12 Festive Thanksgiving Promotions and Marketing Ideas to Boost Holiday Sales

Consumer spending and online traffic increase during the holiday season. In the first week alone, holidays drive a gross merchandise value of $5.6 billion. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of this holiday season. Many shoppers shop for early Thanksgiving promotions in the first few weeks of October. 

To drive these buyers into your brick-and-mortar shop or online store, you need a strong marketing setup. When it’s early October, Thanksgiving promotions engage buyer well, capturing their attention early not just for Thanksgiving, but for the whole holiday season. 

The opportunities are worth the effort. In the U.S., holiday retail sales during November and December 2023 were a total of $272 billion.

This article will let you take inspiration from 12 tested and creative Thanksgiving promotions and marketing campaigns. 

Why Thanksgiving Promotions and Marketing Campaigns Are Essential

It’s the holiday season, and consumers are in a spending mindset, lavishing money on gifts, decorations, and food. Thanksgiving promotions  are especially powerful because the holiday centers on gratitude, giving, and togetherness, which syncs well with brands encouraging shopping. It becomes easier to resonate with and relate to. 

In the Thanksgiving weekend, 95% of shoppers purchase holiday-related products, averaging about $321 per person. When the brand makes a connection with the customer on the right emotion, it drastically improves engagement and conversions. 86% of customers are more likely to purchase from a brand that makes them feel positive. 

Thanksgiving promotions are strategically designed to align with the emotions that arise during the holiday season, thereby nourishing shoppers’ positive emotions. Apart from this, the timing plays a crucial role. Since there is less rush before the Thanksgiving holiday, buyers prefer to take advantage of lucrative deals before the last-minute rush during the holiday. FOMO drives these shoppers toward making a purchase. 

12 Thanksgiving Promotions and Marketing Ideas to Drive Revenue in the Holiday Season

These ideas, when implemented together, can successfully increase the engagement and sales for your brand. 

1. Run Limited-Time Thanksgiving Promotions

A classic strategy that remains effective for Thanksgiving promotions is a flash sale or limited-time discount around the Thanksgiving holiday. Time-bound offers play on shoppers’ FOMO and spur quick action. For example, a retailer might run a 48-hour “Thanksgiving Feast of Deals” sale with a countdown timer on the site. 

Emphasize scarcity by using visuals such as ticking timers or “only X left in stock” cues. These signals tap into shoppers’ natural aversion to missing out. Essentially, a flash sale during Thanksgiving helps clear inventory ahead of Black Friday. Here’s an example: 

Source: Orange35

Just be sure to highlight the urgency across all channels, including email, app, and SMS, so customers don’t miss the opportunity and lose the deal.

Learn how to create the best Black Friday email marketing campaigns.

2. Use Bundle Discounts and BOGO Offers

Bundle discounts and buy-one-get-one offers increase the perceived value of an individual order. You can increase the average order value by bundling products while highlighting a significant discount. Shoppers love getting more for their money, and this is reflected in the data. Successful product bundles have the potential to lift average order value by as much as 30%. 

Bundling also encourages customers to try new or complementary products. This strategy works particularly well for e-commerce and retail brands. 

For Thanksgiving promotions, consider gift sets, meal kits, or travel packages specifically designed for the holiday. Here’s an example of a BOGO offer from Tastea for the Thanksgiving Week. 

Interestingly, Tastea promoted this offer in a blog while pairing this with various other ways to show gratitude during Thanksgiving. 

3. Launch a Thanksgiving Giveaway or Contest

Host a Thanksgiving-themed contest to hype user-generated content. Giveaways encourage social sharing and brand exposure as people tag friends or share posts on social media. They also tie well with the holiday spirit of generosity. 

This makes sense for your bottom line, too. Often, a UGC campaign sees a 29% increase in web conversion. While using it, ensure the campaign has a clear theme and encourages people to create. It’s best if you can give them a push when shoppers share their content. 

This pulls up engagement from different corners of social networks, who might see your brand for the first time. This brings in visibility, but more importantly, it carries the trust that the user had shown in their content, making it easier for others to hold the same trust while purchasing. 

4. Create a Gratitude-Themed Email Campaign

Email is a reliable channel to promote Thanksgiving deals. Even when a campaign misses the audience’s notice, it stays in the inbox, waiting for the user to circle back. And people do, especially while planning holiday purchases with family. 

It’s the perfect time to express gratitude. Tapping into the sincere emotion of the holiday helps your message stand out from typical sales emails. 

Personalization and segmentation are crucial here. Utilize the data in your CRM or engagement platform, such as CleverTap, to tailor emails by audience segment (e.g., loyal VIPs, recent sign-ups, lapsed users, etc.). 

