Ideally, you’ve got a consistent marketing plan in place and your potential clients and customers are hearing from you throughout the year.
And when the holidays roll around? It’s time to have a little extra fun! It’s understandable that your mind probably just jumped straight to Christmas. But it’s actually Thanksgiving that holds tons of untapped potential for business promotions.
Between movies, football, food, and shopping, you’ll want to make sure you don’t breeze by this quickly-approaching holiday on your way to planning your Christmas promotions.
Focusing on an upcoming trend like Thanksgiving is also a powerful SEO (search engine optimization) booster. Whoever your target audience is, embrace Thanksgiving as a marketing tool to get yourself ahead of the holiday promotional curve.
1. Create your own branded competition.
Challenges are a great way to connect with your audience and get them pumped up about your business. They’re already easing into the holiday spirit – when you introduce your challenge in an accessible and fun way, your followers will jump on board and share it with others.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Random act of kindness contest. Everyone loves those instantly-shareable, feel-good social media posts. Give your social media followers or email subscribers a venue to share their random acts of kindness. They’ll feel great, and inspire others, too.
- Thanksgiving turkey cook-off. This one’s a classic. You could hold an in-person cookoff at a certain date and time, or encourage people to use social media to show off their own turkeys they’re cooking up at home.
- Creative Thanksgiving recipe contest. Plenty of your potential customers, clients, and followers will have an old family favorite recipe or a think-outside-the-box take on a Thanksgiving staple.
- Scavenger hunt. This can take place around town if you’re a local business, or once again, this can take place online. For instance, you might encourage people to click around your website by solving clues and puzzles. As they solve each clue, they’ll earn prizes, rewards, and discounts.
2. Serve and volunteer.
How about hosting your own Thanksgiving-themed food drive, fundraiser, or meal collection for the homeless? You’ll be helping people in need and promoting your business.
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to be a leader in your niche or industry by serving the less fortunate and connecting with potential clients and customers when you encourage them to join you.
3. Host a local or regional Thanksgiving event.
Hosting a convention, panel discussion, or other local Thanksgiving-themed event is a memorable way to catch your audience’s attention. You might host an event live and in-person, then create a video to further market your brand online.
If your business is primarily online and location independent, you could hold an online event (a livestream or webinar, for instance) and encourage users from all over the world to attend.
4. Share creative Thanksgiving recipes.
Thanksgiving is all about gratitude – and of course, the food. Why not come up with a few creative Thanksgiving recipes to share with your audience? Or make their lives easier by sharing some Thanksgiving-related recipe hacks. Dive into some research for inspiration, then create a video, infographic, podcast, or blog post to share your ideas.
5. Promote a live stream.
You’ve probably already seen the power of Facebook lives and Instagram stories at work. They’re also a powerful marketing tool to amp up any Thanksgiving marketing campaign.
Because they’re becoming so ubiquitous, make sure yours stands out from the crowd, perhaps with some custom graphics or other branded content for the occasion. Promote your livestream through social media to build audience anticipation.
Some creative Thanksgiving live stream ideas include:
- Thanksgiving-themed Q&A.
- Thanksgiving food-related challenge.
- Thanksgiving scavenger hunt – this time with an interactive twist.
6. Start promoting your Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals.
Right on the heels of Thanksgiving comes the most commercial time of the year, kicked off by Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Do you have exclusive deals to offer your customers? The day after Thanksgiving is the ideal time to unveil them. Start stockpiling your exciting and unique deals and have them ready promote on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Once again, it’s important to make sure your holiday marketing campaigns for these two days stand out, as your brand will be one among a seemingly-endless line of deals and campaigns.
(Do you have eye-catching graphics? A user-friendly website that makes buying from you a breeze? Marketing concepts that are truly unique? I’d love to discuss your ideas with you.)
Ready To Begin?
Now it’s time to get started brainstorming for your Thanksgiving marketing campaign. The holiday season is the perfect time to promote your best deals and discounts, and boost your brand as a whole.
If you’re not sure where to start, I’m happy to lead the way – it’s what I do every day for clients all around the world. Let’s chat!