The holiday season from Thanksgiving through New Year’s produces more sales than at any other time throughout the year. Holiday gifts, Black Friday deals, and post Christmas discounts result in consumers dropping massive amounts of cash (or credit, in many cases!). This, of course, means that the holiday season is one of the most marketed times of year. It’s also the time of year to jump on micro influencers to help spread your brand’s holiday cheer.
During the holiday season, many brands, especially those who sell products through retail channels, are looking for creative ways to set themselves apart from competitors. Many are considering influencer campaigns using mid or micro influencers to attract new buyers. The largest brands, think Target or Samsung, set aside major marketing budgets for this time of year. They have plenty of money to run successful and paid influencer campaigns.
Smaller regional brands, however, may not have the marketing budget to pay mid or micro influencers. That doesn’t mean they’re out of luck when it comes to running influencer campaigns, though. Sometimes micro-influencers who aren’t pay-for-play can still provide brands with that extra boost of holiday exposure!
Micro influencers: motivated beyond the cash
One way to get micro influencers interested in promoting your brand is by offering a product/ service discount or freebie if they agree to promote your products, specials, and/or sales through their social channels. This might be a one-time, one social network promotion. Or it could be an ongoing campaign into the New Year via blog, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat – or all of the above! By offering a discount or freebie to your current brand ambassadors, all parties will benefit. Influencers will get that extra incentive for reaching out to their audience about your brand through the end of the year. And your brand will increase awareness through a trusted and authentic source.
Perhaps your brand doesn’t have anything tangible that they can offer at a discount during the holidays. What do you do if you’re a local magazine, publisher or blogger hoping to increase readership to end the year strong and please your advertisers? Why not work with a micro-level influencer with brand-aligned content (i.e. travel, beauty, sports, tech, etc.)? Perhaps offer them a Featured Guest section in the online version of your magazine if they simultaneously promote your publication to their target audience on social. Not only will your brand awareness increase, but your business will maintain positive relationships with those advertisers whom you promised a certain number of eyeballs.
Another way to create an organic, non-paid micro influencer campaign, is to offer free tickets to highly anticipated holiday events. Perhaps your company is hosting a VIP invite-only New Year’s Eve party this year. You’ve managed to round up a handful of extra invites. Or a popular holiday singer is touring through major cities this season, and you can easily get backstage passes and tickets through a friend or partner. Get creative! Influencers are real people, just like you, and sometimes they just want to get out of the house, away from their screens, and have some fun! Bonus: they’re likely to continue promoting your brand while they are having the time of their lives at your event.
Hire your micro influencers, and happy holidays for all!
The holidays are here, people are ready to spend and the spirit of giving is in the air! It’s time for you to start contemplating where or how you’re going to use marketing dollars for influencer marketing and other campaigns this season. Why not start by reaching out to a few like-minded micro-influencers that are already discussing your brand? These people would probably appreciate an offer for a discount or guest blog post on your website. Build, maintain, and enjoy these new relationships! Meanwhile, you and your influencers BOTH can have very happy holiday!