Key takeaways:
- The holiday season is a very important period for small businesses to attract new customers and increase sales. Start your planning early and leverage different marketing channels to effectively compete and stand out.
- Create a seasonal landing page and update your website copy by including holiday keywords. These steps help you attract organic traffic and guide shoppers directly to your promotions and products.
- Showing appreciation and building loyalty turns holiday shoppers into long-term customers. Offer special deals, such as product bundles and free shipping, to loyal customers.
The holiday season is a special time of year, as we spread joy by giving gifts to those we cherish. While this is a time for celebration, it’s also a time when small business owners need to strap in to make sure they capture these holiday sales.
40% of consumers will find products from one channel, but will purchase in a different one, according to Inmar Intelligence’s 2025 Holiday Forecast Report. Create a marketing strategy that reaches your customers on all the platforms they use.
In this article, we’ll walk you through ten holiday marketing tips that will attract shoppers and boost your holiday sales.
We interviewed Alicia Pringle, Senior Director of Online Marketing at Network Solutions, who shared the holiday preparation strategies she gives every small to medium-sized business, now captured in our free holiday marketing playbook.
10 holiday marketing strategies for small businesses
Holiday marketing allows small businesses to introduce their brands to new customers and increase their sales. Develop a solid marketing strategy to compete effectively during this period.
Use these ten holiday marketing strategies:
- Start early and plan ahead
- Personalize and segment your holiday marketing campaigns
- Leverage multiple marketing channels
- Offer holiday sales promotions
- Show appreciation and build loyalty
- Host holiday events
- Make sure AI can find you
- Add a seasonal landing page
- Use holiday keywords in your website copy
- Boost trust signals and social proof
>>Check out our video interview with Alicia to hear her full insights on holiday prep for SMBs.
Tip 1. Start early and plan ahead
When should businesses start preparing for the holidays? The answer is as soon as possible.
According to Alicia, “Customers are starting to think about researching gifts in September. They’re building their carts in October and they’re buying before Thanksgiving even hits.”
In 2024, 8% of consumers started holiday shopping in September, and 19% in October, Rakuten revealed in their 2024 Holiday Shopping Survey.
These customers look for deals and unique items early. When you start early and have a strategic plan, you can get a good head start among competitors.
Start planning your campaigns, inventory, and creative assets as early as September. With this approach, you avoid the last-minute rush and potential stress.
Planning ahead gives you enough time to develop a clear marketing campaign strategy and an effective content marketing plan. You can also secure better advertising placements and partnerships by booking them well in advance.
Begin monitoring your inventory to ensure popular products remain in stock throughout the holidays. This will prevent a shortage that can cost you lost sales.
Tip 2. Personalize and segment your holiday marketing campaigns
When planning your holiday promotions, a generic message for everyone isn’t the most effective approach. Personalize your campaigns to resonate with different customer groups.
In fact, 37% of shoppers tend to buy more often when they see personalized product recommendations, according to Salsify’s and the Digital Shelf Institute’s (DSI) eCommerce Pulse Report 2025.
You can start by using your internal customer data to send personalized recommendations. You can showcase products similar to a customer’s past purchases or suggest complementary items based on their browsing history.
Customer segmentation marketing makes your efforts more relevant, making consumers feel understood rather than just part of a mass audience.
Try writing tailored emails that speak to specific customer segments. Start by breaking up your audience based on various factors, such as:
- Location
- Past shopping behavior
- Purchasing frequency
For instance, send an email with an exclusive discount to loyal customers to thank them for their business. You can also create a themed gift guide for those who have a history of buying items from a specific category.
Encourage more conversions during the busy shopping season with personalized emails. Alicia advises using AI to your advantage and having it give you a helping hand to create your marketing emails.
Download the complimentary Network Solutions’ holiday marketing playbook for more great tips on leveraging AI in other areas of your marketing strategy.
Tip 3. Leverage multiple marketing channels
Leveraging multiple marketing channels can increase your brand’s visibility and create more opportunities to connect with customers.
Instead of relying on a single platform, an integrated strategy ensures your message reaches a wider audience wherever they prefer to engage.
Alicia pointed out that “you don’t have to be in a million different channels this holiday season.” She adds, “What is vital is that you have a very clear, consistent message and you are posting intentionally on these different channels.”
Let’s say you launch a campaign with an email showcasing a new holiday product. You can supplement it with a series of engaging and valuable posts across your social media accounts. These posts can be about what makes your product special or any holiday deals you offer.
Keep your brand present in customers’ minds with this layered strategy. Be part of their daily routine, from checking their inbox in the morning to scrolling through social media in the evening.
