Gift Guide Template: How to Leverage Holidays to Grow Your List

Last updated on October 12th, 2023

Are you ready to leverage your holiday traffic with a holiday gift guide? Learn to create a Christmas gift guide or use our FREE done-for-you Canva gift guide template that’ll be sure to boost your blog’s traffic, email sign-ups, and affiliate income for the holidays!

Boost your holiday traffic with our FREE gift guide template! It’s the PERFECT compliment to all of your gift guide posts that’ll be sure to bring in more email sign-ups and affiliate revenue!

Quarter four is the best time to grow any blog in ANY niche. Why?

Because everyone has at least one problem, they’re frantically trying to find a solution.

They’re overwhelmed, stressed to the absolute max, and are looking to start fresh with the new year.

On top of that, they’re already primed to buy, making selling much more effortless.

Regardless of niche, you NEED to take advantage of the endless growth opportunities this time of year.

Plus, it’ll grow your email list and blogging income in the process!

WANT TO REMEMBER THIS LATER? SAVE IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! ⬇

Find your reader’s holiday-specific pain point

Leading up to the holidays, many people are desperately looking for money-saving solutions specific to quarter four.

• How to save money on holiday travel
• Budget-friendly ways to decorate for the holidays
• Host Christmas dinner on a tight budget

Some are looking for inexpensive gifts for the whole family. Others want ways to make a little extra for the holiday season.

Bottom line: You need to know your reader and their pain points. Then, get creative with how to sell them YOUR solution.

If you don’t know their pain points, listen up.

The key here is to build your audience first and the solution second. You’ll never know their pain points if you don’t know who you’re creating them for!

Related Post: The Easy Way to Create and Sell Printable Products

Take it back to the basics by asking them what they want. Survey them, hang out in their favorite Facebook groups, and see what they’re asking about.

Once you know your readers’ problem, then it’s time to brainstorm those holiday solutions!

That’s the whole point of knowing what your reader is struggling with, giving you the perfect opportunity to help them.

Solve their problem. Meet them on their level and fill that need.

Doing so will not only help your reader and help you establish a relationship with them, but it’ll help you grow your blog and set you up for a killer start to the new year.

By the way, if you need more help with this, check out our FREE Product Creation Training!

Use a gift guide to solve a problem

A holiday gift guide is a perfect way to leverage the holidays for blog growth. As mentioned earlier, people are looking for SOMETHING and are likely pretty stressed out about it.

For many shoppers, having to buy gifts for others is an unpleasant task.

It’s not even the money aspect of it. It’s thinking about what to get them AND hoping they like it.

So, why not make this easier for your readers and create a gift guide? Speaking of easy, save yourself boatloads of time with our FREE gift guide template!

Don’t be afraid to include some affiliate links, either. You still need to make a living, you know!

Our friend Lizzy makes over $100k/year using JUST affiliate marketing.

Other ways to use a gift guide for the holidays

Referencing our examples from earlier, you can still use a gift guide template to solve those specific pain points.

Here are a few examples to help you get in the creative mood!

• Holiday travel: Recommend hotels that offer free nights or credit cards with great flight benefits
• Holiday decorations: Recommend products you use like spray paint, glitter, or…
• Christmas dinner: Link to tutorials (YouTube, blog, etc.) to boost ad/sponsored post income

You can even do something simple like a resource list.

Throw your own spin on it like, “The resources we used to pay off 30K in debt in just 1 year,” and you’ll be amazed at how well it converts. Especially with new year’s resolutions right around the corner!

That’s the beauty of templates. You can easily customize them to fit your needs over and over and over again.

And if a gift guide just isn’t your thing, there are other holiday printables you can whip up in no time, regardless of your blog’s niche.

Related Post: Holiday Printables You Need to Create for ANY Niche

Do NOT miss out on this major growth opportunity that’ll set your blog up for an amazing start to the new year. We’re sure there’s a holiday printable you can make for your specific audience!

Side note: If you want to promote multiple gift guides, you NEED our Holiday Gift Guide Bundle with 5 different styles (and 15 matching Pinterest pin templates) for just $27!

Now, keep in mind that creating a solution is only half the battle. You need to communicate it effectively so they opt-in to your email list.

How to ‘sell’ your solution

When promoting anything (from freebie to product or affiliate offer), you must hit your audience’s pain points and deliver the solution.

They hear this pain point and say, “oh, that’s me! I totally feel like that, and I hate that!”

Like, when you say to the stay-at-home-mom:

“I know you’re exhausted. You’re trying SO hard and feel like you’re just not good enough. You know you’re a great mom, but sometimes you feel like you can’t win. I get it. I’ve been there, and I hear you.”

Or, when you say to the blogger:

“I know you’re spinning your wheels. You’re sacrificing so much, but you’re just not getting it. You don’t see the results you want, and it feels like everyone is reaching success except you. I know you’re frustrated, burnt out, and ready to throw in the towel.”

Use copy like this to draw awareness to a problem and connect with your reader.

