9 Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Holiday Sales And Not Be Annoying

Businesses see the holiday season as an opportunity to boost sales and attract more customers. However, audiences can feel overwhelmed by the many campaigns popping up around them.

Holidays are an opportunity to build personal connections with your customers. With the right social media strategy, you can do so without being yet another product showcased in their feed.

In this article, we will disclose the secret ingredients for cooking a social media campaign that most appealingly improves your holiday sales to your online audience.

In this article:

• Top 9 Ways to Drive Holiday Sales with Social Media

Designing a Perfect Social Media Strategy

1. Get to know your audience better
2. Plan your content calendar early
3. Engage with the audience
4. Monitor and adjust

There are four main rules to crafting and running a holiday campaign for your brand. No matter what strategy you opt for and what creativity you put in, have these in mind at all times:

1. Get to know your audience better

Understanding your audience is a necessary element for all marketing and sales efforts. The holiday season offers a unique opportunity to get to know your target customers more intimately.

For example, you can design a research strategy that combines methods to generate valuable insights into customer behavior and to establish a distinctive holiday user persona. Here's how you can approach it:

• Conduct surveys to discover the stats about your customers’ favorite activities during the holidays.
• Ask open-ended questions and organize focus groups to collect qualitative data about customer needs and aspirations.

Source: Unsplash

2. Plan your content calendar early

Start planning your holiday social media strategy well in advance. Create a content calendar that outlines key dates, themes, and promotional campaigns.

This will help you stay organized and ensure your posts align with your goals.

Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/SwHvzwEzCfA

3. Engage with your audience

Social media isn't just about broadcasting messages; it's also about building relationships. Respond promptly to comments, answer questions, and engage in conversations with your followers.

4. Monitor and adjust

Constantly monitor the performance of your holiday social media campaigns. Analyze engagement, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Use this data to refine your strategy throughout the holiday season. Always be prepared with a Plan B — especially for user-generated content (UGC), which may vary in participation.

If you pilot multiple strategies at the same time, such as:

• Behind-the-scenes holiday stories
• Holiday giveaways
• Influencer partnerships

— Shift more effort toward whichever performs best, and pause what isn’t working.

Top 9 Ways to Drive Holiday Sales with Social Media

Without further ado, here are the 9 best strategies you can use to generate a social media holiday campaign that drives sales AND doesn’t drive any followers away.

Source: Freepik

1. Tell a heartwarming story

Storytelling matters in all marketing and sales efforts. Just as you would craft an immersive narrative for your sales pitch templates, do the same when addressing customers on social media.

2. Gamify your campaign

Some holidays — like Christmas — naturally divide people into fun preference groups (real tree vs. fake tree, etc.). Use this to create engaging, interactive content such as polls, quizzes, or “Would you rather?” stories.

Examples:

• Christmas Eve / Christmas Day
• Gingerbread / Sugar cookies
• Christmas music / Christmas movies
• Real tree / Fake tree

Pair the game with your holiday sale for maximum reach.

3. Ask your customers to tell their story

User-generated content feels organic and builds trust. Encourage customers to share holiday moments using your products.

Source: TikTok

4. Run competitions and giveaways

Holiday giveaways are a proven strategy. Steps to run one:

1. Create an exciting gift or bundle.
2. Set clear rules.
3. Ask followers to like, comment, and share.
4. Encourage tagging friends for extra reach.
5. Host a public drawing.
6. Ask winners to post UGC with their prize.

Instagram example (The Tea Can Company):

Source: Instagram

5. Create helpful gift guides

Gift guides subtly promote your products while providing value. Consider infographics or themed lists that include your products.

Source: Cool Infographics

6. Spice up the campaign with memes

Use humor to increase shareability. Good Housekeeping uses product videos with relatable memes to drive engagement.

You can take this a step further by incorporating AI face swap, such as Viggle to make your memes even more personalized and entertaining.

Think swapping faces into funny characters, relatable scenarios, or even product demos, instantly adding a playful twist that grabs attention and encourages sharing.

Source: Instagram

7. Partnerships for success

Influencer marketing helps you reach new audiences. Partner with creators whose values align with your brand and let them produce authentic holiday content using your products.

8. Promote limited-time holiday discounts

Limited-time offers create urgency. Countdown timers or “last chance” reminders increase FOMO and conversions.

Stacked Skincare example:

Source: Pinterest

9. Combine social media with other marketing channels

Use other channels (email, SMS, or website pop-ups) to boost visibility for social contests and campaigns.

7 Steps to Plan Your Instagram Holiday Marketing Strategy

Instagram has been around for the past 11 years. Read to find out how you can plan your Instagram Holiday Marketing Strategy for the next holiday season.

POWR BlogMick Essex

Here’s an example SMS-style cold text message:

A warm, friendly, personalized message can re-engage inactive customers.

Over to You

Holiday sales can attract new customers and create a major seasonal boost — but many holiday buyers are one-time shoppers. Check out these 12 tips to use after holiday sales to keep customers coming back for more.