Tips for Winning With Holiday Video Marketing in 2024

The holiday season brings with it a lot of associations: cold weather, cozy sweaters, festive celebrations, and, of course, shopping. According to PWC, consumers plan to spend an average of $1,430 on gifts, travel, and entertainment this holiday season. And if you want some of this spending to go to your business, strategic holiday marketing is a must. To help you out, we’ve put together this list of tips for how to win with holiday video marketing in 2022. Let’s dive in.

Why Video Marketing for the Holidays Matters in 2022

The revenue potential of the holiday season is massive. In 2021, overall holiday spending in the US reached $886.7 billion. This means that the holidays are crucial for businesses that want to close out their year with a boost to their bottom line. So to capture some of that holiday spend, deliberate marketing campaigns targeted toward holiday shoppers are essential.

When it comes to planning your holiday marketing campaign, one type of marketing asset emerges as especially effective. We’re talking about video, of course. There is a huge audience for video content with over 3 billion users watching an average of 84 minutes of video per day. And these views translate to tangible results, with video having a remarkably high ROI. In fact, 78% of marketing professionals say that videos help them increase sales.

One thing that is important to note is that 2022 may not be a year like any other. Because while 

holiday spending has been trending up since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are predicting a recession to hit soon. This prediction could affect consumer behavior as people spend less in anticipation of difficult times ahead. 

This is why in 2022, holiday marketing is more important than ever. This may be the last holiday season in a while before the full brunt of the recession hits. And for those shoppers who are already being thrifty ahead of a predicted economic downturn, it is deliberate marketing that will help you to position yourself as one of the few businesses that they plan ahead to buy from.

Holiday Video Marketing Best Practices in 2022

To best respond to the current and coming social and economic climate, here are the most important tips you need to know for holiday video marketing in 2022.

Know Your Target Audience

Consumer behavior in difficult economic times is unique, and it requires a deep understanding of your target audience to be able to understand how to best market to them. By honing in on the exact audience you want to capture, you will be able to settle on the messaging that will most appeal to them. For example, is your audience thinking more about their holiday gift list during this season, or are they taking advantage of holiday deals to treat themselves? Do they have a long list of people to give small gifts to or are they able to spend more money on fewer gifts? This type of information is crucial for planning effective marketing videos.

Plan Ahead

Did you know that 61% of consumers start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving? This means that the time to start planning your holiday marketing is now. 

Starting your holiday campaign planning early also comes with another important advantage: it makes it easier on you. Waiting until the last minute to ideate, create, and post your videos will put added stress on you during an already hectic season. 

But starting early and planning your videos far enough ahead of time will let you execute a stress-free marketing campaign. With enough time, you’re able to do more research, come up with more creative ideas, and get everything scheduled ahead of time so that everything goes smoothly.

Promo tip: The Promo Planner allows you to easily schedule your social media posts ahead of time directly from the Promo publish page to make your holiday marketing planning that much easier. 

Include a CTA

The holidays are an opportunity to create all sorts of creative marketing videos, from more obviously promotional ones announcing sales and showing off products to videos that are less sales-y and more focused on creating general holiday buzz. But no matter what type of holiday videos you choose to make, it’s important to always include a call to action, or a CTA. 

A CTA is a message encouraging your audience to take some kind of action. There are a number of things you can call for in your CTA, such as:

• Leaving a comment
• Following your account
• Going to your store
• Visiting your website
• Buying a certain product
• Using a particular discount code

Whatever CTA you choose, this essential marketing tool helps turn video views into actual sales, giving you ROI on your video marketing efforts. 

Promo tip: You can add a customized CTA to your video in seconds using Promo’s online video editor.

Choose Strong Visuals and Sound

The holidays come with very strong sensory associations and memories. We all know what the holidays look, sound, smell, and taste like, with certain color palettes (blue and white, green and red), sounds (jingle bells, reindeer hooves), and images (trees, gifts, snowmen) dominating the collective cultural imagination during this season. 

By including these elements in your holiday marketing videos, you’re able to take advantage of the video format’s ability to engage multiple senses to stir up emotion and create a strong impression. For example, if you use delicious-enough-looking photos and videos of holiday cookies, people won’t be able to stop themselves from going to your bakery to buy one, two, or a dozen. 