Source: Reallygoodemails

Customers often respond to relevance. CleverTap lets you segment and automate email campaigns at scale while ensuring personalization and time-bound relevance stays fresh in outreach. As a result, you get higher open rates, clicks, and an improvement in customer loyalty while heading toward the holiday season. 

Build effective email marketing campaigns for the holiday season. Get inspired by 4th of July email marketing, Halloween email marketing, Christmas email marketing, and December email newsletter examples to drive sales and boost revenue.

5. Offer Exclusive Early-Bird Access to Black Friday Deals During Thanksgiving Promotions

Customers who are loyal expect to be treated as royalty. When you give them exclusive deals curated for a select few, it turns their loyalty into advocacy. Give them early access to the Black Friday bargains as a Thank You for the special day. 

For example, Walmart+ members got to shop Black Friday deals 3 hours early in 2023. This is a perk that drove sign-ups and sales. Many brands now do “early access” sales for loyalty program members or email subscribers before the general public sale begins. 

The benefits are twofold. You lock in early conversions and incentivize loyalty signups. Consumers love feeling special. Statistics show that 71% of US online adults consider instant discounts a significant motivator for joining loyalty programs. 

This also ensures that VIP customers have a decent shopping experience before the rush begins. 

6. Promote Gift Cards for Holiday Shopping

Sometimes the simplest gift is best. Many consumers are indecisive or shopping for that “person who has everything”. Gift cards solve the dilemma and are a huge revenue driver in campaigns running for Thanksgiving promotions. 

Consider running a special offer, such as “Buy a $50 gift card, get a $10 bonus card,” during Thanksgiving week. Emphasize gift cards as a convenient, last-minute option since, after Thanksgiving, you need to start building your Christmas marketing and New Year marketing campaigns pretty soon. 

This strategy works especially well for service businesses such as spas, salons, restaurants, and retailers. It’s low friction for buyers and guarantees a future visit to your business. Around 44% of people hand out gift cards to express their love and care during the holiday season.

Source: Little Lamb

This makes the gifting experience flexible. 

7. Support a Cause or Charity Drive

Show customers that your brand stands for more than just sales by integrating a charitable cause into your Thanksgiving promotions campaign. Not only does this do good, but it also resonates with consumers. 63% of U.S. customers prefer to buy holiday gifts from brands that support specific social causes. 

Source: Artwork Flow

This kind of campaign links purchases to positive social impact, giving shoppers an extra reason to choose you. When executing, select a cause that aligns with your brand values and announce the campaign proudly through press releases, social media, and on your website/app. 

Such social expectations are coming especially from the younger generation. About 70% of young shoppers want to know how companies are addressing social and environmental issues. Showcasing genuine support lets you connect on a values level.

8. Launch a Thanksgiving-Themed Product or Service

People love seasonal flavors and special edition items. It adds novelty to their shopping. For Thanksgiving promotions, consider launching a themed offering: a cafe might debut a “Pumpkin Pie Latte”, a beauty brand could release a “Gratitude Gift Box” set, or a bakery might sell special turkey-shaped treats. 

These seasonal products often sell out. 

Take Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte as inspiration. Starbucks sells around 20 million PSLs each year, and seasonal menu items like this make up roughly 10% of its annual sales. 

The combination of scarcity and holiday appeal drives impulsive purchases. Additionally, it also attracts media and influencer attention, which is free publicity. 

9. Share Thankfulness Stories on Social Media

Create a series of short videos or reels for Thanksgiving promotions, where employees share what they’re thankful for. Or, highlight customers’ stories (with permission, of course!) about how your product/service has been of help. 

Invite your audience to join in. For example, ask followers to comment on what they’re thankful for, or run a campaign hashtag like #ThankfulWith[YourBrand] featuring user submissions. These heartfelt narratives cut through promotional clutter. 

This positive storytelling increases engagement and loyalty. Being authentic is key. Let your messaging align with the feel of Thanksgiving, creating content that’s pure emotional gold. 

Get inspired by these Christmas advertisement examples to build your own ads strategy during the holiday season.

10. Host a Virtual Thanksgiving Event or Workshop

Engage customers more interactively by hosting a live virtual event with a Thanksgiving theme. This could be something like a DIY craft workshop or a travel webinar sharing “Thanksgiving traditions around the world.”These type of Thanksgiving promotions are perfect for hospitality, food, and lifestyle brands that can offer expertise while sharing fun experiences. This way, you can attract a global audience. 

