The holiday season is usually all about consumers, but there’s another opportunity: B2B digital marketing!
Research shows that business-to-consumer (B2C) companies earn about 30% of their annual revenue during the holiday season. But business-to-business (B2B) organizations can find the opposite. Because key contacts are out of the office more, busy with end-of-year tasks, preparing for vacation, and so forth, B2B sales often slow down during November and December.
A B2B holiday marketing strategy can make the most of the season – and leave you with more leads in your funnel for the new year. Here’s how to achieve it.
- Seasonalize Your Social Media
Sometimes during the holiday season, businesses focus less on their digital marketing efforts. The same issues affecting your clients could be affecting your own team — vacations, holiday gatherings, end-of-year reporting, and so on.
When times get busy, it’s common for items such as social media management or content creation to get pushed to the back burner. But this is a mistake!
Instead of de-prioritizing your digital marketing efforts, think about how to tailor them to the season and your client base. What pain points might your clients be experiencing during the holiday season that you can solve?
What might be of particular interest to them during this busy time? Popular topics include seasonally-related research (such as statistics and trends in your industry), new year predictions, deals or promotions, and beyond.
Rather than letting the holiday season disrupt your social media marketing, tailor your content and use it to your advantage!
- Get Personal
A theme of the holiday season is gratitude – reflecting on the year in review and what the new year might bring.
This is a great time for B2B brands to reflect on their own successes, partnerships, and client relationships with a personalized touch.
In offline marketing, this might look like sending a gift basket to valued customers or hosting a special event.
In online marketing, this might include sending a personalized email (perhaps with a special holiday offer or bonus for your clients), congratulating clients on specific successes of the past year, or sharing a branded happy holiday message on social media (like an Elf Yourself® video of your executive team).
- Create Deals and Promotions for the Holidays
A holiday-specific campaign can go a long way. B2C companies often put together gift packs or bundles during this time of year and you can do the same.
Think about a promotion you can offer for new clients, or a discount you can give to existing ones. One SaaS company did this for Black Friday and saw 16% of the whole November turnaround come from the five-day campaign, along with 20% more clients making payments during the period.
You could also give away value-added content for free, like an eBook or a whitepaper.
- Set Your Holiday Goals
The approach you take to B2B holiday marketing can depend on your strategic goals.
Do you want to convert more prospects into leads, change leads into clients, generate more return business from existing clients, attract new prospects…? The list goes on.
Identify the top priorities for the season and adjust your efforts to meet those goals.
By starting with the goal in mind, your holiday digital marketing strategy will be much more defined, and it will be easier to measure the results.
The key to a more successful B2B holiday marketing strategy is to plan ahead. Start as early as possible to offer the most value to your clients — and generate the most results for your business.
At Pulsion Marketing, we help B2B businesses plan, execute, and measure digital marketing campaigns all year long. Contact us for help with your holiday marketing strategy or other digital marketing needs.
Call 1-888-701-4441 or visit www.digiforcemarketing.ca.