How get more fan engagement over the holidays

by Randi Zimmerman of Symphonic Blog

As a creative, you know the grind never stops. During the holiday season, it’s important to keep your fans engaged in any way you can. Before you panic at the idea of more work while you’re trying to chill by the fire, these are some fairly simple methods that won’t break the bank or your time. That way, you can enjoy the holiday season and keep the hustle going without breaking a sweat. Without further ado, let’s dive in! Here’s how to maintain fan engagement over the holidays…

Repost Highlights From The Past Year

Considering this year brought back our beloved live shows, I’m sure you’ve got some memorable moments to look back on! If you went back on tour this year, consider posting throwback videos of your experience. In-feed videos on Instagram or Facebook, IG Reels, or even on TikTok are all great places to post.

In addition, you can even ask your fans if they have some good videos from your shows. Reposting user-generated content is always an A+ method for fan engagement. We recommend checking out, “How To Use User-Generated Content as a Musician”  for some basic best practices for using UGC.

Giveaways

What’s better than a festive holiday giveaway from your favorite artist! If you are a fan of giveaways, this is a good time to do a quick one. Studies have shown that Instagram accounts that do contests or giveaways grow 70% faster than those that don’t. Not only that, giveaways entice both current followers and potential new ones to engage. This increased engagement signals to Instagram’s algorithm that it should feature you more regularly in your audience’s feed.

Consider giving away things like:

• Limited edition merch
• Early download access to your new EP
• Signed vinyl
• A holiday care package (merch, vinyl, CD’s, a holiday card, candy, etc., all in one)
• A donation to a charity of your choice.

The holidays are about giving back and showing you care. Let your marketing reflect that, too.

Share A Holiday Playlist

Found.ee has a great feature that lets you design your own found.ee HTML5 ad to share your playlist wherever you’d like. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you can make a playlist for whatever holiday you like. You can even make an anti-holiday playlist if that’s more your vibe. Here’s an example of Found.ee’s feature below:

Holiday Discounts On Merch

The holiday season means everyone is looking for the perfect, unique gift for that special music lover in their lives. This makes for a great time to offer discounts on your merch. Some artists from our Sym fam had some dope merch last year that we put into this post. Feel free to check theirs out for some inspiration.

——

Send A Holiday E Card To Your Email List

If you think email marketing is out of style, think again! It can help you reach hundreds (and even thousands) of people with the click of a button. With it, you can stay connected, alert your fans about about upcoming shows, new releases, interviews, merch drops, and so much more. If you’re an established artist, you should already have a dedicated email list you can reach out to. However, we do have some posts to help you start one if you haven’t already. Check these out: 

• How To Grow Your Email Subscriber List
• How To Improve Your Holiday Marketing Emails
• 2 Email Automations To Get More People To Come To Your Next Event

In the meantime, those who are already well-versed in the land of email can send out a holiday e-card to your list. There are tons of websites to help you create the perfect festive e-card. Open Me, EcardWidget for Shopify, and Adobe Creative Cloud Express are a couple great (and FREE) ones to consider.

In Conclusion…

We hope this holiday season brings you good-times, laughs, and some well-deserved relaxation. In an effort to not completely go MIA, these are some simple methods to keep your fans engaged while still feeling the holiday spirit.

Cheers to a happy holiday season & Happy New Year!