Cooper Munroe is CEO of The Motherhood Inc.
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In 2021, U.S. consumers spent $204 billion on holiday shopping, and nearly half of holiday revenue was generated by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. It’s likely that consumers will shop early this year too.
With millions of people searching for savings on holiday gifts, social media is often the first source they turn to, to find the best deals. In response, influencers of all sizes have been churning out thoughtfully curated online gift guides earlier than ever before.
After executing holiday influencer marketing campaigns for nearly two decades, I’ve seen many brands use influencers to skillfully position themselves as a top-of-mind solution. The stamp of approval that comes from a peer endorsement can help brands rise above the noise and meet their fourth-quarter goals. Here are some best practices to keep in mind when using influencers to reach consumers this holiday season:
1. Start Now
The good news for brands that still want to expand their holiday marketing strategy is that influencer marketing can be activated relatively quickly in comparison to other tactics. You or your influencer marketing partners can develop an expedited timeline that goes from vetting creators to seeing published content in as little as two weeks.
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An added benefit of working with influencers for holiday marketing is the ability to be nimble in messaging. Due to the agile nature of the discipline, influencers are a very efficient and effective way to help your brand communicate news like inventory updates, special promotions or shipping deadlines.
2. Prepare For Premium Pricing
The fourth quarter is a busy time of year for content creators. Editorial calendar creation has likely been in the works for months as influencers have mapped out their own content ideas, maximized their affiliate partnerships and managed the brand deals that hit their inboxes.
Despite contending with calendars that have little white space, it’s still very much possible to get your brand a spot in influencers’ holiday content lineup. However, be realistic about what you have to spend and be prepared to pay a premium for influencers in the fourth quarter. The industry often sees a rise in rates of 25% or more.
This is an instance where having existing relationships with key creators pays off. If your team doesn’t have those connections, you may benefit from finding an experienced influencer marketing agency that can reach out on your behalf to secure space and negotiate equitably.
3. Let Freedom Ring
For the most effective way to cut through the clutter, give influencers the freedom to create content they know will resonate with their followers on the platforms where they perform best.
Nobody knows their followers better than the influencers themselves. Savvy creators often have years of data-backed experience to know why their audience follows them and what types of content provide genuine value. As a result of knowing their audiences, creators often have a strong sense of how, when and where they tend to shop and what compels them to buy.
Creators typically expect that a campaign has certain brand guidelines that they should follow, but the more creative freedom you give them, the more effective their content tends to be.
4. Set Realistic Objectives
When creating objectives for a holiday influencer marketing plan, be realistic about where your potential customers are in the sales funnel. A strategy for introducing a product to a brand-new audience looks quite different from one that’s geared toward reminding consumers about a beloved brand for holiday gift-giving.
Whether you’re working toward an awareness, consideration or conversion objective, your ultimate goal is (very likely) to drive sales during the holiday buying season. Remember that executing a stand-alone tactic isn’t a strategy, and that each marketing activity has a unique role in moving customers down the funnel. While it isn’t reasonable to expect that influencer marketing alone will drive all of your holiday sales, it is realistic to anticipate that influencer content will contribute in a significant way to a well-rounded strategy that can help you achieve your business goals.
Tracking influencer marketing to sales involves, among other things, careful selection of the right tier of creators with audiences that align with your brand’s target, setting appropriate goals for the stage of the funnel each creator is addressing, ensuring that the type of content aligns with the objective, and that the call to action gives you website traffic you can use to your benefit.
5. Retarget And Remarket
Influencers have the ability to drive significant website traffic, but we know that approximately 96% of visitors that come to your website are not ready to buy at that moment.
Rather than letting those visitors fade away, use that influx of traffic to your benefit by executing a retargeting or remarketing campaign. This kind of optimized campaign is an ideal accompaniment to influencer marketing: Influencers drive high-quality traffic and then your brand gets more chances to deliver your messaging to people who have already indicated interest.
To increase the chances of conversion, drive visitors to a well-designed, mobile-friendly landing page that features a specific offer, not a homepage or product page.
Smart, well-executed holiday marketing with influencers is an efficient and effective opportunity to drive toward your brand’s year-end goals. The relationships you create or nurture now can benefit you well beyond the fourth quarter and set the stage for a robust 2023.
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Author: Cooper Munroe, Forbes Councils Member
