How To Ensure Your Marketing Rocks The Upcoming Holidays

Now that November is almost here, everyone has been getting into the holiday spirit and is beginning their holiday shopping in earnest. If they haven’t already done so or haven’t already completed it. Many stores have already begun to put out holiday decorations, much to the chagrin of many people who might feel it’s a bit early since Halloween hasn’t even arrived yet.

While many people might not like the reminder of the approaching holidays that the early appearance of decorations in stores provides, businesses can make use of it to help bolster sales as the end of the year approaches, since holiday gift sales are vitally important to their bottom line.

With that in mind, what can businesses do to ensure their marketing efforts will make the most of the upcoming holidays? There are a lot of things that can be done. Here are a few ideas:

1. Black Friday

For many years, the Friday after Thanksgiving (in the U.S.), commonly known as Black Friday, has been one of the top shopping days of the holidays, and has also been seen as the unofficial kick-off to the holiday shopping season. Granted, the last few years, many business have begun starting Black Friday early, opening on Thanksgiving day and starting their Black Friday sales then. This year a lot of major retailers are officially closing on Thanksgiving to amp up the Black Friday hype, once again. With Black Friday being the “big” holiday shopping day, it’d be wise for businesses to offer Black Friday sales and deals, and begin advertising them at least two weeks in advance. Also, offer your customers some sort of guarantee, like a price match, to lower the risk to your customers and prospects.

2. Gift Guide

Help your customers out by offering a gift guide on your website. Sort your items by recipient ‘gifts for him’, ‘gifts for her’ by occupation, price, etc to make holiday shopping easier for your customers.

3. Discounts

Offer holiday-specific discounts or coupon codes for your customers and prospects to use, or even offer free shipping. Customers will appreciate the deals and saving money. Across your marketing channels, you can let your customers know about exclusive discounts only available on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc to help with cross promotion and following.

4. Promotion

Start your holiday marketing promotions early. Though many people may not like it, holiday promoting starting right after Halloween is becoming the norm nowadays, so start planning your promotions now. Be creative in this promotion so you don’t get lost in the sea of other businesses doing the same thing.

5. Holiday-Themed Content

To take advantage of holiday-related search engine traffic, start posting content on your blogs and social media that is themed around the holidays and specifically optimised for the season in order to catch that search engine traffic. Post holiday-themed questions, images and stories on social media.

6. E-mail

Change your e-mail template to a holiday theme. It will look festive to your recipients and catch their attention and possibly put them in the mood for some holiday shopping.

7. Party

Have a holiday party. Hold one live, in-store, for your customers and prospects, where you can give them goodies and put them in the holiday mood. You can also hold one online, with contests and such, on social media and give away prizes and special discounts.

8.  Other Sales

Offer post-holiday sales. Also, promote Small Business Saturday (United States and United Kingdom)to help people shop local businesses, and hold a Cyber Monday sale. This is the Monday after Thanksgiving and is the ‘Black Friday’ of the e-commerce world.

9. Last Minute E-mails and Limited Deals

Send out e-mails right before Christmas with last-minute gift ideas and offer expedited shipping. Create a sense of urgency by offering limited-time only deals, such as “40% off, one day only”.

10. Reviews

If you don’t have it done yet, set up product reviews and ratings on your website to help increase conversion rates and help people determine the best products for their gift-giving needs.

11. 12 Days Of Christmas

Run a “12 Days of Christmas” holiday promotion campaign to get people in the spirit. You can offer a different product or deal each day leading up to Christmas.

12. Keywords

If you’re using for promotion, remember to include seasonal keywords, such as “gift”, “Christmas” and “holiday”.

13. Repeat

Don’t be afraid to promote your holiday offers more than once. Share your deals and sales repeatedly, since the holidays are a busy time of year and you want to make sure your promotions reach people.

Check out Hubspot’s 47 Stats for Remarkable Holiday Marketing in 2015 SlideShare from last year!

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