23 marketing ideas that make the most of the holiday season

The holiday season is upon us, and there is no better time to infuse your marketing with creativity and heart. This is the time of year to show up and share how you genuinely care for your customers and your community.

Personal touches make all the difference and will help you stand out from the crowd while your competition opts to check a box with a generic holiday greeting card. Hopefully, a few of these ideas will spark your creativity, give you a last-minute campaign to stay connected with your sphere of influence and expand your network for the new year. 

Here are 23 ideas to round out your holiday and 2023

1. Host an ornament exchange for past clients and friends. Be sure your ornament is house or home-related.
2. Plan a holiday home open house. Stage a listing with festive decor, and invite local agents to tour the listing with special bites and sips.
3. Gather a group of colleagues to go Christmas caroling in your favorite neighborhood. Be sure to leave your card if the homeowner has questions about the market and their home value.
4. Invite your top five clients out for a special holiday dinner. 
5. Coordinate a not-so-secret elf drop. Deliver a stocking of goodies to your past clients.
6. Host a toy drive and offer to pick up their donation. This gives you a chance to see their house and share knowledge about the market.
7. Rent a red truck, order inexpensive branded magnets for display, dress a colleague as Santa, and drive around town spreading cheer. Create a social media campaign, and ask your network to snap a photo and tag Santa around town.
8. Participate in your local tree decorating contest with all things houses and homes.
9. Partner with a few local restaurants for a cocktail crawl. Create branded maps and signature beverages.
10. Host a New Year’s vision board party with past clients. This gives you a chance to learn important details about their life plans.
11. Host a cookie pick-up for clients who don’t have time to make their own for cookie swaps. Get clever with messaging, and have fun.
12. Hold a blind date with a book party. Buy books, and wrap them in festive paper. Invite clients and prospects to make a selection as a gift. Be sure to include a creatively branded bookmark inside with your contact info.
13. It’s not too late to have a festive wear clothing swap. For every item your guest brings, they can trade with someone else. Be sure to have champagne sips and clever stickers to brand “shopping bags.”
14. Instead of sending a generic holiday greeting card, coordinate with your local animal shelter and create a “home for the holidays” photo card of animals for adoption.
15. Assist elderly clients with putting up and taking down Christmas decorations. Not handy, no problem, hire a contractor for the day, and schedule visits to help those in need.
16. If you’re having a white Christmas in your hometown, hire teens to shovel driveways and sidewalks of the neighborhood you farm. Leave a handwritten note with a branded window scraper.
17. Start a “holiday spirit” campaign. Secretly deliver gifts to 10 houses with two window signs that say, “I have the Spirit” and encourage them to put one sign in their window and secretly gift one to a neighbor.
18. Send a New Year’s annual house maintenance checklist, and include recommendations for your vetted vendors.
19. Be a valuable wealth adviser, and send your clients an analysis of their home’s value and the changes in appreciation in the past year.
20. Schedule a donation truck to pick up unwanted items as clients declutter for the New Year. Drop off garbage bags, and leave branded instructions for pickup.
21. Coordinate a holiday lights caravan. Print a postcard with the addresses of the most festive local houses. Schedule a time to meet and caravan together.
22. Host a free wrapping station at your office or partner with a local shop to assist with gift wrapping. Call elderly clients, and offer to help with wrapping for tired hands.
23. Don’t forget to love your local hometown heroes. Drop off coffee gift cards to your local police, firemen, teachers, nurses and first responders. Be sure to include details about any special offers they may be eligible for.

Remember, the true essence of the holiday season is about being generous and thoughtful and serving your community with heart. Look for opportunities to make people feel special, seen and remembered. This is the best way to spread holiday cheer and to stay in flow with your most valuable asset, your people.