Now, can you tailor this to the holiday season? Absolutely!

“The holidays are coming. I know you’re spending your days cooking, cleaning, budgeting for gifts, preparing for (and entertaining) guests, and doing ALL the things without a single break. You’re busy, tired, and just need some rest. I’m going to give you that break.”

You mention the pain point, even getting a little personal to really hit it home. Then, you let them know you have the solution.

Put your gift guide out there

You have your holiday gift guide (hopefully, you used our gift guide template!) and copy ready to go. Now it’s time to put your gift guide out there for your audience to find (and sign up for).

Set up a simple squeeze page and write a blog post that promotes your gift guide as a content upgrade.

Design a few Pinterest pins that lead straight to the blog post AND freebie landing page.

Related Post: Content Upgrade Ideas to Keep Your Readers Coming Back for More

Create a post for social media. Make a reel for IG and share it on your stories to cover all the algorithm bases.

You can even share it in Facebook groups and set up a paid ad promotion.

Get as many eyes on your gift guide as possible. Try to do it approximately 1-2 months before the actual holiday (depending on your audience).

Get our Holiday Gift Guide Bundle with 5 different gift guide styles (and 15 matching Pinterest pin templates) for just $27!

The whole point of your holiday gift guide is to get people onto your email list and not JUST over to your blog post.

Blog posts are great for traffic and should absolutely still be part of your strategy.

But, offering a printer-friendly (aka printable), more detailed version for someone to have handy in the gift-buying season can be a huge help.

All while growing your email list and supplementing your blog’s income with affiliate sales, of course!

Side note: We’re obsessed with the set-it-and-forget-it approach to affiliate marketing from the Lazy Guide to Affiliate Marketing. Elizabeth Goddard is a marketing genius, especially when it comes to affiliate sales!

The biggest benefit of using your gift guide as an opt-in is that you can access those subscribers after the holiday season.

This is when nurturing comes into play, so you can turn those subscribers into raving fans!

Use a gift guide to boost your income

A huge benefit to a holiday gift guide is its opportunity to grow your income. People sign up for gift guides because you’ve done the work for them when thinking of the perfect gift.

Or other gift guide-style examples that we chatted about earlier.

And it just so happens that they’ll be more likely to click on your affiliate links.

Not only are you solving your reader’s problems, but you’re also retaining them on your list for future growth and opening up the possibility for a nice Christmas bonus in affiliate or personal product income.

Another way to increase your income (and do so in an automated and passive way!) from a holiday gift guide is by creating a holiday or seasonal product offered as a tripwire.

Did you grab our FREE gift guide template? Click here to have it delivered to your inbox by the time you’re finished reading this post!

Lastly, it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t chat about templates for a minute.

If you choose to design your own gift guide, be sure to save it as a gift guide template. This will save you so much time (which equals money!) when creating other seasonal gift guides for your blog.

Keeping it legal

If your gift guide includes affiliate links, there are a couple of things to keep in mind to keep your business legal.

#1: MOST affiliate programs approve the use of a PDF. But Amazon does NOT. When designing your gift guide, we recommend that you make a page on your blog with those product links.

HOT TIP: On the last page of your gift guide, include the link for that page. It’s a little loophole that’ll help you stay in Amazon’s good graces while still letting you earn affiliate income.

#2: Make sure your blog has a Terms & Condition page and a Privacy Policy page you can refer to in your affiliate disclaimer.

#3. Prominently post an affiliate disclaimer in your gift guide (as well as any blog posts that include an affiliate link), which then links back to your Terms & Condition/Privacy Policy pages.

We use The Contract Shop for ALL of our contracts and legal documents. We have enough to worry about running a successful six-figure business – legal jargon and protection are not on that list, thanks to their templates!

Create your own gift guide template

If you want to save time and get your gift guide out as quickly as possible, grab our free Canva gift guide template.

Swap with your holiday color palette and branded fonts. Then, add images of your promoted products using your gift guide.

Related Post: How to Pick a Holiday Color Palette For Your Blog

Add descriptions of your products and any links (to include affiliates). Save it as a PDF and start promoting!

If you’re one of that DIY-type of business owners, you can easily create your own gift guide template using Canva.

Be sure your gift guide includes:

• Beautiful cover page
• Product page with all the products (and numbers) with a short description
• 2-3 pages of longer descriptions of each product
• URL/link page to your holiday affiliate links page on your site

Get your holiday gift guide designed and out there so you can leverage the holidays for maximum blog growth!

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS POST:

• FREE Gift Guide Template
• The Lazy Guide to Affiliate Marketing
• Website Terms & Conditions
• FREE Product Creation Training
• How to Pick a Holiday Color Palette For Your Blog
• Holiday Gift Guide Bundle for just $27

Don’t forget to grab your FREE gift guide template! It’s the PERFECT compliment to all of your gift guide posts that’ll be sure to bring in more email sign-ups and affiliate revenue!

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Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that’ll cut your design time down to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every single design is put back into making MORE money in your business!

WANT TO SAVE THIS FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