Promote your event in advance on social media, via email, and through influencers, if relevant. Make the event engaging by incorporating Q&A sessions, polls, or giveaways. Perhaps, share a Thanksgiving coupon code for participants. This not only entertains and provides value, but also subtly keeps your brand top of mind. 

11. Leverage Influencer Marketing with a Thanksgiving Twist

Identify a few influencers or micro-influencers whose audience aligns with yours. Ideally, select the ones who can naturally incorporate a Thanksgiving theme. Consider a food, travel, or lifestyle vlogger, for instance. 

It’s best to give creators freedom to infuse their personality and the Thanksgiving spirit into content. If possible, encourage them to discuss what they’re thankful for and then segue into your brand promotion. In such collaborations, make sure you track engagement and offer affiliate links to measure the impact. 

Such campaigns greatly amplify Thanksgiving promotions. Here’s an example of how King’s Hawaiian collaborated with a food influencer, bakewithzoha: 

Source: Instagram

12. Use FOMO and Social Proof to Drive Conversions

Shoppers often take cues from others’ behavior and worry about missing a great deal. Incorporate these psychological triggers on your website and marketing materials. You can do this by:

• Displaying Low-Stock Alerts: “Only 3 left in stock, order now!” 
• Showing People Viewing or Buying a Product: “25 people purchased this today.”
• Highlighting Bestseller: “Rated 5/5 by 100 customers”
• Creating Genuine Urgency: “Final 6 hours left to use this Thanksgiving discount!” 

While using this strategy, just be genuine and avoid overusing fake-scarcity tactics, as people can easily see through them. 

Tips for Building Successful Thanksgiving Promotions and Marketing Campaigns

Below are a few tips that would help you lead your Thanksgiving Marketing Campaign toward flying colors.

• Start Early: Don’t wait until the week of Thanksgiving to plan your campaigns. Many consumers start researching and shopping weeks in advance. By early October, you should begin teasing your upcoming promotions.
• Align Messaging with Values: Ensure your campaign messages reflect the themes of gratitude, family, and community that define Thanksgiving. Customers engage with brands that strike a genuine, heartfelt tone.
• Use Omnichannel Promotion: Meet your customers wherever they are during this busy season. A robust Thanksgiving campaign should span multiple channels, including social media, email newsletters, SMS alerts, push notifications, and your website/app. Consistent messaging across channels will maximize your reach. 
• Test and Optimize: Approach your Thanksgiving marketing like a data-driven experiment. A/B test elements of your emails, landing pages, and ads to see what resonates most. During the campaign, closely monitor analytics. This real-time data will tell you what’s working and what isn’t. 

CleverTap provides a unified view of campaign performance across all channels. Make sure you review its insights before optimizing on the fly. 

Source: CleverTap

Get new and updated holiday marketing ideas from CleverTap. Get proven ideas to create effective 4th of July marketing and Halloween marketing campaigns.

How CleverTap Helps Optimize Your Thanksgiving Promotions

CleverTap lets you optimize the execution of marketing campaigns to ensure the right people see the right campaign at the perfect time. It empowers your marketing tech stack with a few notable capabilities, including: 

• Advanced Segmentation: CleverTap enables you to segment your audience based on behavior, past purchases, demographics, and more. This means you can target different groups with personalized Thanksgiving promotions. For example, send an early Black Friday access code to your top 5% most loyal customers, or a win-back discount to shoppers who haven’t made a purchase in 6 months. 
• Behavioral Analytics: With CleverTap’s analytics, you get real-time insights into how users are interacting with your app or site before, during, and after your Thanksgiving campaigns. Track which emails or push notifications are getting clicks, which products are spiking in views on Thanksgiving Day, or where drop-offs occur in the purchase funnel. These insights enable you to optimize quickly. 
• Automated Omnichannel Journeys: CleverTap’s Journeys feature enables you to set up automated flows that guide users from awareness to conversion across channels. You can pre-build a Thanksgiving campaign journey. These automated sequences run 24/7 and respond to user actions (or inactions) with custom next steps while ensuring necessary personalization.
• Real-Time Analytics and Experimentation: CleverTap offers a unified dashboard that enables real-time measurement of performance across all channels and campaigns. The platform supports A/B testing for campaigns, allowing you to experiment and have CleverTap automatically roll out the winner. This level of feedback and agility is beneficial in fast-paced events like Black Friday weekend. 

The overall outcome is a more engaging experience for customers, which is necessary for higher conversions. In a nutshell, CleverTap enables you to automate marketing across various channels comprehensively, ensuring your campaigns don’t miss out on reaching an ever-increasing audience.