For many businesses, the holiday season is their busiest. The most successful holiday campaigns you see and love begin their planning stages as early as summer or fall. There’s no holiday magic when it comes to successful campaigns, it’s all about strategizing and planning. Whether it’s freshening up your landing pages, creating brand awareness, finding others ways to target new customers and everything in between, the list of tasks seems endless for small businesses.
As the holidays approach, here are things you need to consider for your brand and campaign:
Audit previous holiday marketing campaigns
No how things change from year to year, you can still learn and prepare from past success. Look back at statistics from previous years to understand where you were successful and where you could use some improvements. Analyzing your previous strategies and campaigns will help you avoid making similar mistakes.
Identify holiday strategies that make sense to your audience
No holiday marketing efforts are created equal. Definitely don’t copy competitors’ strategies. The key to a successful holiday marketing campaign lies in knowing your target audience. If you are targeting younger customers, like Gen Z or Millennials, consider utilizing platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, get creative with gift ideas to draw your customers in.
Keep things simple
It can be easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of holiday planning. However, it’s better in the long run to start small with your holiday campaigns. Even larger retailers who have been around for decades often refer back to the basics during the holidays. The holiday season is not a good time to try new things to attract customers. Think about the amount of bandwidth your team has and the amount of support your operations will have during the holidays.
Be prepared for the competition
With so many promotions around the holiday shopping season starting as early as this month, marketing is as important as ever to draw customers to your business. Make sure your campaigns help you stand out from the crowd and clearly communicate the benefits of shopping with you over your any other business.
Create a real reason to buy
The holiday season is known for discounts that can only be found once a year. When creating your holiday marketing plans, make sure you’re clearly incentivizing shoppers to visit your store. The holiday season isn’t just about creating revenue, it’s also about establishing relationships with customers who will hopefully return to purchase your products in the off-season. Make sure that customer retention is top of mind during any marketing decision you make for the holidays.
Don’t forget about your existing customers
A lot of businesses are always focused on attracting new customers, that they forget about the ones they already have. Chances are that the visitors who come to your website during the holidays will be a healthy mix of new and returning customers. The pathway to purchase for a repeat customer looks very different than a new customer, so make considerations for both while building out your marketing and website materials.
Use video marketing
Because of COVID-19, people are consuming as much as four times more online video than they were prior to the pandemic. Think about ways to incorporate video into your holiday marketing materials. Create video advertisements for tv, streaming services and your social media networks. You can also utilize video for organic content that you can share on your website, emails and social media channels. It’s a great way to dive deeper into your product or service to make it an easier buying journey for your customer.
Keep your website up to date
Your website is the face of your company, even on any other day of the year. It’s where people go to learn more about you, familiarize themselves with your brand and to potentially purchase your products or services. Make sure your website is user friendly, updated with the holiday campaign, and ready for the traffic and activity. Ensuring your website has a smooth user experience for mobile and desktop will help prevent your business from losing sales.
Whether you’re a large company or a small business, one of the most common mistakes brands make during the holidays is late planning. Start planning now, optimize your content, keep your customers in mind, and don’t forget about establishing lifetime value with your brand long after the holidays. If you are stumped with planning your holiday campaign, reach out to us today!