Learn15 Timely Holiday Marketing Strategies for 2025
15 Timely Holiday Marketing Strategies
Thinking ahead for your holiday marketing strategy can help you boost sales in the final quarter of the year. Now is the time to develop your plan and start browsing holiday marketing ideas to drive more revenue this season and give your customers something to look forward to from your business.
The best starting point for your holiday marketing strategy is to look back on what strategies you used last year. Review which worked and which didn’t exactly achieve your holiday marketing goal.
2. Start campaigning early
Too many businesses procrastinate when it comes to developing their holiday marketing strategy. The earlier you start planning, the less you have to work on by the time you launch your campaigns.
A holiday marketing campaign can also launch well before November or December. While many consumers are prone to last-minute shopping, others buy gifts early. In fact, 50% of people plan to begin making purchases before Halloween, so you need to be ahead of their shopping schedule.
Capture this audience by sending out holiday advertisements and seasonal offers ahead of time. This approach can motivate these early shoppers to purchase your product.
3. Focus on customer experience
While the holidays are often a joyful time of year, they’re also notorious for creating stress — especially when it comes to shopping. Your business can alleviate consumer stress, however, by providing useful tips and tricks to make their experience even better.
If you’re in the food and beverage industry, you might offer simple holiday recipes to make cooking for the holidays even easier. This content would provide helpful information to customers and encourage more sales.
Focus on producing content that relates to your products or services as well as consumer needs. Before you develop a piece of content for the holiday season, ask how it will benefit and help your shoppers.
4. Share gift suggestions
Another way to place your products in front of users is by sharing gift suggestions focused around your industry.
Show people how your products make the ideal gift to alleviate stress and streamline the purchasing process. You could do this in the following ways:
Create product bundles that make the ideal gift
Write blog posts detailing gift ideas for different audiences
Include your products as supplementary parts to other gifts
Consumers want to find the perfect gift for everyone on their list. By helping them cut down on searching, you can boost your sales and make their lives easier.
5. Offer free items and discounts
While everyone is shopping for others, they’re likely also shopping for themselves. Providing a free product or discount is a compelling holiday marketing strategy in 2025.
With this strategy, you can motivate shoppers to spend more with your company while rewarding them for it. For example, if you offer a free item with a $50 purchase, it encourages users to spend more. Rather than buy $25 worth of products, they splurge and spend $50.
You can make the reward free shipping if you don’t want to give a product away.
The holidays are a time of giving — and your consumers want to be on the receiving end of gift-giving from time to time. Highlight special offers, savings, and free promotions whenever possible to amplify your sales during this time of year.
Expert insights from
Shannon PetschWeb Strategist
A successful holiday marketing strategy should embrace an omnichannel approach for a seamless customer experience. Start by understanding your target audience and their shopping behaviors, then incorporate festive themes into your creatives. Utilize multiple channels—like social media, email, and in-store promotions—to engage customers effectively. We also see a lot of success in offering special deals or limited-time offers across these platforms to create urgency and boost sales during the holiday season!
6. Create seasonal emails
Throughout the holiday season, businesses send shoppers a variety of offers. Consumers frequently check their email during the holiday shopping season — they want to get the best deal, and email can help them save.
Engaging your subscribers during the holidays is crucial. Send out emails that highlight your promotions, sales, or seasonal product line:
A simple email can make a world of difference by informing and encouraging shoppers, which helps you land additional sales.
7. Look into influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is as popular as ever, and investing in it for your holiday marketing strategy can help you reach a wider audience.
You don’t have to work with an influencer with millions of followers, either. You can find people within your niche who have a loyal following that they can share your product with. Their connection with their audience will reflect positively on your brand as they recommend your products.
Plus, if you have a great deal or special holiday offer available, you can see even better returns on your investment.
