When it comes to digital marketing holidays, the end of the year can be an absolute gold mine for marketers. The last couple of years’ surges in online shopping have made brands swoon as customers flocked to their screens to dive into the latest and greatest promotions (and free shipping offerings).
Most of the time, though, when you hear about holiday marketing campaigns, marketers are talking about holiday shopping trends that affect B2C brands. However, there are a lot of B2B holiday trends that offer great opportunities to companies that sell to other businesses. The holiday season is a great time for B2B brands to drive awareness and boost sales.
If you’re wondering what needs to be understood when it comes to how to market during the holidays, we’ve got you covered!
1. Thank Your Customers
The companies who support your business appreciate it when you show them gratitude. Let them know how valuable they are to your brand by thanking them for their loyalty this holiday season. This simple act can strengthen relationships and help ensure that those companies keep coming to you time and time again.
Consider creating a personalized overview of your customers’ experiences with your brand by leveraging user data you’ve compiled during your relationship. You might include facts, figures, or even tailor-made infographics that solidify the work you’ve done together.
Positive one-on-one experiences will make your customers feel special and valued.
2. Sponsor a Charity
Many of today’s consumers — whether they’re individuals or businesses — want to support brands that align with their own missions and values.
Consider sponsoring a charity during this holiday season, so you can attach your brand to something good that your company believes in. This will give you fuel for your B2B marketing strategy, as you can talk about your endeavors in your holiday ad copy, social posts, and blogs.
Like-minded brands who have similar missions will be more likely to support you if you support a cause they do, as well. Plus, since you’re backing a charity, everybody wins.
3. Give Your Brand a Holiday-Themed Facelift
You don’t have to undergo a massive rebranding to give your logo and social profile backgrounds a holiday-inspired facelift. As you think about your B2B paid media strategy, think about the landing pages you’re driving people to. Are they boring and bland? Can you add a little festive flair to them?
Create visuals across all of your marketing channels with holiday-themed branding. Be sure that your website and landing pages are visually appealing and get your audience more excited to learn about your brand. Let your creatives go wild with holiday inspirations, then choose the options that best represent your brand. If you don’t have an in-house team to do this, our full-service digital marketing agency will be happy to help you set up graphics and colors that are in the spirit of the season!
4. Promote with Inflation in Mind
Inflation-driven promotions will be a big thing this holiday season. As companies are being faced with ever-rising costs, they’ll be keen to pay attention to special offers like coupons, rebates, and giveaways. B2C brands can even cash in on digital marketing tools that are traditionally more favorable to B2B companies, such as contests, giveaways, and games.
As a B2B brand, this is a great time to offer limited-time offers for subscriptions, incentives for upgrades, and referral bonuses for existing customers.
5. Lean on End-of-Year Budgeting
Thanks to IRS Code Section 179, companies can take an immediate deduction of business expenses related to depreciated assets. In other words, your B2B PPC strategy might focus on helping your customers lower their taxes by purchasing the business products they need right now.
Create a campaign that catches their attention and entices them to set aside a budget for your products or services. Be sure your messages have a sense of urgency to them so they’re more inclined to pay attention to the cost-saving benefit of buying now.
6. Drive a Sense of Urgency
Speaking of urgency, when it comes to holiday marketing campaign ideas, you want to be sure to include the right visual elements to really drive home the fact that your offers won’t be around forever, and customers should act now. Fear of missing out (or FOMO) can be a huge win for B2B companies that are trying to win over new business. Here are some other factors to consider for the holidays:
- Set a deadline for special offers
- Illustrate scarcity
- Use countdown timers
- Highlight upcoming price increases
7. Use Branded Holiday Hashtags
Hashtags aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, so you might as well leverage them to your advantage. They offer a stellar way to get brand exposure on social sites and make it easier for you to track social engagement so you can build stronger connections with your audience.
Be sure to introduce your branded holiday hashtag by encouraging customers to use it in their posts, or lean on micro-influencers who can help you get the word out.
8. Work with ZGM
As the digital marketing agency CT trusts, we’re here to help you make the most of your B2B holiday marketing efforts. Touch base with our team to learn how our digital marketing service can help you succeed!