Beyond email and social media, short-form communication is also powerful. Use SMS and push notifications for timely and direct communication. These methods are excellent for:
- Last-minute promotions
- Shipping updates
- Reminders about expiring offers
Urge shoppers to take immediate action with a text message about a flash sale or a push notification about a limited-time coupon.
Ensure, though, that your messaging, branding, and offers are consistent in all channels. Reinforce your brand identity and make it easier for customers to recognize and interact with your campaigns.
Tip 4. Offer holiday sales promotions
43% of customers prioritize sales and promotions when they shop, according to a 2025 blind survey by Toast. Create appealing offers to capture your customers’ attention.
You can use limited-time discounts or create product bundles to encourage larger purchases. Try offering a “buy one, get one 50% off” deal on popular items, or bundle complementary products at a discounted price.
You can also run countdown promotions with a visible timer on your website to create a sense of urgency. Motivate customers to make a purchase before the offer expires.
How about offering free shipping and hassle-free returns? Most customers abandon their carts because of high shipping costs.
Remove this friction and encourage them to complete their purchase by giving them limited-time free shipping. Give customers peace of mind with a clear and easy return policy.
Add a “gift with purchase” promotion to delight customers and differentiate your brand. You can offer a small, branded item or a free sample of a new product when a customer spends a certain amount. Provide an extra touch of goodwill that customers will remember.
Tip 5. Show appreciation and build loyalty
When is a better time to show gratitude towards your customers than during the holiday season? Show your appreciation through thoughtful actions that make customers feel valued beyond their transactions.
Send shoppers handwritten thank-you notes with a personal touch to nurture the emotional connection you have with them. Offer exclusive gifts or early access to sales for more frequent buyers.
Make them feel like valued members of your brand community and motivate them to stay engaged with your business.
Encourage repeat business by creating a loyalty program during the holidays. You can offer a points-based system where customers earn rewards with every purchase. Give them a clear incentive to return to you rather than going to a competitor.
With loyalty programs, you’re hitting two birds with one stone, as you’re not only rewarding loyal shoppers, but you’re also gaining valuable customer data.
Try these other tips:
- Highlight customers on social media
- Celebrate buyers’ milestones
- Ask for feedback to show you value their input
Build a dedicated customer base that will continue to support your business long after the holiday season ends.
Tip 6. Host holiday events
Hosting a holiday event allows you to create a festive atmosphere and build a community around your business. If you’re concerned about the expenses, you can use this strategy even with a limited budget.
Showcase your best-selling products during a simple open house event where you can just serve hot cocoa and cookies. While you’re at it, you can also organize a small workshop.
For example, if you sell unique home decor, you can host a crafting session where customers decorate their own ornaments. If you run a bakery, you can host a simple and short baking workshop. Turn a customer’s shopping trip into a fun and engaging activity.
Team up with another local small business to make your holiday event more special. This partnership allows you to share costs and introduce your brand to a new audience.
A bookstore, for instance, can partner with a nearby cafe to serve refreshments during an evening book-and-gift-wrapping party.
Organize a holiday charity event for a local non-profit. This demonstrates your business’ commitment to the community, which helps with building trust and loyalty with your customers.
Consider these tips to ensure your event is successful:
- Spread the word using all your social media channels and email list.
- Ensure you and your staff are attentive to attendees’ needs and questions during the event.
- Post about how the event turned out and include pictures (with consent from the attendees).
Tip 7. Make sure AI can find you
Alicia emphasized that discoverability during the holiday season is highly important for a small business.
“If your business isn’t showing up in search results,” she said, “it’s very similar to being invisible.” Especially now that AI is increasingly becoming part of a customer’s search journey.
Take Google’s AI Overview feature, for instance. Contrary to the traditional Google search that gives a user a long list of websites, an AI Overview includes only a handful.
Google users are more likely to stop browsing after they see an AI summary—a behavior seen on 26% of pages that displayed the AI feature, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2025 study.
Increase your chances of getting cited in AI search results by becoming a rich source of information. Consider what your audience is searching for as they prepare for the holidays and create content around that.
To put this into practice, let’s say you’re a makeup artist, and some people are looking for your services for company Christmas events.
Write a blog post about tips to make makeup last longer during holiday events. You can also post video tutorials on festive makeup looks that your audience can use as inspiration.
Satisfy users’ need for information when they visit your website. When their questions are answered, the more likely they share your content with others. This also means that AI search results are more likely to include you on their list.
Tip 8. Add a seasonal landing page
Alicia explained that it’s good to have “at least one landing page that has everything very centrally located.” It helps direct all your holiday advertising campaigns towards a central hub.
You can link to it on your social media posts or marketing emails so that interested shoppers are guided directly to that page.
A dedicated landing page offers various benefits during the peak holiday season. These advantages include improving user navigation and organizing holiday sales promotions.