8. Produce festive ads
If you’re investing in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, focus on creating ads that feature a holiday touch in the ad copy or ad itself. For example, your ad copy may say, “Get the perfect gift this holiday season,” to emphasize the holidays. Incorporating PPC services from an experienced agency, like WebFX, can also enhance your holiday campaigns by providing expert insights and strategies to optimize your ad performance.
You can extend this strategy to your content, too.
For example, you might produce a series of blog posts or social media status updates that focus on the holidays. A supermarket, for instance, may highlight recipes and decorations via its blog, while a manufacturer may create an “Elf on the Shelf” series for its social media.
9. Retarget customers
Did you know that 96% of customers will leave a website without making a purchase? This means that only four out of every 100 people visiting your site buy your product or services. With a remarketing ad campaign and email marketing, however, you can change that.
If a shopper provides their email, for example, but doesn’t check out, you can send a follow-up email reminder to complete their purchase.
In comparison, a remarketing ad campaign focuses on users who visit your site. That’s a broad group of people, however, which is why you can narrow your audience down to a specific product page.
No matter how you remarket your business, it’s critical for your company to understand each user’s motivations. Try to find out what made a user leave your site. In some cases, a user would have bought your product, but your website made the process almost impossible.
Adding a video to your website, emails, or social media page can help you share your company’s message in a way that invites users to learn more about your brand. Videos are user-friendly, too, and they make it easy for viewers to learn more about your products and their uses.
Loyalty programs are a great year-round marketing strategy. And, if you haven’t launched a loyalty program yet, the holidays are a great time to do so.
Loyalty programs allow you to increase your purchase volume and offer repeat customers rewards. For example, if someone spends $100 with you, maybe you offer them a 10% off coupon. That encourages them to spend more and keep coming back.
Couple that with holiday deals and promotions, and they will be more inclined to shop with you!
12. Target local updates
If you have a brick-and-mortar location, you can make local updates that simplify the buying process. Making local shopping updates opens up shopping ads to stores that only offer in-person retail.
Here are some basic local updates and benefits you can offer:
Buy now, pick up later
Pick up in store options
Gift wrapping
Above all, make sure that your listings and website are optimized for local search to give your site the best chance at ranking this holiday season.
13. Implement AR for product showcasing
When clients want to see a product in person, they go to a store showroom, which can help them make a purchasing decision. Well, why not bring this tactic to the Internet?
AR lets you present your products on the Internet rather than in person. AR listings allow shoppers to explore a product from every angle, giving more context before they buy.
It’s a powerful holiday marketing strategy, especially when it comes to larger purchases.
14. Take advantage of Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday
If you’re thinking about holiday marketing ideas, you likely have a plan for Black Friday every year. However, if you’re a small business or primarily deal with ecommerce sales, you should also offer deals for Cyber Monday or Small Business Saturday.
Small Business Saturday gives small businesses a chance to offer their own deals without competing against big enterprises on Black Friday. You can still offer Black Friday deals, of course, but taking advantage of the small business focus can highlight your unique selling points (USPs).
The same idea applies to Cyber Monday. Many companies will have different deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to try to reach as many people as possible.
15. Shift into the holiday shopper mindset
Finally, as a general approach to your holiday marketing campaign, you should try to get into the shopper mindset. The more you consider their point of view, the easier it is to create marketing materials that appeal to them.
Consider how much shopping they have to do, what kind of products you typically sell around the holidays, and any other considerations that can help you connect with your buyers.
You can even ask for feedback from your customers around the holidays to get ahead on your campaign for next year.
Get a head start on your holiday marketing strategies!
With some planning, your team can develop a unique holiday marketing strategy that drives your seasonal sales upward. From offering personalized experiences to sharing gratitude, your company has a variety of options for promoting your business this season.
Don’t have time to lead a holiday marketing campaign? WebFX can help!
With more than 29 years of experience, plus more than 500+ digital marketing experts, we are the trusted choice for businesses worldwide. Not to mention, we’ve driven more than $10 billion in revenue for our clients.
