Christmas Marketing Campaigns: Ideas For Instagram

With the first of November comes one of the most anticipated periods in a marketer’s content calendar; Christmas social media marketing. 

Utilising your brand’s social media platforms for Christmas marketing campaigns is an essential step in acing the festive sales season. When done correctly, social media engagement during the Holidays can lead to improved audience relations and increased sales. 

But how do you knock Christmas social media marketing out of the park? By concentrating on your audience and using all the wonderful features Instagram has to offer. 

Let’s dive into the best festive campaign ideas for Instagram. 

Instagram Reels 

The increasing popularity of Reels on Instagram make it the perfect way to share your brand’s Christmas marketing campaigns this festive season. 

Since its inception just over a year ago, Reels has quickly become a cornerstone feature of Instagram. As such, using Reels to carry out your social media Christmas ideas is a sure fire way to share your content to a broader audience, and tap into the humorous side of your brand’s personality. 

To make your Reels as successful as possible, be sure to keep them down to ten seconds or less. In terms of content, stick to casual, relatable ideas set to trending sounds. Over the Christmas period, traditional Christmas songs such as “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey  and the infamous “Santa!” line from “Elf” are usually incredibly popular, so consider engaging with sounds such as this. 

Finally, keeping track of what trends to jump on over the Christmas period is essential to really hitting your Reels content out of the park. By participating in trends, you are ensuring that your Reels content reaches a wide audience. When finding trends to engage with for your Christmas marketing campaigns, be sure to keep in mind that Reels are a fantastic way to show off a more personable side to your audience, so focus on trends that allow you to do this. 

On top of this, keep your Reels short and snappy. Reels have the ability to capture shorter attention spans, which caters well to consumer’s needs during the Christmas season – as they are prone to becoming overwhelmed by the sheer mass of content they are bombarded with. 

Visual Content 

This Christmas, ensuring that your Instagram is the perfect visual representation of your brand should be at the top of your wish list. 

Having an Instagram that encapsulates your brand’s identity is essential to establishing brand trust and solidifying your brand’s image. This is especially important for your social media christmas campaigns, when standing out becomes even more integral due to the sheer amount of content that brands push out. 

To create the perfect Christmas visual content on Instagram, focus on finding a balance between images unique to your brand, graphics, and emphasising your specific tone of voice. Engaging with Instagram’s Grid Pinning feature may be a worthwhile venture for your account if you are hoping to cast an overall Christmas feeling to your whole page. 

Use Stories to create behind the scenes content 

Instagram Stories lend themselves perfectly to casual content and thus are a fantastic way to appeal to the modern consumer. Behind the scenes content on Stories conveys a sense of authenticity and relatability that the modern consumer loves. 

To use Stories to engage with social media Christmas trends, consider showing off your office’s holiday antics. From office Secret Santa to Christmas cookies in the kitchen, little tid bits such as these help you form an emotional bond with your audience. 

Stories are also a great way to tap into user engagement. Running Q&A sessions and polls are just some of the ways you can use Stories to up your engagement and connect with your audience. Moreover, giveaways, contests and special Christmas deals can all be advertised on Stories. 

AR filters 

Creating a Christmas specific AR filter is another fantastic way to drum up UGC and get people talking about your Christmas marketing campaigns. 

Be sure to create something that really appeals to your audience; try and tap into a niche or trend that speaks to your followers, such as a specific holiday activity or brand specific product. If you are able to create a filter that taps into a trend successfully, it will appeal to a wide range of people and broaden your audience. 

Influencer collaborations 

The success of influencer collaborations reigns supreme all year, and Christmas marketing campaigns are no exception. 

Influencer collaborations can be woven into a variety of Christmas campaign ideas, such as giveaways, gift guides, Instagram Lives and even takeovers. Consumers often turn to influencers for Christmas gift inspiration, as their recommendations take out a lot of the hard thinking. 

Users have proven time and time again that they trust the opinions of their favourite influencers almost implicitly. As such, influencer endorsements are a sure fire way to encourage your audience to purchase from your brand over the Christmas season, and thus are a must for Christmas marketing campaigns. 

Christmas-specific hashtags 

Establishing a Christmas-specific hashtag is a simple yet effective way to tie in your overall Christmas marketing campaigns to your Instagram. 

For example, many brands that run Christmas TV campaigns create related hashtags to use in their Instagram. By doing so, they are creating a running theme throughout their content, as well as creating the foundation for UGC. On top of this, hashtags make your content that much easier to find. 

Even if your brand is not engaging with Christmas marketing campaigns outside of Instagram, hashtags are still a worthwhile venture, due to the visibility that they provide your brand. 

Be sure to encourage your followers to use your hashtags in their posts, to truly get the most from this exercise. 

Carousels 

Finally, due to Instagram’s algorithm, Carousels are an amazing tactic to use in your Christmas marketing campaigns. When done right, Carousels are a straight shot to high engagement and increased brand awareness. 

This is because Carousels are shown to users twice. The first time they are shown the very first slide of the Carousel, and the second time they are shown the most popular slide. 

As a brand, you can leverage Carousels to promote products, create quizzes for your users, and more. Given their format, Carousels lend themselves particularly well to interaction, so focus on using them for activities that promote this. 

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