Promo tip: With Promo’s video editor, you’re easily able to upload your own photos and footage to include in your videos. Don’t have any of your own content? Don’t worry. You can use Getty’s stock library of millions of photos and videos – including thousands of holiday-themed ones, as well as a pre-approved music library.

Stand Out

Holiday marketing is a no-brainer, and that’s why you can expect all of your competitors to be doing it, too. That makes it especially important to stand out by coming up with unique ideas that emphasize what makes your brand different. Because if your videos are totally indistinguishable from a hundred other holiday videos out there, there’s nothing that will make people associate them with your brand. 

To help you out, think about your unique value proposition. What do you offer that your competitors don’t? What problem do your target customers have that you’re able to solve in a unique way? 

For example, maybe your dog clothing is significantly cheaper than the other brands on the market. In that case, you can focus your holiday marketing on how you offer affordable gifts, emphasizing your low prices.

Or maybe your dog clothing designs and patterns are unlike any others. In that case, you can make sure your marketing videos emphasize the unique look of your product. 

Whatever you choose, the important thing is to make sure that your videos are unique to you.

Promo tip: To help ensure that nobody will mix up your holiday videos with somebody else’s, be sure to include your company’s branding in each one. Promo’s online video maker allows you to easily customize your videos with your own logos, colors, and fonts. 

Give Back

Today, more than ever, consumers want to buy from brands that care. Indeed, 85% of consumers have a more positive image of a product or company when it supports a cause they care about, and 92% report wanting to buy a product that supports a cause.

Well, there’s no time like the holiday season to be charitable. So use your holiday marketing videos to show that you care, forefront your company values, stand up for a cause you believe in, and give back to somebody who is in need. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will also help you earn a reputation as a brand that cares.

A word of caution: It’s crucial to be genuine and actually put your money where your mouth is. There’s no point in creating videos about how much your company contributes to your community if that isn’t actually true. Today’s consumers are savvy and will be able to quickly sniff out a phony, and the consequences of only pretending to be a caring brand are even worse than if you didn’t go there in the first place. 

2022 Holiday Marketing Video Ideas

Ready to dive in and start planning your marketing videos for the 2022 holiday season? Here are some ideas to kick off your brainstorming. 

• Gift guide – Create a video showcasing different products or services that your company sells that would make a great gift. You can make a general gift guide or more specific ones such as “Best gifts under $25,” “Best gifts for book lovers,” etc.

• Sale announcements and reminders – The bread and butter of holiday marketing is offering special deals just for the season. If you’re planning on running a holiday sale, make sure to announce it with a video. You can also create videos reminding your audience about the promotion and giving them one last chance to take advantage of it before it’s over.

• Heartwarming stories – During the season of giving, consider creating videos sharing touching stories that will warm your audience’s hearts. After all, the video medium has a unique ability to stir up emotions. So whether it’s a video announcing a charity to which you will match contributions or a story of how your product helped improve somebody’s life, this is the perfect time to make your audience feel something. 

• Last-minute gift ideas – As the end of December approaches, make a video showing off some last minute gift ideas that customers can hurry up and get from your business before it’s too late.

• Holiday season greeting from your team – Don’t forget to wish your audience a happy holiday with a season’s greetings video.

• Show off your holiday decorations – Have you decorated your business in a particularly impressive or unique way? Create a video tour showing off your decorations and encouraging viewers to come in to see them for themselves. 

• Have team members talk about their favorite holiday traditions – Get your team in on the fun by creating a video in which members of your staff share their favorite holiday traditions that they participate in.

• Share New Year resolutions – Create a video about New Year’s resolutions you have as a business. Your brand identity will help you decide whether your list is more lighthearted and fun or serious.

• Product videos – One video type that is sure to help you make sales during the holiday season is a product video showing off a product or line of products and all of the features that make it a perfect purchase for the season. 

What Holiday Videos Will You Make?

With so many joyful associations and positive feelings, the holiday season is an incredibly exciting time to be creating video content. So get creative, have some fun with it, and make videos that put a smile on your audience’s face. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!