Christmas lights tour marketing ideas you can use this week

Updated November 1, 2026.

Here are seven ideas for owners of holiday-lights tours: trolley, bus, walking or driving. None needs an ad budget. Each one starts from what is already public: your route, your booking page and the businesses and neighbors along the way. Pick two and do them this week.

1. Put the practical facts at the top of your booking page

Open your booking page on a phone, as a stranger would. The top should say where guests board, how long the tour runs, the price, the nights you run, what happens in rain or snow, whether the vehicle is heated, and who it suits, including small children and wheelchair users. If you take private groups, add a short paragraph on how to ask. Where a fact changes by night, say so.

2. Search Google for your own tour

Search Google for your tour's name, then "christmas lights tour" plus your town. Look at what a stranger sees. Is there a listing? Are the boarding point, nights, season dates and booking link right for this season, not last year's? Fix what is wrong at its source: the listing, your website, your social bios. Give every profile the same name and the same one link.

3. Photograph the boarding spot, day and night

Your tour runs after dark, so a guest has to find the boarding spot in low light. Take one daytime photo and one evening photo of exactly where guests board, with a landmark in frame, plus one line of directions (for example, "opposite the library, by the bus shelter"). Put them on the booking page, in the confirmation email and in a pinned post.

4. Tell one stop's story in one short vertical video

Ask your library or historical society what is on record about one stop, such as when your town's tree-lighting began or a hotel that decorates every year. Write it in about 90 words: what happened, when, and what stands there now. Read it aloud over still images, with captions for sound-off viewing, in 30 to 45 seconds. Open with the most unusual recorded detail and end with where and when the tour boards. Use your own photos, or ask the archive which images you may use and how to credit them.

Before you post it

Two help pages set ceilings. YouTube's help page (read November 1, 2026; it prints no update date) says, "You can now create YouTube Shorts up to three minutes in length." Instagram's help page (read November 1, 2026; it prints no update date) says, "You can record and edit videos up to 20 minutes with Instagram Reels." Those are ceilings, not targets.

If you use an AI voice or AI-made images, check each platform's label rule before you post. YouTube's page (read November 1, 2026; it prints no update date) says, "We require creators to disclose AI-generated or altered content that seems realistic." Whether your video falls under a platform's rule is for you to check on that platform's own page.

5. Trade a mention with one neighbor

Pick one business at your boarding point or your last stop: a cafe, a pub, a hotel, a bookshop. Ask whether they will keep your flyer by the counter, and whether you can show their window or tree in a short video and tag them. Ask before you film inside or use their name. For a private home's display, ask the owner before you show it or name the address.

6. Ask each local events listing what it takes to be included

Check whether your city, library, chamber of commerce or visitor center runs an events listing. Ask each one what it needs from you and what it does not list. Keep one block of text in one document so every listing says the same thing: tour name, nights, boarding point, price, booking link, one photo.

7. Invite guests to tag you, and ask before you repost

At the best photo stop, tell guests how to tag you. Reply to the people who tag you. Before you repost a guest's photo, ask them in a comment or message, and credit them by the name they use. Ask a parent before you show a child.

Want a hand with the videos?

Waymark Social makes narrated vertical videos about a tour's own town and stops. Email ellis@waymarksocial.com with your tour name and town. Within 3 business days you get two things by email, free and with no obligation: a written audit of your public profiles, and a sample video of about 30 seconds about a documented place in your town.

The audit covers only what a stranger can see signed out, with a link and a date for each finding. The sample is labeled a sample and is built from public-domain or CC0 images. Its narration is an AI voice, and so is the narration in the paid videos. If we can't find a documented story with enough usable images for your town, you get the audit and a note saying so.

Everything is by email, with no calls. We describe the work and don't promise followers, views or bookings. Waymark also offers paid monthly packages; details come only if you ask.

Email Ellis for the free audit and sample

Not for you? Skip it. The ideas above are yours either way.