The holiday season is one of the most exciting—and competitive—times for brands to connect with their audience. With shoppers eager to find the perfect gifts and deals, standing out in the crowded marketplace is key. That’s where influencer marketing comes in.
By partnering with trusted creators, you can tap into authentic voices that inspire and motivate holiday purchases. From building trust to driving urgency, influencer marketing offers unique opportunities to make your campaigns joyful, engaging, and highly effective.
In this post, we’ll share 11 actionable tips and creative ideas to help you design influencer marketing campaigns that capture the festive spirit and deliver real results this holiday season.
Why Influencer Marketing Matters During the Holidays
The holidays are more than just peak shopping season—they’re a time when people are actively looking for meaningful gifts, trusted recommendations, and content that inspires. That’s exactly where influencer marketing shines.
Builds Trust Through Authentic Recommendations
During the holidays, consumers are bombarded with ads. But when a favorite influencer shares a product they genuinely love, it feels more like a personal recommendation than a sales pitch. Influencer marketing taps into that trust, making your brand part of real conversations.
Increases Brand Visibility in a Crowded Market
Holiday campaigns face fierce competition. Influencer marketing helps cut through the noise by placing your brand directly in front of engaged, loyal audiences. Whether it’s through Instagram Stories, TikTok videos, or YouTube hauls, influencers help your message reach the right people at the right time.
Drives Sales with Emotionally Engaging Content
The best holiday content makes people feel something—nostalgia, joy, excitement. Influencers are masters of storytelling, and their festive content brings your products to life in ways traditional ads simply can’t. That emotional connection often leads to quicker and more confident purchase decisions.
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Plan Your Influencer Campaigns in Advance
Great holiday content doesn’t happen overnight. If you want your influencer marketing efforts to stand out during the busiest season of the year, early planning is everything.
Start 6–8 Weeks Before Peak Dates
To truly maximize your holiday influencer marketing strategy, aim to start planning at least 6 to 8 weeks in advance. This gives you enough runway to brainstorm creative ideas, coordinate timelines, and align campaigns with shopping events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas.
Give Room for Creative Development & Approvals
Influencer collaborations aren’t just about sending a product and asking for a post. Great content takes time—whether it’s scripting a Reel, shooting unboxings, or editing a YouTube review. Planning ahead ensures that both you and the influencer have enough time for revisions, approvals, and on-brand messaging.
Lock In Top Influencers Early
The best creators get booked fast during the holidays. By reaching out early, you increase your chances of partnering with high-performing influencers before their calendars fill up. Plus, early partnerships often lead to better rates and more thoughtful, creative collaborations.
Work with Micro-Influencers for Deeper Engagement
When it comes to influencer marketing during the holidays, bigger isn’t always better. Micro-influencers—those with 10K to 100K followers—can deliver surprisingly strong results through genuine, trust-based engagement.
Higher Engagement, Greater Trust
Micro-influencers tend to have closer relationships with their followers. Their content feels more relatable, and their recommendations often come across as authentic rather than sponsored. This leads to higher engagement rates, especially when promoting holiday gift ideas, sales, or limited-time offers.
More Budget-Friendly for Growing Brands
Holiday influencer marketing doesn’t have to drain your budget. Micro-influencers typically charge less than top-tier creators but still offer highly targeted reach. This makes them ideal for small and mid-sized brands looking to stretch their holiday marketing spend while getting solid ROI.
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Stronger Conversions from Niche Communities
Micro-influencers usually serve specific niches—like skincare, home décor, fitness, or parenting. During the holiday season, this means your message is reaching an audience already interested in your type of product. That relevance leads to more clicks, saves, and sales.
Launch Holiday-Themed Product Collaborations
Holiday-themed collaborations are a powerful way to make your influencer marketing stand out and connect with festive shoppers looking for something special.
Create Urgency with Seasonal Packaging and Exclusive Drops
Limited-edition products or holiday-themed packaging instantly grab attention. When influencers showcase these exclusive items, it creates a sense of urgency that encourages followers to act fast before the offer disappears.
Showcase Limited-Time Offers in Festive Settings
Influencers sharing your products in holiday backdrops—think cozy fireplaces, twinkling lights, or wrapped gifts—help build the seasonal mood. This festive storytelling makes your brand feel part of the holiday experience, increasing audience interest and trust.
Add Novelty and Excitement to Your Brand
Collaborating with influencers on unique holiday products or bundles adds freshness to your marketing. It also encourages influencers to get creative with their content, which keeps your brand top of mind during the busiest shopping time of the year.
