5 Ways to Use Facebook to Drive Holiday Sales

The holidays are upon us, and many small to mid-size business owners are left wondering about the best ways to take advantage of seasonal sales growth.  The holidays offer many great ways for business owners to capitalize on holiday Facebook marketing campaigns, but many are left wondering where to start. While Facebook campaigns are a great opportunity for business' to show appreciation for their existing customers, share holiday spirit, and even attract the attention of new leads and fans, how can you make the most of your Facebook marketing strategy? Here are 5 great examples of ways some of our customers are using Facebook to drive sales this season that you can use to inspire your own social media marketing campaigns this season.

Butler Motorcycle Maps: Create a Facebook Offer

Butler Motorcycle Maps created a Facebook Offer to extend the reach of their offer promotion. Businesses can expect to pay anything from $120-$481+ to create a special promoted offer on Facebook and receive much needed exposure that will remind shoppers to patronize them. Though the minimum price tag might seem a tad out of budget, we encourage brand managers with a decent Facebook followership to test the functionality at least once and document the sales impact. What makes this tactic successful? Butler Motorcycle Maps is not only showcasing a great use of Facebook marketing tactics, but the small company is also able to compete in a holiday market that is historically dominated by big box stores. Furthermore, they are helping to drive sales that will benefit their brand recognition for the long term by exposing potential leads to their message at a time when customers are especially aware of products like theirs as they scramble to find the perfect gift for their loved ones.

Loot Crate: Boost a Post

Loot Crates' monthly subscription service delivers crates of product to geeks packed with different unique items every month. And to really keep their product relevant, they are showcasing a line of their geeky holiday ornaments shown above. Though we can't prove without a doubt that this post was boosted using Facebooks Post Boost Functionality, the 40 shares indicated at the bottom of the post suggest that they probably got extra exposure by paying to further promote the post.

Costs to promote posts with a Boost can range anywhere from $10-$1,000+. But we warned. Keep in mind that a post boost won't guarantee a surge in sales. It's merely a "touch" to keep your brand top of mind for customers when they are next in the market for your products or services, which very well might be during the holidays.

What makes this tactic successful? Loot Crate is very successful with customer engagement, especially when it comes to fan loyalty. By boosting their post for the holidays, the company is not only spreading holiday cheer, it's also reminding customers that their product makes a great gift. When creating your holiday marketing game plan, keep your long-term goals in mind. Your strategy should incorporate some holiday accents while leveraging the bigger picture.

Crossfire Paintball and Airsoft: Partner with a Charity or Cause

What's better than spreading goodwill during the holidays by paying-it-forward? Doing it in a way that mutually benefits everyone involved. Some companies are really great at pulling this off in the world of Facebook, and finding business success as a seemingly karmic bi-product is more than what it may appear. Our customer Crossfire Paintball has done an amazing job of donating accessories to benefit positive causes. And they also do a great job of documenting it via social media. But perhaps the most successful aspect of their charitable efforts on Facebook is that Crossfire does a great job of extending their reach/network through partnership. Strategic partners (charities/businesses/other) help spread the viral impact of the message and thus, drive more interest and sharing. The causes they promote get people onboard and inadvertantly, keep people coming back for more. What makes this tactic successful? By creating these campaigns that promote donations, Crossfire is constantly engaging with its audience. Crossfire saw an opportunity to do something good for the community while still promoting its brand. In addition, the collaborative nature of the campaign creates a viral effect, helping the promotion to spread, and thus expanding the reach of the Crossfire brand. For your next holiday campaign, consider opportunities to better your local community and really learn how to connect with the hearts and minds of your customers.

StickerGiant: Facebook Contest

We were bound to post about our own use of Facebook. This season, we released a series of Facebook contests to test their effectiveness, and we thought it would benefit our customers to learn from our successes. Some campaigns went better than others, and we quickly discovered the importance of ironing out the details of this tactic before releasing it to the eager social media public (namely, we learned that if we messed anything up, our customers would be the first ones to let us know). But another key aspect of our contest success has been making sure to boost the post, encourage sharing and interaction, and making the instructions as short and simple as possible. Visit our Facebook page anytime to see what has worked for us in the past and it will surely help you tailor your own successful holiday contest campaign. What makes this tactic successful? This may seem like an easy opportunity for customers to win free stuff and leave you without a sale, but contests on Facebook quickly take on a viral nature when the offer is right. Don't forget to also make sure that the offer is right for your business, and don't forget to partner with others to spread a holiday contests impact.  Using a Facebook contest keeps StickerGiant's brand goals in mind while still benefiting from the seasonality of gift-giving and free stuff.

Impact Hub Boulder: Promote an Event

Impact Hub Boulder is a co-working entrepreneurial space/"hub" that does a great job of drawing a crowd for their regular events.  This month, they added a little seasonal spice to their event post by merely adjusting the copy slightly. So why run an event in the first place much less use Facebook to promote it? Physical and virtual events serve two main purposes: 1. They help you connect on a more personal one-to-one manner 2. They help drive your business credibility when you run successful event organization/execution. Collaborating on an event with other brands that have a vested interest and a Facebook presence helps drive attendance, and boosting the post can further add to you events attendee attractiveness. What makes this tactic successful? Impact Hub Boulder and co-working organizations like theirs create a great resource for locally grown businesses looking to leverage the holidays to boost sales. By giving local business owners tangible resources and networking opportunities that tie into a holiday theme, the organization will be able to take the Impact Hub brand and experience outside of their usual Facebook event postings, and give them a slight seasonal twist. The holidays are a great time to market your business via Facebook during a time when many of your competitors are likely unaware of the social media site's viral brand spreading benefits. Whether you create a contest or simply create a few holiday-themed posts, don't miss out on a great opportunity to get creative and keep your business on the tops of your social media followers' minds. And don't forget to check out other StickerGiant Facebook marketing strategies and create your own! What other rockin' holiday Facebook campaigns have you seen this season?