Crafting the Right Holiday Marketing Strategy

Assessing the state of your marketing is something that takes regular and consistent work. Truth be told if you’re not reviewing your campaigns at least quarterly (ideally monthly) then odds are you’re making mistakes. When was the last time you conducted a full marketing audit?  You might be surprised by the results but you’ll definitely save some money!

Refining your strategy with an eye towards the upcoming holiday season, can bring a boost during one of the busiest retail times of the year. To that end, here’s some tips to improve your online marketing over the holidays:

 

It Starts with a Plan

Plan your content schedule as soon as possible: developing a content schedule that you will be displaying over the holidays is a great first step. We’re big fans of the content calendar – a simple Staples desk calendar showing the full month on one big page. These have lots of room for different coloured post-it notes and show you the overall month at a glance.

The good news is that you can write almost every aspect of your Christmas content ahead of time.  From tweets to social media posts, newsletter content and even all the future blog posts that you have planned. By setting up this content ahead of time, you’re ready to start improving your online marketing with a rollout schedule of your fresh new content.

 

Learn from last year?

Check out your previous data: The analytics from your last holiday season will often be a good sign of what worked and what didn’t.  The numbers don’t lie and in this digital age we have the capability to measure almost anything. The trick of a good marketer is to learn what to look for from these results.

Analytics can show where you could experience growth and how to better target your marketing content for the future. Be sure to roll back some of your statistics to take a look at the posts that were most successful. Try to create similar content this year (updated) to generate a similar response.

 

Think Video

Focus on video: all the biggest marketers this year are focusing in on video campaigns. Investing in top-quality video can often lead to a far greater response from your Christmas advertisements.

Working with a video marketing company or building up your own videos is a great way to expand on your content.  If your budget doesn’t extend that far, it’s okay, there are options. Simply use a desktop camera with software or your smart phone for video can be effective too.

 

Time for a Tune Up

Tune up your website: tuning up your website to make sure it’s ready for a whole bunch of new holiday traffic is a great start to planning your Christmas campaigns. Your website is ground zero and as such, it’s important to make a great first impression. Even more so in the the e-commerce realm.  By making sure your website is fast, hosting is up to date with the latest security and speed technology, you can be sure to improve your website conversion rates over the holidays.

 

Set Goals and Targets

Set specific goals and targets: ultimately any type of Christmas marketing campaign needs to meet a specific set of targets and goals. Many clients try to start out with far too many wants and at best achieve less than half of them.  Start with the end in mind – what do you want to have happen and how do you want to achieve that. Add in specific bench marks along the way to help keep you on track.

Often, sticking to a smaller choice of targets will help to make sure that you make that all important window.  Once you reach that first benchmark, you can then spend time focusing on the various channels.  A blended focus is warranted at this point in regards to targeting customers a) right now and b) keeping their needs (& your business) in mind for the future.

 

Focus on the Ho Ho Ho

Focus on the holidays: if marketing products try to find a direct correlation between the product being a great gift or a solution to help over the holidays. Delivering these types of connections can really help to customers. They’re also a great way to have holiday focused content that continually draws an audience over the time period.

Now it’s your turn. Consider adding some of these Christmas marketing tips and more for improving your marketing campaigns this holiday season.

Thanks for reading!