Focus on Short-Form Video Content
Short-form video is the superstar of influencer marketing during the holidays—fast, engaging, and perfect for grabbing attention in a busy feed.
Leverage Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts
These platforms have exploded in popularity, especially during the holiday season when users are searching for quick, entertaining content. Influencer marketing that taps into these formats can reach millions with festive, snackable videos.
Encourage Tutorials, Hauls, and “Day in the Life” Videos
Influencers can show your products in action—whether it’s a holiday makeup tutorial, an unboxing haul, or a behind-the-scenes look at their festive routines. This kind of authentic storytelling resonates well and inspires followers to try your products.
Benefit from Higher Holiday Engagement Rates
Short videos tend to generate more likes, shares, and comments during the holidays compared to static posts. This increased engagement means your influencer marketing campaigns have a better chance to go viral and drive sales.
Offer Personalized Promo Codes and Trackable Links
Personalized promo codes and trackable links are essential tools in influencer marketing, especially during the holiday season when measuring success is key.
Make Campaign Performance Easy to Measure
By giving each influencer a unique promo code or affiliate link, you can directly track how much traffic and sales they generate. This data helps you understand which partnerships are delivering the best return on investment.
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Motivate Influencers to Drive More Conversions
When influencers know their efforts are being tracked, they’re often more motivated to create compelling content that encourages their followers to take action. It turns the campaign into a win-win where both brand and influencer benefit.
Provide Exclusive Discounts to Followers
Offering special holiday discounts through influencers gives their audience an added incentive to buy. Exclusive deals feel personal and urgent, which increases the likelihood of followers making a purchase during the festive season.
Align Campaigns with Major Holiday Shopping Dates
Timing is everything in influencer marketing, especially during the holidays when shoppers expect deals and special offers around key shopping events.
Launch Influencer Content Around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas
Coordinate your influencer marketing campaigns to drop content right before or during these high-traffic shopping days. Influencers can build anticipation and remind followers of limited-time deals.
Use Timed Promotions to Create Urgency
Time-sensitive offers, shared by influencers, encourage followers to act quickly before the deal expires. This urgency drives faster decision-making and boosts holiday sales.
Remind Shoppers When They’re Ready to Buy
Holiday shoppers often research for weeks before making a purchase. Influencer marketing timed with major shopping dates helps your brand stay top of mind exactly when followers are ready to convert.
Run Giveaways to Build Excitement and Reach
Giveaways are a proven way to boost engagement and widen your reach during holiday influencer marketing campaigns.
Increase Engagement with Influencer-Led Contests
When influencers host giveaways, their followers actively participate by liking, commenting, and sharing—boosting your brand’s visibility and engagement across social platforms.
Encourage Tagging and Sharing for Virality
By requiring followers to tag friends and share posts as entry rules, giveaways naturally spread your campaign to new audiences, creating viral momentum that’s perfect for the holiday season.
Offer Holiday-Themed Prizes to Match the Season
Seasonal prizes like festive gift sets or exclusive holiday bundles create excitement and align perfectly with the festive spirit, making followers more eager to join and engage.
Get Featured in Influencer Gift Guides
Being part of an influencer’s holiday gift guide is a smart influencer marketing strategy to showcase your products as the perfect seasonal gifts.
Leverage Influencers’ Trusted Recommendations
Gift guides curated by influencers carry a lot of weight because their followers trust their opinions. When your product appears in these lists, it gains instant credibility and visibility.
Position Your Product as a Holiday Must-Have
Influencer gift guides highlight items that are trendy, useful, or unique. Getting featured helps your product stand out as a top choice for shoppers searching for the perfect present.
Increase Shareability and Save-For-Later Potential
Gift guides are often shared widely and saved for future reference. This extended shelf life means your influencer marketing impact lasts well beyond the initial post, driving sales throughout the season.
Repurpose Influencer Content Across Channels
Maximize your influencer marketing investment by using the best influencer content beyond social media for lasting impact.
Incorporate Influencer Visuals in Email Campaigns and Ads
Using authentic photos and videos from influencers in your email newsletters and paid ads boosts trust and grabs attention. This consistency helps create a cohesive holiday campaign that resonates across platforms.
Add Influencer Testimonials to Product Pages
Showcasing influencer reviews and testimonials directly on your website adds powerful social proof. Potential customers are more likely to convert when they see real people endorsing your products.
Extend the Life of Your Content Beyond the Holidays
Great influencer content can keep working for your brand well after the festive season ends. Repurposing it for future campaigns or evergreen marketing ensures you get the most value out of your influencer partnerships.
