In the Promotional Products world, September is the month to start your holiday marketing to ensure your customers have time to find and purchase the perfect gifts for their clients and employees.

Below, we outline the steps to build an effective holiday post.

Set a Goal

Decide upfront what you hope to achieve with your post. Setting a goal will not only help you put together a cohesive post but will give you a way to measure the success of your post after the fact. For example, if the goal is to have viewers browse a catalog, reach out to you to discuss their needs, or inquire about your services, you now have a measurable goal.

Having a goal will also help you craft the perfect message, select the right image, and assign a call to action.

The Message – Educate, Inspire and Entertain

The message is the written part of your post. Keeping in mind the 80/20 rule, we encourage you to share inspiring, educational, or engaging content, rather than a post that simply pushes products. The 80/20 rule refers to the practice of mainly sharing content that is not a hard sell.

People are much more likely to positively perceive a company and engage with a post when it adds value to their lives. Throwing products out there and telling people to purchase is often ineffective. Instead, share some valuable information, a fun fact, or a case study. This practice relates to a past blog post where we talk about selling solutions instead of products.

How do you do that? When deciding on your post’s message, find a way to communicate WHY corporate gifts are beneficial, how customer gifts can provide value to a company, or describe how a previous client found success with holiday gifts, rather than asking people to buy.

Call to Action – Remember Your Goal

If you forget to include a call to action, you are missing the mark. Suggest to the viewer what you want them to do after reading your post. Your post’s goal will generally dictate the call to action. Call us, email us, browse our catalog, or post a comment. 

For example, if you ask your viewers to call you to discuss their needs, provide an email address, or form to fill out. If you invite them to browse your catalog, include a link to that catalog. If you ask them to provide some feedback, encourage them to do so in the comments. 

The Image – Make It Relevant and Professional

Include a nice image with your post. Having no image, a blurry image or an irrelevant image will detract from your post’s power. Images are the first thing someone will see as they are scrolling their feed, and is the number one reason a person will scroll on by or stop to read.

You can find amazing images inside supplier ZOOMcatalogs to use in your posts. If your post encourages your followers to browse a holiday catalog, consider including the holiday catalog cover as the image. Bonus points for customizing the catalog beforehand, so your logo appears on the cover in your image. You can also find great stock images. We suggest a website called unsplash.com.

Size the image appropriately for where you are posting. For example, square images are perfect for Instagram and Facebook, while a rectangular image is more appropriate for Twitter. Educate yourself on how to craft images based on where they will be shared.

Track Performance – Was The Post Effective?

In a week or two, come back to the post and do a small retrospective. What was the goal? Did you achieve this goal? How many viewers acted on your “call to action”? What could have you done differently? What worked well? Going back and asking these questions can help you build better posts in the future.

Get Posting!

Don’t post too late. Posting a holiday message in the middle of December does not give your customers time to consult with you and place an order. Now is the time. If you are looking for great content to share on social media, you can find tons of fresh new catalogs and flyers from Promotional Product suppliers – many of which you can customize with your logo. You can also use the ZOOMcatalog Holiday Tools in your marketing efforts.

Feel free to reach out to the ZOOMcatalog team for any help or advice. We are here to help!

Take Action

1. Decide what the goal of your next social media post will be.
2. Build the message and decide what you will share (if you are unsure, start with a supplier holiday ZOOMcatalog!)
3. Create a call to action.
4. Choose an image.
5. Share and track!