The holiday season is upon us. And what better way to engage your Facebook audience than with an Advent calendar?
An Advent calendar is a fun, interactive way to showcase deals, share bits of joy, or simply count down the days until Christmas. Plus, it can help grow your Facebook following and website traffic.
In this post, as a professional custom advent calendar printing manufacturer, I’ll walk you through exactly how to create one from start to finish.
Why Create a Facebook Advent Calendar?
Before diving into the nitty-gritty details, let’s first go over the benefits of making an Advent calendar for Facebook.
Drive Traffic to Your Website
Each day, you’ll be posting fresh content that provides value to your audience. This content will link back to a dedicated landing page on your website.
This consistent flow of social traffic gives you a major opportunity to convert visitors into subscribers and customers.
Grow Your Facebook Following
An Advent calendar campaign gives people a reason to follow your Page. After all, they won’t want to miss all the deals and joy you’ll be sharing in December.
Post reminders both leading up to and during the month-long campaign. Let people know they need to Like your Page to participate.
Increase Engagement
Asking fun questions and running contests are easy ways to spike engagement.
You can even have people tag friends or share your Advent calendar posts to enter contests. This spreads awareness through Facebook news feeds.
So not only will you gain new followers, but your current audience will engage more too.
How to Create a Facebook Advent Calendar
Step #1: Set Your Advent Calendar Goals
It’s smart to start any campaign by clearly defining what you want to achieve.
For an Advent calendar, you likely want some combination of:
- Website traffic
- Facebook followers
- Engagement (reactions, comments, shares)
- Leads or sales
Establish a quantifiable goal for each metric that matters most. This gives you something to track so you can calculate your ROI.
Knowing exactly what you want to get out of the campaign focuses your efforts. It also helps inform what type of content you create.
Step #2: Map Out Your Advent Calendar Content
Here comes the fun part – planning the goodies inside each day’s box!
You have free rein over the theme and vibe. So brainstorm types of posts that would resonate best with your target audience.
Promotional Content
Of course you can promote products, services and special holiday offers.
Coupon codes and contests that award your products/services make great prizes.
Entertaining or Uplifting Content
Share jokes, inspirational quotes, fun facts or DIY holiday ideas.
The key is providing value and brightening your audience’s day.
Thought-Provoking Content
Ask questions to spark conversation.
“What’s your favorite holiday tradition?” or “What’s on the top of your wish list this year?”
Polls and quizzes work too. And contests encouraging UGC like holiday photo challenges.
Mixed Content
You don’t need a strict theme across all 25 days. Feel free to mix and match ideas to keep things interesting!
Link to Landing Pages
No matter what you post, make sure to always link to a dedicated landing page on your website.
This allows you to track traffic and conversion metrics tied specifically to your Advent calendar.
Step #3: Build Your Advent Calendar Landing Pages
You need a separate landing page for each day of your Advent calendar.
Why?
- It provides a good user experience
- Lets you track analytics for every post
- Gives you enough pages to link to from social posts
Name and number each page based on the day. For example:
- december1
- december2
- december3
Within each post, link to the next day’s URL to encourage visitors to come back.
Landing Page Content Ideas
At the minimum, every landing page should:
- Have the H1 match the social post headline
- Lead with an eye-catching graphic
- Expand on the concept presented on social
- Link to the next day’s URL
From there, tailor content based on that day’s theme.
For example, promotional posts would focus on showcasing a deal along with a call to action. While more entertaining posts could embed a video expanding on the concept.
Step #4: Promote Your Advent Calendar
You obviously want to post your Advent calendar content daily on Facebook.
But how do you get the word out to attract followers and visibility?
Pre-Launch Promotion
Start promoting 1-2 weeks before December 1st. Give people a reason to anticipate and follow your Page.
Create graphics teasing the Advent calendar and its potential prizes or themes.
In the caption, ask people to like the Page and turn on notifications so they don’t miss anything.
Also promote the launch in email, on your site, other social channels and even paid ads.
Time this in advance so people can plan to participate on December 1st.
Ongoing Promotion
Once you kick off your calendar, continue spreading the word!
In addition to posting daily, remind followers to turn on notifications between posts.
Send out emails and social posts telling people it’s not too late to join. Show them all the fun your community is already having!
Hashtag
Launching an Advent calendar hashtag drives more reach.
It lets people share the campaign beyond your followers.
For example, #YourBrandNameAdventCalendar.
Paid Ads
If you really want to maximize exposure, run paid ads.
Facebook and Instagram provide the best return here as you can laser target fans of holiday content or past customers.
Recap of the Four Advent Calendar Steps
Creating a killer Facebook Advent calendar takes effort upfront…but pays off hugely.
To recap, follow these four steps:
- Set traffic, followers and engagement goals
- Map out 25 days of fun, valuable content
- Build dedicated landing pages
- Spread the word far and wide to promote it
What special surprises will you be unwrapping to delight your audience this holiday season?