So you’ve done your planning, and you’re all set for the holiday season. You have a plan to execute across your marketing channels, from social media, email, and website campaigns to POS, display ads, and TV spots. The holidays are among the busiest times of year for most businesses. Everyone is in a rush to get their purchases made and shipped before Santa comes. Generally speaking, it’s not the time to be launching new campaigns or start new programs—but that’s exactly what you need to do in order to succeed. We all know it’s important to have a strong holiday marketing strategy that covers everything from product launches to sales promotions. But when it comes to it, many companies fail because they don’t have a solid plan for how their marketing activities can be most effective during this time of year.
Don’t stop communicating with your audience.
At all. Any. Times. It’s easy to get swept up in the urgency of getting your products in the hands of people who want them—and getting your message out there to boost sales. But if you stop communicating with your audience to focus on that, you’re essentially shutting yourself down. You may not have time for a blog post every week, but you can certainly be posting on social media. Email campaigns can be simple and short—just a couple of sentences introducing your latest promotion. Remember, you’re not selling to your list every second. They want information from you, too.
Be smart about the media you buy.
The number one thing you can do to boost your marketing effectiveness this season is to be smarter about the media you buy. The most important thing to factor in is how long you expect a particular campaign to run. If you’re launching a TV ad on Thanksgiving Day, it will only run for 24 hours. So make sure whatever you’re spending on that ad is worth it—because you’ll be done with it in a day. You want to make sure that every ad dollar you spend has the biggest bang for the buck possible. It’s not just a matter of how long a particular campaign runs; it’s also a matter of which audience you’re targeting. That TV ad is going to reach a very different audience than an ad on Facebook. And email campaigns for companies into B2B selling.
Produce great content for your visitors.
It’s not about the campaigns you’re running or the media you’re buying. Your success this season relies on one thing—how effectively you’re able to engage your visitors. You have to be there for them, answering their questions, and helping them with any issues they have with your product or service—especially during this time of year when everyone is in a rush, and any problem means hours (or days) of delay. Use your social media channels to drive people to your website and to provide helpful information and tips that they can use in their daily lives. Be sure to include links to your products, too. Your website should be your central location for information, articles, and tips in order to engage visitors and drive them to buy.
Conclusion
The holiday season is a great opportunity to boost your marketing effectiveness. It’s a hectic time, but it’s also when many people are looking to make purchases—and they’re also willing to spend more than they would at other times of the year. If you approach the holidays with a good plan in place, you’ll be able to take advantage of all the opportunities and drive more sales. If you’re not prepared, however, it’s easy to get stuck dealing with last-minute issues and running around trying to fix things for people who are in a rush to get their shopping done. If you want to increase your marketing effectiveness during the holiday season, you’ll need a solid plan that covers everything from your communications with visitors to the media you’re buying.