Holiday Planning

Leveraging Influencer for Your Holiday 2023 Marketing Strategy

by Ovative |

Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years, with the global market more than doubling since 2019.¹ Whether you’re just starting to research creators to partner with, or you have an end-to-end program already built out, there’s no better time to ramp up your efforts than the holiday season. Around this time of year, consumers are actively seeking out gift ideas—making now the perfect time to capture their attention with endorsements from already-trusted voices and familiar faces. Read on to learn how you can unlock the full potential of this strategy for your brand. 

Find Your Brand Loyalists

Influencers help brands reach consumers in a more personal, authentic way by creating unique content that showcases a product or service in the context of real life. This lifestyle-focused, entertaining content is particularly powerful during the holiday season when consumers are bombarded with traditional ads.  

In short, the power of influencer marketing can’t be denied. Pay particular attention to creators who are already posting about your brand. Followers know them as brand loyalists, and the endorsement feels authentic. And, if they’re already a fan of your brand, chances are good they’ll be excited to partner with you! 

If your brand has a tight influencer budget, note that many influencers raise their rates during the holiday season due to high demand. Therefore, it is important to book creators early. This lead time can also benefit your strategy in the long run, ensuring you can shoot content in time to impact the holiday shopping season. Creators, like many, tend to take time off during the holidays. So, once content is created, it may be difficult to request changes.  

Build a People-Powered Content Strategy

Once you’ve identified relevant influencers and established partnerships, work with your creators to ideate and create content that feels authentic to them. Remember that the power of influencer marketing is its perceived authenticity.  

In terms of what format to focus on, the sky is truly the limit. Consider partnering with a range of influencers who create different types of content. When you cast a wide net of content themes and formats, you can monitor and compare performance to help guide future campaigns. Here are some tried-and-true themes that are typically successful during the holiday season:

• Gift Guides: These are table stakes content during the holidays. Use lay-down images to avoid shooting content, and craft guides that are tailored to your audience (e.g. spouses, teachers, and children).
• Entertaining: Many use the holidays as a time to host. Customize your content to feature different categories, such as food and dining, home décor, or even fashion and apparel.
• Experiential: Capture content at an in-person event for an additional layer of authenticity, whether that be a creator holiday dinner, shopping event, or holiday open house.

Let Consumer Behavior Guide You

Influencer campaigns provide valuable insight into the consumer behavior of a brand’s customer base. By monitoring engagement and feedback on influencer content, you can gain a more thorough understanding of exactly what messages and types of content resonate with your audience. This can not only inform future influencer partnerships and content, but also deepen your understanding of your target audience overall. 

The most important consideration for creators when monitoring content? Ensure featured items are available once the content is posted. Inventory issues can create a poor customer experience. Therefore, be mindful of promoting items that may sell out quickly or have limited availability.

Optimize in Real Time

Now comes the fun part: test, test, and test again! Use the initial insights generated by your first campaigns to optimize your targeting strategy in real time. Is an experimental messaging approach performing better against your tried-and-true? Run with it and continue optimizing to boost performance even further. Better yet, secure rights to run it from your brand’s handle.

When considering CTAs during the holiday season, it is always beneficial to include product links for a seamless shopping experience. Don’t forget to sweeten the deal by providing creators with promo codes to amplify a store-wide deal.  

Ready to Leverage Influencer Marketing for Holiday?

Unlocking the full potential of influencer marketing before the holidays is no small task. That’s where Ovative comes in—to support your brand at every stage of planning. 

Ovative’s full-service Influencer team connects brands with the most impactful creators in the business. We deliver unparalleled strategies and execute full-funnel campaigns that not only raise brand awareness but also drive engagement, foster customer loyalty, and ultimately lead to conversions. We believe that an effective influencer campaign should resonate with the audience at every touchpoint, from the initial discovery to the final purchase decision. 

And while the holiday season is nearly here, there’s still time to plan and execute a robust influencer program. Contact us to get started.