The holidays are coming! It’s a fun time. It’s the time of the year most people look forward to throughout the early months. This year is especially anticipated because, after two years, we have a relatively unrestricted chance to socialize with people and spend the holidays with people we love. Don’t get us wrong, the pandemic is very much around. But still, we are “normalizing” and have enjoyed moments and activities that were difficult to do in 2020 and 2021. (But seriously, be mindful, people!) Around this time of the year, memories are made and good moods are generally increasing. 

Do you know what else is increasing? Consumer spending. That’s right! A survey made by PWC suggests that shoppers are planning to spend an extra $1,430 just for the holidays this year. Even with the increasing inflation rate. Honestly, that amount is conservative. 

Fortunately for marketers, this is a huge opportunity to level up our game and generate more revenue. If you want to do just that, you’re in the right place! In this post, we’ll discover why TikTok is one of the best platforms for your holiday marketing plan, why users spend so much on the platform, and most importantly, we’ll give you a step-by-step TikTok Holiday Marketing Gameplan that you can implement into your own strategy.

Let’s dive in.

Social media marketing is one of, if not the biggest medium of advertising today. Most people are on social media, and so we follow the consumers. But with all the advertising platforms out there, which is best? While all platforms have their fair share of merits, why not take advantage of a platform hitting record numbers so fast? We’re talking about TikTok, of course. When TikTok reached 1 billion installations in 2019, who knew it could double that number in the succeeding year? Of course, installations, or even the number of active users, isn’t the end-all and be-all of choosing marketing platforms. TikTok has more to offer than just numbers, though. 

Did you know that TikTok users spent 2.3 billion dollars on the app last year? Almost twice the 1.3 billion dollars they spent in the previous year. But why? What about the app drives consumers to spend on products advertised on the platform? There are various reasons, but here are the top three:

Three Reasons TikTok Encourages Consumer Spending

ONE: The users are very engaged.

Currently, TikTok users are the most engaged compared to other platforms. Upfluence found that Tiktok, Instagram, and Youtube have 17.96%, 3.96%, and 1.63% engagement rates, respectively. 

TWO: The platform is a popular source of inspiration for design, beauty, fashion, and travel.

TikTok has made searching for inspiration for many things easier, especially for more visually inclined people. Instead of reading through long articles, you can just as easily look at a 30-second video. 

THREE: The various ad placements make for a more “natural” discovery of products.

(various ad placements). TikTok also has so much user-generated content. While the UGCs are not under the brands’ control, they contribute to brand awareness on the platform. 

Before we go on to your Holiday TikTok advertising plan, here’s a quick 5-step checklist for advertising on TikTok:

• Set objectives
• Define target demographics
• Find creators that are in your niche
• Measure performance
• Repurpose for other platforms

For more information, you can check out our recent Strikepoint Academy video, 3 Things To Know Before Running TikTok Ads.

Now, onto the main part of this post; we’ll discuss your holiday marketing strategy. But first, what is holiday marketing, and how does it differ from year-round, regular marketing? 

Holiday marketing is simply marketing centered around a particular holiday or, in the case of the later months of the year, a series of holidays. Around the holidays, marketing efforts are often intensified mostly because, as mentioned, consumer spending also increases. The brand’s aesthetics also take on some aspects of the celebrated holiday. Heinz Ketchup’s marketing 2021 Halloween marketing strategy is an excellent example of a brand or product being amped up due to a celebration. The “Tomato Blood” is the same ketchup we have every day but is rebranded to fit the season. Of course, the decision to use the name  “tomato blood” was within the context of using their ketchup as fake blood for their consumers’ halloween costumes, then sharing pictures on social media using relevant hashtags.

Now, let’s get into what you’re really here for: The TikTok Holiday Marketing Guide. There’s three phases to this, Planning, Creating, and Launching.

We’ll break down all three so you’re set up for success to launch your own TikTok campaigns.

PLANNING

The first step for your Holiday Plan is marking your calendars.

If you haven’t started your plans yet, don’t worry! Halloween is right around the corner, but you still have at least three weeks before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving on the 24th of November, Christmas and New Year celebrations are probably two of the biggest celebrations for the year. Don’t forget to mark the last shipping date on your calendar too! It might vary wherever you are or who your shipping partner is, but it’s important to know so you can give notice to your customers, and they place that order way before the last shipping. 

Step two is planning your schedule.

Since Thanksgiving is on the last week of November, start planning your strategy for the whole Holiday season (November to January) as soon as possible. You can start now! Gather your team, or alone if you’re running a one-man show, bust out that calendar and first decide specific durations for planning, creating, and launching. If you want to start Thanksgiving promotions on the 14th, for example, 10 days before the holiday itself, you want to plan for the weeks before so you can follow a schedule. A campaign isn’t going to make itself. 

Do your best to follow your schedule but also remember to make room for unexpected changes or issues that might come along. You’ve got this!

Third, you need to decide on your holiday offers. 

Ask yourself, will you have special discounts for the holidays? Some bundles? These need to be decided early so you can properly promote them leading up to the dates. It would also help in deciding which needs to be highlighted and the order. 

CREATING

Fourth,  gather the creative team and decide on a theme and general visuals. 

Chances are, many of your customers are very visually inclined. This means that your creative decisions can make or break your campaign. Remember that one expensive sauce you bought because the packaging was exquisite? How you present your brand and your product to the world matters. Deciding on a general theme will also help create a sense of coherence, make the brand more recognizable, and increase brand awareness. The creative aspect of your campaign also includes your ad copy! You can decide on the tone or how you want to come across. 

The fifth step is producing your ad creative. 

After you’ve planned your strategy, aware of your theme and the look you want to go for, you can now start creating! This may be one of the most bloody steps in marketing campaigns. Visuals and ad copies need to be made, approved or make all over again if disapproved. TikTok allows you to preview your ad so take advantage of that before launching! While nothing is perfect, you want things to go as smoothly as possible, and previewing your ads can help you check if the final ad is to your liking.

LAUNCHING

Now you’re ready and the time has come to launch your campaign. However, it’s no time to sit back and relax! You need to familiarize yourself with optimizations that would help your campaign achieve its best potential.

Here are seven key practices and reminders to help you optimize and get the best out of your holidays campaigns:

• Refresh your creative at least every seven (7) days
• Finish the learning phase to not make adjustments too early 
• Allow your ads to recalibrate and adjust before evaluating performance
• Don’t change your budget too much (at most, 30% for budget and 20% for bids)
• Monitor and adjust target audience as necessary
• Aim for a set amount of conversions for a week
• If conversion goal is unmet, try to move up your event

The most important reason you’re marking your calendar is so you can strategically space out the planning and launching of your marketing campaign or materials. You don’t to do it too early. You don’t want to be that person who blasts out Christmas songs in the middle of October. That can irritate some of your customers. But, you don’t want to leave it too late either. You need to give your customers time to browse products properly and have ample time for decision-making.

Tip: While the timing for launching your campaigns can be tricky, remember to gradually intensify campaigns rather than drop a whole campaign at once. If teasing is done properly, it’ll create hype around the campaign and prepare your audience.

Most people will be laying back and relaxing, but the marketing game is as action-packed as ever. Taking time to enjoy the holiday season will be much more gratifying if you know you’ve no work left behind. So prepare as early as now, reap the benefits, and let’s all have happy holidays!

Need help with your holiday marketing strategy? We offer a free strategy session! We also have more resources posted on our blog.