December is the perfect time to be creative with your sales. People want to sense a Christmas atmosphere and create it around themselves by decorating homes and choosing gifts for their loved ones. During this time of year, you can help them feel it without being too pushy and salesy.
In this guide, we'll talk about how to sell on Instagram during this magical season and not to be annoying, touch on some Xmas content ideas, and more. So fasten your seatbelts and let's go!
Instagram Content Ideas for Christmas
Let's start with the content you might want to post on Instagram before and some days after the winter holidays. You don't need to alter your entire content marketing strategy on Instagram just for the Christmas and New Year holidays, but updating the content plan with some new ideas is worth it. Here are some 👇
Share Gift Guides & Product Selections
Gift guides with your products help your customers pick presents for themselves, their friends and families. Feed posts or even Instagram Guides with gifts will not only solve your customers' problem of finding the perfect gifts but also boost your sales. A coupon code with a discount will do an even better job. Give your followers a reason to choose your products amongst your competitors'.
💡 Create your December and holiday content in advance and schedule it for publication with this free Instagram content planning tool — Combin Scheduler. The software allows you to manage your hashtags in templates and insert them in captions when you plan your feed posts for publication that appear right when your post does.
With Combin Scheduler, you can plan posts, stories, reposts, add a link in bio that shows there right when the post goes live, and many more! The tool is absolutely free with no hidden fees or trial periods.
Create a Magical Atmosphere with a Contest
This advice sounds generic, but don't rush to skip it to the next one. Before New Year and Christmas, people are looking for the holiday magic everywhere, even on social media and in ads. Use it and create an emotional bond between your brand and holiday anticipation. In your posts or stories, ask your audience to share their plans for the approaching year or gifts ideas. Then choose the best one(s) and give these followers a special gift or discount for your products.
If your clients are other businesses and you create content for B2B, emotions might be even harmful since, in your case, the selling strategy is rationality and benefit. Instead of a contest or giveaway, share some wrapping infographics, analytics, or benchmark reports from your niche or industry. Reminders of the subscription update or discounts on new solutions will also be on point. And don't forget to wish your partners a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Give Helpful Checklists & Advice
Even if the pre-Christmas and New Year time is the time of never-ending sales and deals, keep a balance between selling and being valuable in your content. For instance, share a checklist of must-have items for home decoration or Christmas dinner table.
How to Run Christmas & New Year Sales Without Annoying People
Starting the end of October, we face a bunch of Halloween sales, Black Fridays, Cyber Mondays, then December comes, and we plunge into the winter holiday deals. No wonder that, at some point, it can be annoying, no matter how much people love discounts and sales. So here's some advice on how to run a Christmas or a New Year deal and avoid being irritating.
Launch a Deal If You're (Absolutely) Sure You're Ready
Have you set up your shipping? If people start ordering from your store right now, they hope to get the purchase by Christmas at the latest. Are your coupon codes active? Are the discounts valid? Make sure everything is right before the sale. Otherwise, you risk having your social media and support emails flooded with angry feedback from your customers.
💡Suggested read: How Businesses Can Deliver Excellent Customer Services Through Social Media
Offer Something That Can Be Gifted
We've already talked about gift guides above; this point is almost the same. Use your best products or those that can easily be used as presents. This can be a Santa sweater or an online certificate for a coaching session. Choose several products that can easily act as a Christmas or a New Year gift and use them as magnets in your campaign.
Be Short & Clear with Your Offer
People get SO many special deals these days, so it's becoming more and more complicated to stand out from the brands' crowd and draw customers' attention. You don't need to be super creative to do that; just keep your promo message in posts' captions and stories sharp. Add your offer right into the title; don't make long introductions because your followers might simply not have enough time to read till the very end of the promo info. Remember to include a promo timeframe right next to the discount details.
Don't Spam & Don't Be Too Pushy
It's okay to remind your followers that you currently have a deal and tell them about it multiple times till the end of the sale. Yet, there's no need to spam with your promo offers in each and every post. If you're unsure how often you should post, announce the start of the sale, make a reminder in the middle of it, and then again announce that the sale will soon come to an end. To draw more attention to the deal, create organic content with gift guides, contests, Reels, and engaging stories.