The holiday season is nearly upon us, as stores like Costco remind us with their artificial Christmas tree displays going up on October 1st. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and everything in between has a way of filling our lives and conversations.

And while not every part of life revolves around financial planning, there are unique opportunities for rich dialogue to be found – or created. Today, we’re digging into some holiday inspiration to help you align your marketing with the deeper heart themes of the season.

A Fresh Perspective on Holiday Marketing for Advisors

For many financial advisors, your team may be getting ready to queue up the obligatory Thanksgiving or “seasons greetings” social media post. You may be dreading the sweater one of your team members insists you wear every year for the team photo. Has anyone even washed it since last year?

While the sweater photo might be unavoidable, aim for a more impactful holiday approach this year. We’ve come across a variety of great suggestions. Some are very simple and classic like the nicely printed postcard.

Others are more creative like one we came across for your clients with kids at home. They recommended sending an age-appropriate book about money, a concept many parents have a hard time communicating around Christmas presents. We love it!

With that in mind, here is a list of holiday conversation prompts that you can work into your marketing plan for Q4. As a bonus note, if you do this well, you can head into the key planning window around New Year with stronger relational momentum!

To help you break out of the holiday marketing rut, here are a few ideas for your marketing dialogues.

Thanksgiving Marketing Topics

If you were planning on sending out the annual email with the message, “We’re thankful for you our clients”, let’s see if we can go a step further. Here are a few creative ideas to get your audience out of their seat and into the conversation.

• Have clients and team members anonymously submit things they’re thankful for then share a video of you reading each one.
• Ask each staff member to share what their Thanksgiving tradition looks like – what’s their favorite part?
• Share a short video reflecting on how gratitude in small things helps us make calm decisions in big things. Ties in nicely with financial plans!

Black Friday Marketing Topics

Thanksgiving? That was forever ago… Now it’s time to get in the holiday spirit by way of our wallets! Here, on arguably the most expensive day of the year, we have a gold mine of topics for financial planners to choose from.

• Talk about ways parents can discuss money with their kids. There are few better times for kids to grasp concepts like utilizing a budget or intentional spending than when presents are on the line.
• Highlight the need for a big picture budget that fits their overall financial picture. Responsible spending is more fun than credit card debt!
• Is your brand values-driven? Don’t leave Thanksgiving in the dust. Encourage your audience to approach Black Friday through the lens of Thursday. Give them prompts to discuss gratitude with their households.

Small Business Saturday Marketing Topics

Sandwiched in between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a more humble outing, that some advisors may want to highlight in their marketing calendars: Small Business Saturday.

• Celebrate small business owners you know and shine a spotlight on them for your audience.
• Interview a small business owner about what their day-to-day life is like. Highlight the need for small businesses in our communities.
• Feature a few items around your office that you purchased from small businesses, and encourage others to consider doing the same.

Cyber Monday Marketing Topics

As if one day wasn’t enough, who can forget Cyber Monday? In addition to the spending conversations around Black Friday, Cyber Monday opens up a few more topics for dialogue:

• Discuss cybersecurity for online shopping. You may even consider providing resources for adults to share with their aging parents who are getting increasingly online-friendly with their shopping.
• Are business owners a target market for your firm? Discuss planning their expenses around known sale windows.
• Maybe it’s time to have some fun – highlight each staff member’s favorite Cyber Monday sale (even if they didn’t buy it). It can be a great deal or it can be a comical item!

Giving Tuesday Marketing Topics

If Thanksgiving is time away for reflection (and maybe some food or football), Giving Tuesday is time for action. Values-driven advisor brands have a unique opportunity to celebrate this occasion when much of the world passes it by without action. Here are a few ways you can stand out, inspire your audience, and build on your reputation.

• Host a charitable event for a local organization. Invite other businesses to host it with you to maximize your impact.
• Discuss year-end giving plans that integrate with your clients’ financial plans. If you have enough lead time to promote this topic, you can use Giving Tuesday as an action moment for your clients to make decisions for year end contributions.
• Volunteer your time with a local organization, and highlight the work they do in the process.

Christmas Marketing Topics

With the world in a more generous mood around Christmas, there’s lots of room for creativity here. If you’re the type to send gifts to a number of your clients, just remember FINRA limits registered reps to $100 of direct gifting per client. Beyond gifts, here are few other actionable ideas for your Christmas marketing.

• Do you decorate your office for Christmas? Show a before and after to help get people in the Christmas spirit! If you’re feeling adventurous, create a timelapse on your phone of the setup process.
• Host a family-friendly Christmas party with activities for kids. Gingerbread houses, trivia, and antler ring toss don’t cost much, and they go a long way to showing you care about your clients’ families, not just their accounts. Christmas Game Ideas
• Give personalized gifts to your staff and film the gift-giving moments. Bonus points if you can do this on a holiday sweater day in the office!

Going the Extra Mile for Your Clients

In every area of the business, we believe in going the extra mile to serve your clients. Even if it is just holiday marketing ideas, creativity and action are what separate growing firms from stagnant ones.

If you want to be part of an advisor community that strives to apply this outlook to every area of the business, come learn what brought them to WealthPlan Group.