Holiday Marketing for B2B Companies: Best Practices and Strategies

The holiday season is a bustling time for businesses – maybe more so than it is for consumers.
While the spotlight often shines on B2C marketing during holidays, there’s an entire world of opportunity for B2B companies. The holiday season presents a unique opportunity to connect with business leaders, reinvent strategies, and carve out a niche in the industry.
This post is here to discuss exactly that – the untapped potential of holiday marketing for B2B companies and how to navigate this landscape using a blend of digital and audio messaging strategies. Stay with us as we unravel the best practices and strategies for B2B holiday marketing.

B2B Holiday Marketing Tips

As other businesses get swept up in the holiday fervor, planning their own seasonal sales and promotional events, you can creatively frame what you offer to help them meet their holiday goals.
With some strategic positioning, you can get your ads in front of business owners and help ease the stress of their holiday season.

Frame Messaging about How You Can Help Their Holiday Goals

The holidays are a time of intense business activity, with each business setting unique holiday goals to capitalize on periods when customers have time to shop or want good deals.
It’s crucial to tailor your messaging to your industry demographic and show how your solutions can help business owners achieve these aims. For instance, if a company plans to increase its holiday sales by sourcing unique items, your messaging could focus on how your logistics services can ensure the timely delivery of these unique products, taking that concern off their plates.

Business owners rely on the holidays, whether it’s Memorial Day or the Winter Holidays, to bring in customers and revenue. B2B businesses understand that and can acknowledge it subtly in their marketing by making it known that you know and can help.

Create Audio Ads to Cater to Working Professionals

Working professionals are the prime audience for B2B ads, and learning how to reach them is crucial in earning their business. Knowing the habits and patterns of those in your target industry gives you insight into how they consume media. Do they often consume audio content during their commutes, workouts, or as background while working? Or does their job require them to look things up online often?

Targeting display ads to industry sites or searches can help put you in contact with these professionals during their working hours. Placing audio ads on streaming services or radio stations targeting people in professional niches can also help catch their attention at work.

Additionally, you can sponsor a podcast in a niche industry related to your business. You could seamlessly weave in your B2B holiday messaging to reach people as they keep up with industry trends. A home goods supplier might sponsor a popular interior design podcast and highlight how their festive holiday range could enhance any store’s seasonal decor offerings. That provides an engaging and contextually relevant way to reach your target business demographic.

Time Digital Ads to Reach People at Work

Targeting working people on channels they use helps you reach them – but you must also time ads accordingly. Timing your digital or SEM ads to launch during working hours allows you to reach workers as they look for other things pertaining to their jobs. For instance, if you offer wholesale goods, consider advertising your special holiday items, be it a state-of-the-art grill for holiday barbecues or winter essentials for colder climates.

By aligning your digital advertising with their work schedule, you’re also more likely to have their attention when they’re in business mode and more inclined to act on your offering. It helps you reach them when their attention is receptive to your offer.

Plan Ads Earlier than Usual

It’s essential to plan your holiday ads in advance, much earlier than you think necessary, especially to reach B2B audiences.

Business owners are likely crafting their holiday strategies ahead of time, and you want to ensure your product or service is on their radar before they’re in the planning phase. Thinking ahead and positioning your business as a solution to their holiday stress – then following through to win their trust – shows you’re dependable and worthy of their business.

Planning your ads even further ahead gives you a head start and ensures you’re part of the conversation when businesses make their crucial holiday decisions.

Give Everything a Warm Human Touch

When you think of warmth and human touch, you don’t typically associate it with the corporate world of B2B marketing – but people are at the end of every business transaction. The holiday season is a time of heightened emotions, stress, joy, and anticipation. That presents an opportune moment for B2B marketers to humanize their approach, add a warm, personal touch to their messaging, and position their solutions as the answer to the holiday stress business owners might be experiencing.
Your messaging could empathize with their challenges during this busy season and showcase how your service or product can alleviate that stress, streamline processes, or lighten their workload. In doing so, you not only appeal to their business needs and their personal issues, creating a deeper and more meaningful connection.
While you don’t need to start sending your business partners heartfelt messages with each order, you can acknowledge that they’re under a lot of stress. Adding a human touch could be as simple as writing a handwritten thank you note (as in literally just the words “thank you”) or personally reaching out with new items or deals you think they could benefit from. It doesn’t take much to make stressful situations feel less cold.

Tap into Business Owner’s Holiday Groove

The holiday season is a dynamic and vibrant time for B2B marketing filled with opportunities. It calls for a strategic blend of digital and audio messages underpinned with a warm, human touch. The key is to tailor your approach to align with your clients’ goals, anticipate their needs, and present your company as a solution to their holiday stresses.

Don’t let the holiday season pass without tapping into its potential for your B2B marketing strategy. Make the most of these festive times by treating it as the unique marketing playground it truly is. With thoughtful planning, you can turn the festive season into a fruitful marketing venture, setting your business up for success in the new year.