Is it that time of year already? If there’s a chill in the air and pumpkin lattes are back on the menu, it’s only a matter of weeks before trees and wreaths will start popping up too. The madness of the holidays can be overwhelming for shoppers — and even more so for marketing departments.
For businesses large or small, it’s never too early to start preparing for your holiday marketing campaign. With some early prep, key tips, and clever strategies, your Christmas marketing campaign can make a splash and be a huge success.
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1. Start Early
If it’s Black Friday, and you’re watching reruns of It’s a Wonderful Life, it’s way too late to be thinking about your Christmas campaign.
By November, successful Christmas marketing campaigns are already planned (and oftentimes implemented or automated already) for the holiday season. At a minimum, if you’re not starting your Christmas holiday marketing campaign at least 2-3 months before Black Friday, then you’re not effectively using the time and your returns on the largest shopping season of the year will reflect that.
When creating your timeline, the majority of your campaign should be ready for implementation 2-3 months before the season. The buildup and preparation necessary to get your product in front of your audience are essential elements for a successful holiday marketing season.
2. Have A Plan
Many marketing professionals recommend kicking off your Christmas marketing campaign around Halloween. While this is a great idea, all of the legwork has to be done by September. As in… you need to start in August. See? It’s never too early to start making a plan.
The first step in coming up with your marketing plan is to identify the goals of the campaign and how to reach them. Using automation and planning tools for your marketing campaigns is highly recommended for businesses of any size. With enough time, the entire holiday season’s marketing campaign can be turned on with the press of a button and automated throughout the year.
Organization equals success when it comes to marketing during the holidays. This is doubly important if the product you’re marketing is itself a seasonal product.
3. Know Your Audience
Creating a sense of urgency within your marketing copy is always a good rule of thumb in order to make the holiday rush work for you. This being said, however, it’s best to know your audience so as not to make them feel pressured or even more overwhelmed than they already are.
Make your marketing memorable. Make it uniquely tailored to your audience. During the holidays, consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising, deals, and messaging from companies. In order to stand out, you need to really know your audience to be heard, catch their eye, and strike an emotional chord with them.
4. Execution With Automation
Marketing campaigns centered around holidays are time-sensitive — and none more so than Christmas. Unlike Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, there are multiple shopping deal days (like Black Friday and Cyber Monday) that you need to hit at just the right times to get in front of your customers.
Automation software has come a long way and the options are almost limitless. Pause, commence, and resume email marketing and ad campaigns as needed to get the timing of your message just right.
5. Use Remarketing
Remarketing is an effective strategy all year long but really makes sense during the Christmas season. As shoppers come to your site, think about purchasing, then leave — they’ll be brought back by your customized ads that they see on other websites.
These visitors are clearly already interested in your product and service and typically during the Christmas season, they’re even more willing to purchase. Using stock video to create inexpensive, targeted video ads to bring those customers back is a great way to increase sales and revenue easily.
Spread Christmas Cheer
No matter how you go about creating and launching your Christmas marketing campaign, make sure to make your customers feel special. Give them a free gift or a little something extra to say “thank you” for giving you their business. This kind of deed will go a long way to encouraging them to shop with you again or even recommend you to their friends.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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