Let’s face it, 2020 has been a year unlike any other, both personally and professionally. But it’s not over just yet — so let’s roll up our sleeves and finish strong! As we enter the last few months of the year, we’ve prepared a comprehensive video marketing plan to help you win more business over the holiday season.

2020-Holiday-Calendar-BlogImage-01

Here’s how we’re going to do it. In this post, we’ve broken up the months of November and December into four sections below to make it easy for you to create and schedule all the videos you need for a successful holiday. Each section includes:

  • A designated working period to give you time to create videos
  • A list of holidays that fall in the time frame
  • Suggested posting dates for marketing videos (marked with a play button)

Each section also links out to an accompanying post that lays out the types of videos to create for each holiday period, including template suggestions, best practices, video inspiration, and more! Sound good? Let’s get this show on the road!

Phase 1: Post-Thanksgiving Rush

  • Video creation dates: November 9 – 19
  • Suggested posting dates: November 23 – December 1

It may start slow, but November is back-loaded with plenty of opportunity for small businesses to make their presence felt on social media. Thanksgiving and the days that follow it are full of opportunities to reach customers, old and new.

Check out our phase 1 calendar and make a note on your own calendar of which videos you’d like to create and post.

2020-Holiday-Calendar thanksgiving

Like we said, there’s a lot of opportunity for using video during the post-Thanksgiving rush. Here’s a list of everything going on. If you need a little help deciding which videos to post for your business, check out our post-Thanksgiving video marketing guide.

  • Black Friday is on November 27, 2020
  • Small Business Saturday is on November 28, 2020
  • Cyber Monday is on December 30, 2020
  • Giving Tuesday is on December 1, 2020

If you do plan to put on a post-Thanksgiving sale, it pays to begin marketing it ahead of time, so in addition to videos on the dates above, we also recommend sharing a sale teaser in advance.

Phase 2: Holiday Ads

  • Video creation dates: November 30 – December 4
  • Suggested posting dates: December 7 – 17

It’s time to break out the tinsel and start spreading the news! Your business is the place to shop for all the December festivities. Let’s let the people know.

2020-Holiday-Calendar holiday-ads

For this phase of your holiday video marketing, we recommend some ideas and posting dates for video ads. These videos are designed to be posted as targeted ads, rather than organic content for brand awareness. The goal here is really to inspire people to buy from you.

Here are our suggestions:

  • Holiday Sale Promo
  • Gift Guide Video
  • Ad Targeting Gift-Givers
  • Free Shipping Day

In our accompanying guide, you’ll find everything you need to create thumb-stopping, wallet-opening holiday ads for your business.

Phase 3: Fun Holiday Videos

  • Video creation dates: December 7 – 11
  • Suggested posting dates: December 15 – 24

Holiday shoppers are getting marketed at from every which way from now through Christmas. In this phase, we’re focused on the types of videos that’ll help you stay top of mind during this time of year without the direct sell.

These videos should help you share your expertise, humanise your business, and put a smile on the faces of your viewers. They should also help keep you top of mind for the folks that saw your ads in the last phase but haven’t yet completed their holiday shopping.

2020-Holiday-Calendar fun-holiday-videos

We’ve rounded up suggestions for three fun holiday videos that you can create. Our full guide contains examples and templates that you can use to easily create these videos on your own.

  • Fun Facts
  • Holiday How-To
  • Holiday Greeting

Phase 4: New Year’s Videos

  • Video creation dates: December 14 – 18
  • Suggested posting dates: December 28 – 31

Last but not least, it’s time to create and share some New Year videos. Ready to dive in?

2020-Holiday-Calendar new-year

Consider these videos your chance to share the biggest wins and developments for your business from the calendar year, as well as to make sure your customers know that they’re on your mind as we enter 2021. In this phase, we’ve recommended two videos:

  • Year-End Recap
  • New Year’s Greeting

Ready to get started?

This holiday season might look a bit different this year, but creating videos to connect with buyers on social media remains as important as ever.

During the holiday season, most people are completely inundated by sales, special offers and can’t-miss deals. There’s good reason for that. There are gifts to be purchased, after all.

That said, there are limits to the sell, sell, sell mentality, and there are plenty of ways to make your presence felt for potential customers other than overtly marketing to them.

2020-holiday-blog-play-illustrations fun-holiday-videos

In that spirit, these video ideas are all about spreading cheer with festive, brand-awareness raising videos. Between 60 and 65 percent of adults report being stressed around the holidays, according to Healthline. Earn some good will with a video that doesn’t remind them of their shopping or traveling duties.

