Marketing during the holiday is all about standing out. Just about every store in your industry will be discounting and selling like crazy. Instead of jumping in the same game and trying to market louder than your competitors, do something that stands out.

Here are three ideas to get you started.

==> The “Submit a Letter” Campaign

This idea was first pioneered by Macy’s. The way it works is very simple: kids bring in their letters for Santa. For every letter that’s brought in, $1 is donated to the Make a Wish foundation.

There are so many ways to utilize a campaign like this. First, you can later publish the best letters for more publicity. You can talk about the wishes that your money has helped fulfill. You get a lot of publicity for doing something like this in the first place.

Macy’s has donated over $4 million as a result of this campaign.

Naturally, just straight out copying the campaign probably isn’t a good idea. But you can take elements of this campaign (the letter, getting kids involved, donating a small amount, etc.) to craft your own successful campaign.

==> Create a Viral Social Media Campaign

Social media comes alive during the holiday seasons. However, it’s extremely rare that people will share information about sales or products. Everyone is getting bombarded by sales and the last thing that people are going to do is try and sell their own friends on products.

So how can you take advantage of this flurry of activity, without being another “me too” seller?

The answer: create a unique, creative viral social media campaign.

The campaign might take the form of a contest. It might be a viral video. It might be a unique event that people participate in in person.

The most important thing is that the campaign itself is shocking and surprising. Brainstorm ideas until you come up with something that truly blows people away.

==> Juice Up Your Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing can be a rocket ship for your business in the holiday season.

If you have affiliates on your team who used to be active, now is the time to contact them to get them to promote again. If you have active affiliates that aren’t really pushing your products, now is the time to try and get them to step up a bit more.

Talk about your increased conversion rates. If they were getting a 2% conversion rate in the past, let them know they can easily expect that to double or triple in the holiday season.

Get your affiliates excited about how much they could make by promoting you during the holidays.

These three ideas will help you stand out and get more sales than your competitors come December.