It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but for video marketing, it’s also the trickiest. If you’re a retail company, you’re spending as much money as possible to drive sales during this critical month. If you’re a B2B organization, you’re working hard to make one last impression on your audience before the year comes to a close.
Video marketing during this time of the year is an artform. You need to take a different approach during the holiday season than you do during the rest of the year. Below, we’ll discuss exactly what makes the holiday season different and what you can do to get your message out there anyway.
Why You Need to Approach the Holiday Season Differently
There’s no hard time of the year to grab your audience’s attention than during the holiday season. People are incredibly busy and simply don’t have the time of day to give you. Corporate budgets are tight until the beginning of the new year. Personal budgets are tight as people spend their hard-earned money on presents for friends and family. Everybody is working as hard as possible to prepare their company for the new year while leaving themselves a couple days off to enjoy themselves.
Despite the white noise and potential roadblocks, it’s entirely possible to run a successful video marketing campaign during the holidays. You simply need to know your audience and deliver a message that gets through everything else. It isn’t the easiest job in the world, but the benefits are enormous. Here are five simple tips on exactly how to do it:
Holiday Tip #1: Avoid Selling Too Hard
If you’re a retailer, then you need to sell as hard as possible during the holiday season. For everybody else, however, it’s a terrible time to go for the hard sell. Budgets are tight for both businesses and individuals until the beginning of the new year.
Beyond that, it’s supposed to be the time for giving and sharing with others. Pushing too hard for sales can make your brand look money-hungry and out of touch with the holiday spirit. Instead, use your holiday video to share a bit of culture or a simple holiday greeting. Offer your audience something for free, like a promotional offer or a free download.
Instead of selling your audience, give them a gift instead!
Holiday Tip #2: Keep It Short and Sweet
Remember that our attention span has continually dropped over the past couple decades. During the holiday season, our attention spans are even shorter. More than any other time in the year, the length of your video is critical. Keep it short and tight if you want to get your message across. Save your long-form content for the beginning of the year, when everything’s settled down a bit.
Holiday Tip #3: Pay Extra Attention to Mobile
Think about how often you’re on the run during the holiday season. You’re working long hours to make up for the holidays, visiting friends and family, shopping for presents, and checking out once-a-year holiday attractions. The point is that you’re not as home nearly as much as usual. That means your audience isn’t, either.
If you want to have a chance getting the majority of your audience to check out your content during the holidays, it needs to be optimized for mobile. If people are able to pop-in and check out your video while waiting in line for a peppermint mocha, you’ll have a chance to grab their attention. If not, the opportunity is going to be long gone and you’ll have to wait until after the holidays have passed.
Holiday Tip #4: Take Advantage of Social Media
Social media was built for the crazy holiday season. It’s quick and to the point, easily shareable, and unintrusive. Your audience’s ultimate problem during the holiday season is probably stress, so try to solve that problem for them. Empathize with them, sending out short videos that solve simple problems or simply offer them a quick holiday pick-me-up. Take the time to be genuine and show your audience that you care about them, and they’ll remember you far beyond the holidays.
Holiday Tip #5: Make Your CTA Easier Than Ever
There’s a lot on people’s minds during the holidays. They’re working overtime to wrap everything up before the end of the fiscal year while giving themselves some time to enjoy the festivities. There’s presents to buy and family visits to plan. If you don’t make the next step explicitly clear for them, they’re going to set it aside and promptly forget about it.
For the same reasons, it’s also not the best time of the year to ask for a major commitment. The weeks during the holidays are hectic, so nobody’s going to want to make a phone call or enjoy a free consultation. They probably won’t have the discretionary budget to make a purchase either, whether you’re targeting a B2B or a B2C audience. Make your call to action something simple, like signing up for a newsletter or downloading your gift of a free eBook. You’ll have them hooked and ready to give you their undivided attention when the hustle and bustle are over with.
Your audience has the holidays on their mind,
so your CTA needs to be as simple as possible!
Whether you need help creating a great holiday video, or just with video marketing in general, Blue Wave Marketing is here to help. We have only 20 years of experience helping our clients reach their audiences through engaging, personal marketing techniques. Over the past several years we’ve focused heavily on video marketing, quickly becoming one of the leaders in the industry.
If you’re curious to see how we’ve been able to help other businesses in the past, make sure to take a look at our case studies by clicking here. You’ll be able to see some terrific examples of videos that we’ve created in the past and see exactly what we can do for you.