We’ve rounded up some ideas for feel-good videos that’ll make for a warm introduction to your brand. They’ll also give you the chance to share some of your holiday expertise with the world!

Calendar Plan for Fun Holiday Videos

In our holiday marketing calendar plan, we’ve intentionally left this grouping of videos to be the last bunch before Christmas. At this point, you’ve probably already told the world about your incredible deals and must-have gifts.

If you haven’t, it’s not too late! These videos are designed to keep your business on the brain in a more digestible, shareable way in the run up to the end of the holiday season.

2020-Holiday-Calendar fun-holiday-videos

As we’ve mentioned before, the dates we include on our calendar are our suggestions, but the dates you post your videos, as well as the videos you create, are entirely up to you.

We’ve included as much detail as possible to give you less on your plate, and for whichever videos you do plan to make, we recommend adding them to your personal calendar.

Fun Holiday Video Ideas

For each one of the video ideas below, take some time to brainstorm topics that play to your strengths as a business and highlight your expertise. Without further ado, let’s have some fun!

Fun Facts

How could we not lead off our list of fun holiday video ideas with a list with a list of fun facts? They’re fun for a reason. Fun facts lists are crowd-pleasers, and fortunately it’s a flexible format as well, allowing all sorts of businesses to bring their own knowledge and voice to the table without it becoming stale for social audiences.

As you create your fun facts videos, there are two boxes that you need to check:

  • Your list should pertain to your business in a clear, meaningful way.
  • Your facts should be fun!

Here’s why those two boxes are so important. First, if your fun facts don’t have any connection to your business, your viewers may not connect the video with your brand at all. That said, there’s more than one way to establish a meaningful connection.

In the example below, the fruit cake fun facts make for a natural connection with a bakery, but you could also share tidbits about your local community, or the history of your business.The second checkbox is self-explanatory. If they’re not fun, they’re just facts.

You need look no further than our Fun Festive List template for this video. Check out the video below, then jump right into customizing it to create your own video.

PRO TIP: Excitement is infectious. If you’re excited about your facts, your customers will be, too. Don’t be afraid to show your enthusiasm.

Holiday How-To

Your how-to is an opportunity to share something that you do really well with your audience. It’s basically an excuse to show off your expertise, wrapped up in the disguise of a fun social video. What can you teach your customers that they can get use out of, or at least enjoy the experience of watching?

We’re using our Trendy Social Recipe template as an example here, and for cooking or crafts this is probably the way to go. But you could also check out our Fashion Lookbook How To for a very different sort of approach that highlights a product without being overtly salesy.

PRO TIP: Consider the time frame here. If you share your video right before Christmas, a last-minute homemade gift idea could make you a DIY hero in the eyes of a potential future customer.

Holiday Greeting

Consider this video your virtual holiday card to your social audience. At this point, the shopping window has likely closed. You can settle in and enjoy your holiday, and expect your customers to be doing the same. Put a bow on a season well done with a quick, heartfelt message.

Our Simple Holiday Stop Motion template is tailor-made for this sort of video. It features a super simple stop motion technique that you only need a single image to accomplish.

You can also take the opportunity to express your appreciation for your customers with our Customer Thank You Card template. It’s eye-catching, and designed to be easily customized by any business, regardless of your industry.

PRO TIP: We’re going to get cheesy here, but for this one, just speak from the heart. There’s no need to get too fancy. And for your own benefit, schedule this one ahead of time and take the day for yourself and for family!

While you’re at it, create a video for IG stories and make sure your greeting gets in front of as many sets of eyes as possible.

Fun Holiday Video Tips

  • Include CTAs when appropriate. Just because you aren’t putting on the hard sell doesn’t mean you can’t prompt your audience to go to your website for more fun facts like the one you shared, or to visit you for an in-person tutorial.
  • Open with a hook. Your viewers may still be expecting to see ads, so make sure it’s clear from the jump what your video will be about to make sure they stick around.

Once your holiday ads are created, your holiday marketing should be set through Christmas. All that’s left of the holiday season after this is your New Year videos.

Take 35% off all plans with Animoto’s Black Friday offer and start creating your holiday marketing calendar using the offer below.

Offer: 35% off Animoto annual plans with code STAYINSIDE

Sponsored Content: This post is sponsored content and the placement has been paid for or contains affiliate links. For full information, see our terms of use