Use the Holiday Season as Inspiration for your Brand Development

It’s that time of year again. No matter where you live in the US, you see the signs of the holiday season. It’s hard not to be inspired to smile a little more, say hello to strangers and even be a little more charitable to anyone you meet. For companies looking to enhance their brand development, use the sounds and mannerisms of the holidays in your inbound marketing efforts or even your social media development to engage new prospects.

There’s No Place like Home for the Holidays

During the next five weeks leading up to New Year’s Day, songs will tout the benefits of being kinder to your fellow man, giving a little more and heading home for some “homemade pumpkin pie.” Why not use this influx of good cheer and togetherness to reach out to your target market?

For example, say you are a local brand and have been in the process of social media development over the last year. You have followers, friends and occasional interaction with your audience via your social media profiles and sites.

Why not offer a coupon to only your social media contacts for them to bring in to one of your locations or to your sales team for a free item or significant discount on services? Be sure to give them a timeline to follow when the deal is effective. You may be surprised at how appreciative your customers will be of the extra “gift”.

Say Hello to Friends You Know, and Everyone You Meet

Boost your company’s social media development by using the holiday attitude to reach out for new potential page likes on Facebook or Twitter followers. While each social media site has guidelines used to temper over sales tactics there are several ways to get more fans for your pages and still stay “in the rules”.

• Build a Facebook add offering a deal to anyone who “likes” your page that links to a similar landing page with instructions to how it works.
• Offer savings to any of your current fans or followers who refer your page or profile to a friend that follows through to like it. A post like “Get a friend to “Like” our page and Get a Free Candle from us!” can be followed up with a link to a landing page with instructions as to how they can refer the page and how you will track their referral and their friend’s or colleague’s subsequent like.
  •  If they provide their email address, you can also take extra advantage of their interest by adding them to your email marketing contact list.
• Go to your Facebook groups and let fellow group members know you want to get to know them better and how you can benefit each other. Maybe offer a swapping of services in lieu of a savings deal for their page like.

For companies that aren’t using social media marketing, the same premise can apply. Use your email marketing system to send an option to your current lists to get a coupon or a deal if they forward your email and have a friend sign up for the list.

Once you garner some new friends and followers, (or readers if you don’t use social media), be sure to say hello, thanks for their attention and keep you page content fresh and newsworthy to their benefit.  Remember, the holidays, inbound marketing and social media development for that matter, is all about what can do for your fellow man (and clients). Your brand development efforts will benefit from the extra giving.