Improves user navigation
As people rush to find the best gift for their loved ones, they get discouraged with websites that are hard to navigate. They need a site where they can quickly browse their options, pick from the choices, and go to checkout.
Be that one website they can rely on. Create a seasonal landing page to eliminate hassle and allow customers to head straight to your holiday offers. Encourage them through this clear path to complete a purchase or take advantage of limited-time offers.
Organizes holiday sales promotions
Use a seasonal landing page to categorize your holiday special offers into different sections, like:
- Gift guides
- Product bundles
- Seasonal products
- Gifts under a certain price point
This helps your customers find what they’re looking for right away.
Apart from creating a seasonal landing page, get our free holiday marketing playbook for more simple yet high-impact marketing actions you can take despite your busy schedule.
Tip 9. Use holiday keywords in your website copy
Shoppers often use specific phrases or keywords when they’re looking for gifts or seasonal products.
“Try to think ‘what would they (your audience) be searching for to find you,’ and then put those phrases or those questions right in your website copy,” Alicia advised. Make it easier for search engines to find and display your business in search results.
Attract people who are actively looking for what you sell. Prioritize this targeted traffic over general traffic, as it consists of shoppers who are more likely to make a purchase.
Start by updating the most visible parts of your website. Change your seasonal landing page’s headline to reflect a festive theme. For example, you can update your “New Arrivals” headline to “Holiday New Arrivals.”
You can also refresh your product descriptions by adding holiday-related terms. Instead of writing “Warm Sweater,” you can write “Cozy Holiday Sweater, the Perfect Gift.” This small change helps your products appear in search results for specific holiday searches.
Make sure to update your metadata with these new keywords, too. Your website’s metadata are the snippets of your content that are displayed on a search engine results page. Make sure they accurately describe your holiday offerings.
Tip 10. Boost trust signals and social proof
During the holiday season, shoppers often buy from brands they’re not familiar with because they’re shopping for gifts for others. Some might want to give a family member a special item they can’t find from their usual retailers, while some might prefer brands that offer great deals.
Show trust signals and social proof to new customers to reassure them that your business is reliable and reputable. These can be the deciding factor in their purchases.
Alicia mentioned that “you can’t always control everything that’s said about your brand online, but you can control the content on your website.” She recommends businesses “display trust signals that really help inspire confidence in their audience.”
Showcase the following on your site:
- Accreditations
- Certifications
- Positive ratings from organizations, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Make sure that these logos are visible on your homepage and checkout page to assure customers that your business is legitimate and trustworthy.
Social proof is also necessary for building trust with customers. 47% of buyers who shop on social media trust client testimonials and peer reviews, according to Bazaarvoice’s 2025 Shopper Preference Report.
Meanwhile, 39% of the same respondents feel more confident with their purchase when they see numerous reviews.
Boost social proof by highlighting these on your website:
- Customer feedback
- Testimonials
- Product reviews
- User-generated content (UGC)
- Satisfied customers or products sold count
Network Solutions’ holiday marketing playbook
Want more? Unlock more insights from Alicia with the Network Solutions’ holiday marketing playbook. Use her expert guidance on creating a winning holiday marketing strategy and see how it helped a real small business thrive during the busiest time of the year.
Your plan for a prosperous holiday sales season begins now
Don’t just hope your business gets noticed among thousands of brands fighting for the same spot this holiday season.
Like Alicia said in her interview, “Hope is not a strategy.” She advises small business owners to “stay organized, make that list, and have that solid foundation” to ensure your holiday marketing campaigns succeed.
Partner with Network Solutions today to level up your promotional activities for Christmas.
Trusted by customers for over 20 years, Network Solutions offers professional digital marketing services that can help you grow, just like thousands of others.
Whether you need support with building a seasonal landing page or optimizing your website to attract more Christmas shoppers, we can provide you with a solution that brings you results.
Make this holiday season the most successful one you’ve ever had!
Frequently asked questions
Holiday marketing is a strategy that businesses use to leverage seasonal festivities and events. This approach involves using limited-time offers, exclusive promotions, and creative content across different marketing channels.
The goal is to capture the attention of customers during a period of high consumer spending. Ultimately, businesses use holiday marketing to boost revenue and build brand awareness.
Small businesses can stay competitive during a shortened holiday season by planning ahead and starting early. Begin by optimizing your inventory management and making necessary website updates.
You can also create a seamless customer experience by offering flexible return policies and free shipping options. Focusing on these areas will help you meet customer demand and increase sales even when time is limited.
Holiday marketing is important for businesses because it helps them stand out during a time when customers are actually willing to spend. It allows you to enhance brand visibility and attract customers who are actively searching for holiday gifts.
The holiday season is an important time to connect with customers on an emotional level and showcase your company’s values. So, it’s good to plan your holiday marketing campaigns with intention.
