The sprinkle of snow and the jingle of bells make it delightfully tempting to bring a little holiday cheer into your brand! A holiday marketing campaign can be the perfect way to keep your brand relevant with the steady stream of holiday ads being pushed out over the next month. We’re sharing a few tips to bring in a seasonal flair to your brand over the holidays plus our bonus on how to get your brand back on track in the new year. 

Plan, Batch, Schedule Your Content! 

December can be a crazy busy time, what with holiday parties, family gatherings, work events, the steady stream of holiday movies on the Hallmark channel… If there was ever a time to be organized with your content in advance, it’s now! Our fav way to do this: 

• Block out either an entire afternoon or two two-hour blocks over a few days so that you can really focus on getting this done! 
• Refer to your annual content calendar framework to see what you had already mapped out for this month. Adjust as necessary. 
• Refer to annual biz plans to double check what promos etc you had planned for this month. 
• Start batching your content! Write out content that aligns with your content plans and your business plans. Keep in mind the lovely trick of repurposing content so that you don’t have to write new content every single time! 
• Get that content scheduled so it’s done, and you don’t have to stress about it at the last minute! 

If you can get a whole month’s worth of content done in one sitting…that’s amazing!!!!!! But don’t stress if you can’t. Aim for a two week period, which means that during the month of December when you are elbow deep in ribbon and eggnog you only have to do this twice. 

Ho-Ho-Hold Up On Going Overboard With Seasonal Imagery + Copy 

It’s fun to add a little seasonally themed imagery and copy into your brand, but we will warn you not to go overboard with it. Your business has a distinct brand voice and look; one that you need to stay in alignment with all year long. Ensure that your brand voice is still present as you weave in any holiday language and that you are selecting visual elements that flow with your overall aesthetic. Your audience will appreciate small references and festive cheer, but will likely be confused at any big shifts in your tone or style. For example, we might post pictures of donuts with red and green sprinkles, not just our usual donuts with blue and purple icing!! 

Ideas to play with: 

• Insert holiday language into promotional tag lines. For example, at this time of year, Melissa can’t help but think of Leon’s and their ‘Ho-Ho-Hold The Payment!’ campaign. 
• Swap out your usual brand colours for ones that are more festive for you 
• Talk about holiday-related pain points that your audience has 

There are all kinds of different ways that you can bring in a seasonal element to your brand. If you decide to, have fun with it, but ensure you are still aligned with your overall brand!  

Spread the Cheer…Everywhere!! 

Be consistent across all platforms and marketing channels!! If you are going to tweak your brand at all this holiday season, make sure that you represent this tweak everywhere. Don’t just sprinkle the holiday on your Instagram, spread the cheer everywhere. Striving for consistency means that your audience will receive a smooth brand shift no matter where they look from you, reducing any confusion or questions. Keep track of all the changes you have made so that when it’s time to swap back, you know exactly where to go to make your changes. 

Transition Back To the Norm With Confidence 

As the holiday season ends, it’s time to plan your transition back to your brand norm. We recommend spending a brief block of time revisiting your brand voice guide and your notes on where you made any changes. Plan out when you will transition your content and visual imagery and consider what new theme you want your content to focus on. Be consistent on the transition back and make sure you catch all those changes you made! 

Give yourself the opportunity to enjoy the festivities during December without having to worry last minute about your content. Get yourself prepared ahead of time so you can kick back, eat sugar cookies, and perhaps catch a smooch under some mistletoe! 

We have created a quarterly membership  designed to help women in business get clear on who they are, what they want, and how they position themselves. Head over to The Hustle + Flow Business Mentorship to get some more information, enrollment for the January session is now OPEN!