He’s facing now stiff competition from digital savvy competitors in the Christmas gift market, like Amazon. Luckily for the big man, there are many ways he can attract new believers by bringing some Christmas magic online.
Today’s digital savvy audience loves to feel connected to a brand. While the mystery and magic of Santa was once a viable marketing strategy, in 2017, Santa needs to interact with his fans all year round or risk being forgotten from January to November! He needs to set up profiles on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and engage with his fans.
Instead of giving away toys for free, Santa should consider starting an Etsy account selling “one of a kind toys, hand-made by the indigenous elves of the North Pole” and charge €149.99 per item + postage.
Is personally delivering millions of presents to kids all over the world really practical for an elderly man who is severely overweight? Give yourself a long lead in time to Christmas, so you’re not scrambling to get everything done in time for the 24th.
Save countless hours of elf labour sorting out envelopes in the North Pole mail room and switch to email automation. If Santa invests in a service like Mailchimp, he can manage his naughty and nice lists with ease.
When it comes to getting noticed on social media, good storytelling is paramount. Santa needs to make his audience feel a part of his brand. No one is more iconic or has more of a rich history than the man in big red suit. Santa should appeal to his audience’s nostalgic connection with him by creating rich Christmas content that appeals to everyone’s inner child.
He should let Christmas fans in on a little of his magic and broadcast live updates from his trip around world using Facebook Live, Instagram Live and Snapchat.
How do you grow your audience beyond your regular clientele? Santa needs to seek out top influencers to help promote the Santa Claus brand. What makes a good influencer? Find public figures or internet celebrities like vloggers and Snapchatters with a big online following, and invite them to the North Pole and vlog their adventure. The likes of Kim Kardashian may be out of reach if you don’t have deep pockets – but regional TV, sport or internet personalities can certainly introduce more people in specific areas to your brand.
Santa’s strategic co-branded partnership with Norad does not appear to be delivering the traffic volumes from Ireland that we would anticipate given the increase in ‘Lapland’ interest since the recession. The lack of ‘href lang’ tags on this global site is seriously hurting Santa’s traffic and is readily fixed with a bit of SEO magic.
No amount of magic in the North Pole can make Santa’s digital strategy a success over night. Santa needs to consistently track results and tailor his strategy accordingly. He needs to pinpoint the metrics that matter to his business and monitor them meticulously. How to do that? Let’s say his goal is to increase web traffic – he needs to track website hits on Google Analytics. What about increasing his social media presence? he could use a service like Hootsuite to track engagement and follower growth, and what content performed the best.
There’s no better way to get your brand message in front of the right audience like investing in digital advertising through the likes of Google Adwords or Bing Ads. When creating ads, use a clear Call-To-Action, compelling imagery and informative but concise copy.
Cultivating a digital marketing strategy is tough work and requires experience and patience. There are plenty of companies that can take care of all your digital needs, without the headache.
Here at Tinderpoint, we can take care of your SEO, content, social media strategy and digital PR all under one roof. Get in touch at hello@tinderpoint.com .