Here’s a hard truth – If you’re starting your holiday marketing strategy in the fall, you’re already late to the game.
That may seem harsh, but We’ve all experienced the pre-holiday rush that so easily turns into the holiday rush, and then BAM – it’s January.
The end of the year is out-of-proportion loaded with sales and growth opportunities, and if you don’t prepare, you can only wave as they pass by.
Don’t believe me? Here are just a few of the major end-of-year events to be aware of:
- Halloween
- Veteran’s Day
- Thanksgiving
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
- Giving Tuesday
- Hannukah
- Christmas
- New Year’s Eve
All within about two months!
Are you hoping to hit every one of these? Then you need to start in the summer sorting out exactly what you want to do, how you want to do it, and what you want to achieve with it.
Here are tasks to add to your summer list that will make the holiday rush so much easier!
Evaluate the year so far to establish end-of-year goals
By June or July, you are far enough into the year to have a pretty good picture of where you stand numbers-wise. Have things been consistently a little slow? Have you been running at 110% capacity? Are some offerings flying off the shelf while others are gathering dust? Taking some time to look back at how your business is performing so far will help you understand what your SMART numbers goals should be for the end of the year, and give you the time you need to create a plan to reach them.
Establish what offerings will be the most enticing for holiday customers
Whether you’re selling products or services, you may have a holiday heavy-hitter that is important to promote as “the gift of the year.” Or, you may have a great new offering this year that your customers didn’t know they needed on their lists. Either way, establishing what you want to prioritize will help you craft your campaign messaging, enticing offers, and overall holiday marketing strategy.
Prioritize the events you want to recognize now
Let’s be clear – most companies won’t and shouldn’t dedicate a large portion of their marketing strategy to every holiday on the calendar. But skipping them all is a wasted opportunity!
We all what to avoid the nightmare scenario of realizing that a holiday is a mere week or two away, and you have nothing on the calendar to commemorate it. Skip the scrambling by setting aside time in the summer to list out all of your potential holiday opportunities, select the ones that are the most meaningful or relevant to your company, and start devising a strategy that incorporates them. This way, you only skip the opportunities you decided not to take on in the first place!
Hire, establish, or reserve your outside help early
The early bird gets the juiciest worm!
If you know you’ll need to work with outside vendors, contractors, or freelancers for the holiday rush, the sooner you reserve their assistance the better. You’ll have more options, more time for discussing contract details, and more time to communicate the intricacies of the campaign.
If you leave it to the last minute, you probably won’t have the pick-of-the-litter support, there won’t be tons of time for strategy discussion or rounds of approval, and you just may find yourself drowning in rush order fees.
Map out your incentives to buy
The holidays are all about the perks.
Customers will choose one gift option over another simply because they offer a more seamless experience. From offering risk-free purchasing to free shipping to gift-wrapping services, many customers gravitate towards the gifting opportunities that make their life easier. But identifying, mapping out, and executing these extra incentives take time, so make sure they are sorted out early.
Make sure your website is in tip-top shape
The holiday online shopping rush is NOT the time to deal with a slow page load time, a wonky purchasing experience, or a major broken link.
Because more people than ever are purchasing their gifts and making their holiday plans online, for many businesses this is the single most important connection they have to their customers. Offering anything but the best online experience will lead to abandoned carts, an overflowing inbox, and disappointing changes to your predicted bottom line.
We love the holidays – but only when we’re prepared for them! Do you need help marking tasks off of your holiday list? Reach out to our team for that early-bird support!
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