sales goals achieved with one simple method.
Christmas giveaways
Giveaways on social media are great engagement boosters. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get something for free?
And you can even do 12 days of giveaways like this brand on Instagram for even greater reach and engagement. ☺
How you can adapt this idea for your next campaign
Decide what you want to give away and set up some rules for winning (remember, these have to be super clear, and you need some T&Cs to back you up). You might ask your followers to share/retweet your giveaway, follow your social media accounts, or tag someone who could use your products in the comments to help spread the news.
Brands often partner up with each other for giveaways, so consider that as well – you’ll increase your reach and most likely build your follower count considerably over a short period.
Which is why it’s super important to partner up with a brand that has followers in your target group and is interested in your products – otherwise, chances are they won’t stay after the giveaway’s over, making the whole thing a temporary surge. And that’s not what we’re looking for.
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Your turn!
As you’re probably busy working on this year’s Christmas campaigns, I hope you got some inspiration from this post you could use for the next holiday shopping season (or maybe even sooner).
And as you scramble to publish, moderate, and analyze your Christmas posts for social media, don’t forget to use tools that will make this a whole lot easier and save you some precious time. We all need it, right?
