It’s that time of year again when marketers are putting in those overtime hours to put together their holiday marketing strategies. Yes – we’re already talking about the holiday season! The fact is, you can never start planning for your holiday marketing campaigns early enough, because trust us, this is one time of year when you don’t want to get complacent.
Did you know that 40% of consumers start their holiday shopping before Halloween? That’s right! As you read this article, millions of Americans are out there right now looking for the best recommendations and deals on products and services that they plan to gift this holiday season. As you can see, the earlier your planning gets underway, the higher your chances of launching successful campaigns.
So, it’s time to kick your creativity into hyper-drive! Now is the time to start turning heads, making a splash, and putting your brand at the forefront of consumers’ minds. Here are the steps you and your marketing team should be going through right now to create a stellar holiday strategy:
- Create a Plan – Every project or campaign starts with the construction of a clear plan of action. And, you’ll want to get a jump on this as early as possible. That way, if you happen to run into any problems or certain parts of your plan turn out to be flawed, you’ll have enough time to solve them before the big push gets underway, and avoid stress in the future.
- Adapt Your Go-To Strategy – When it comes to getting consumers interested in your brand and what you have to offer, there are many trajectories that you could take. So, make the appropriate tweaks to your go-to marketing strategy in order to make it seasonally appropriate (both in message and in scope). This is a special time of year where you really need to focus on delivering the right product or service to the right audience. So, make sure you’re reaching the right audience specific to this time of year. By working on and nailing down your holiday marketing strategy early, you’ll be able to avoid the stress of the frenzy, and keep your team from getting overwhelmed.
- Acquire Resources Early – It’s important to remember that the longer you wait, the harder it will be to acquire the necessary resources you’ll need to carry out your holiday campaigns. The later you get into the season, the more limited resources will become. Fortunately, you can easily avoid this mad dash by preparing a list of everything that you and your team will need, now! Make sure you have enough time to make all of the necessary phone calls, shop around, and make adjustments to your strategy and or budget as needed. You don’t want to have to rush order everything right before the deadline when everyone else has already done their due diligence and is launching.
- Create a Holiday Specific Message – Holiday marketing should be time specific. This means creating all new holiday centric ads, promotions, and emails. Start this content creation early so that you can run everything through all internal approval processes before the big rush begins and so that you can remain focused on executing a successful marketing campaign. This also gives you time to build buzz around your upcoming holiday campaign. So, get your audience excited! Tell them that you have upcoming holiday promotions, and give them a sneak peek at what’s to come so that the excitement can build and spread. Remember, you want your brand, message, and/or product or service to be at the top of their list this holiday season!
Now that you have a game plan in place, it’s time to get your holiday marketing creativity flowing. But, start now! Don’t miss out on the opportunity for you brand to make a splash this season. Happy strategizing!
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