Tips for Planning a Holiday Influencer Campaign

As the holidays approach, it is an opportune time to work with influencers to achieve a specific goal for your brand. Here are a few tips for engaging your audience through a successful holiday influencer campaign!

Set the timeline.

Timing is everything with a holiday-themed campaign. You want to allow enough time for your team to prepare and for your customers to act, but you don’t want to launch so far in advance that the holiday isn’t yet on anyone’s radar. (A Thanksgiving initiative in August, for example, would be poor timing.)

The ideal time for influencers to be posting content is right when your audience is starting to research and take action for the holiday. Determine what that date range is, and work backwards to sketch out a timeline for each step.

This fall, MtoM is working with Chasing Fireflies, a high-end children’s costume and holiday company, on an influencer campaign to promote their Halloween inventory. We identified the action period as two to four weeks before Halloween, when parents are starting to shop for costumes. We knew we had to have a plan in place and influencers ready to launch for that timeframe.

Outline the specific goals.

A holiday campaign is obviously time-sensitive and should have clear, simple goals. Unlike an ongoing campaign that focuses on brand loyalty and awareness, a holiday initiative will also have a fixed, brief duration. Consider the main action you want your audience to take. Are you trying to move a certain set of products? Do you want to increase reservations with a special deal? Make the call to action easy to understand, execute and measure. For the Chasing Fireflies campaign, the objective is to drive sales and web traffic, and to promote Halloween costume and pajamas inventory through a discount coupon

Reach out to influencers.

Decide the best way to communicate with your audience, and select influencers who can do this most effectively. Do you want a series of blog posts, social media posts, videos, photos, or a combination of all of the above? What is most likely to catch your audience’s interest and propel them toward your objective?

We kept the messaging simple and visual for the Chasing Fireflies campaign. Influencers selected Halloween costumes or pajamas for their children or families, then posted quick, fun videos and social media updates. They encouraged their followers to order from Chasing Fireflies with a 25% off coupon code. We gave influencers freedom to be creative and have fun with the content. We looked for people who enjoy the holiday and would already be planning to celebrate it with enthusiasm.

Track your hard work.

Measure the results of your campaign against the goals you set in the planning phase. Use concrete metrics that will show reach and engagement – post views, click-throughs, sign-ups, comments, new orders, etc. For the Chasing Fireflies campaign, we are measuring success based on social views and engagements, as well as the performance of the specific campaign coupon code.

Pay attention to any hiccups or problems you encounter along the way. Adjust what you can to streamline the process in real time, and note what you’d do differently for a future campaign. What can you take away to make the next holiday campaign even more effective and efficient? How can you get the best results out of your budget?
Contact MtoM about planning your holiday influencer campaign