The cookies are on the table, the milk is warm, and the fire is making the living room quite cozy. The kids are bundled up in bed, barely asleep, waiting for Santa to deliver presents. It’s the typical Christmas image – and a rather American one, too! Have you ever wondered about localizing your imagery, business, and content for the holidays? Remember, not everyone celebrates Christmas – some celebrate Hanukkah, others celebrate Kwanzaa, others don’t celebrate at all. In this politically correct climate, what’s the best way to go about localization for the holidays, and should you even do it? After all, do Christmassy keywords perform well on Amazon? The jury’s out on seasonally-slanted listing copywriting, but one thing’s for sure – it’s a great idea to respect the customs of your customers, even if you may not share them. Let’s take a peek at localization for the holidays!
Remember to Add Value
Some say you shouldn’t post at all during the holidays. Not true. You’ve spent the entire year developing a relationship with your customers – don’t stop now! In fact, Christmas is a great time to post holiday-related content, according to Blogging Tips:
- Share important information, like an upcoming sale or promotion
- Inform your customers of a charity you support, just in case they’d like to contribute part of their bonuses
- Express gratitude for a great year
- Announce a holiday-themed contest or giveaway
- Share holiday content – for us, we talked about the different ways that people celebrate Christmas all over the world
- Share holiday tips!
Don’t forget to be genuine! Remember, today’s content consumers can smell inauthenticity from a mile away.
Do Stay Sensitive to Your Customer Journey
To quote Social Media Today: focus on brand awareness rather than sales messaging when possible. Many people look at the holidays as a time for religion or to uphold prized cultural traditions. It’s a good idea to stay sensitive to the circumstances of your target market, and keep the relationship nice and strong by honoring their customs and beliefs. If that means saving the sales pitches until after Christmas, so be it.
Craft Emotional Appeal
Everyone celebrates Christmas differently! Spread holiday cheer by localizing your message. The holiday greetings you’d give to your American market would be more politically correct than the ones for your Finnish market (who like to claim that Santa Claus is Finnish). You could choose to go hyper-local and adapt your keywords, content, and imagery to each target market’s customs, or you could go more global and provide an omnibus message of cheer and goodwill.
Maintain the Celebratory Tone – with Sensitivity
The holidays aren’t easy for everybody. It’s tempting to release messages that are overflowing with positivity and cheer. If that’s your branding, then go for it! Think about Oreo, whose Tweets play with humor and celebrity endorsers. It’s okay to keep the tone lighthearted and cheerful during the holidays. However, if your brand is known for being sensitive, emotional, and heartfelt, then it wouldn’t look good to go full-force on the confetti and snowball fights.
Make sure you maintain your brand voice even during the holidays, regardless of the culture you plan to localize to.
So, on that note, Happy Holidays!
We’re keeping it short and sweet this week so you have more time to enjoy the festivities. Whether you chose to localize your listing for the holidays…or stay middle-of-the-road with a more neutral communications campaign…
We wish you all the success and happiness with your endeavors!
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, HAPPY KWANZAA, SEASON’S GREETINGS!