Regardless of the sector, you operate in, the customers you serve, or the goods and services you provide, the holiday shopping season has the potential to be a boon for your company and its revenue.
During the holiday season, people tend to be more generous with their spending. They want to join in on the revelry and the customs of the occasion. Due to the fact that the exceptional occasion warrants spending lavishly, they will have the opportunity to do so without experiencing any associated feelings of regret.
According to Adobe’s annual digital insights holiday report, key shopping weekends throughout the holiday season can lead to a startling increase in sales of up to 200 percent. It also affords you the chance to humanize your business, deepen the connections you already have with your customers, and entice new customers who otherwise might not have any interest in your product or service.
This guide is going to provide you with everything you need to design successful Christmas campaigns, communicate with your prospects and clients, and make certain that a portion of the money they spend during this time goes into the accounts of your firm.
How Far in Advance Are Your Campaigns Capable of Being Planned?
This is something that is highly dependent on the sector you work in and the things you sell. One of the most common types of errors that companies make is either planning their holiday marketing efforts too early or too late, or failing to divide their preparation work into distinct stages.
When is the best time to start making plans for the upcoming holidays? I’ll give you a few suggestions that you can run with.
Commencing Instantaneously Following the Concluding of the Holiday Season
When the current holiday season is over, the beginning of the following holiday season is the perfect time to begin planning your holiday marketing strategy. You should not let out a huge breath of relief and immediately go back to running your business as usual; rather, you should conduct an investigation of how well the prior campaign did.
Make an effort to go back and comprehend:
The total number of new clients or users that your company has acquired.
Your overall conversion rate in addition to any other pertinent KPIs for the holiday season.
The percentage of shoppers who did not complete their purchases and the reasons why they did not check out with their carts.
how well your sector perform in terms of sales and the money spent by customers
The trends and forecasts for consumer behavior, shopping, and the economy for the coming year are as follows:
Your marketing tactics for the next Christmas season should take these observations into consideration.
Planning in advance for a period of six months
You will have plenty of time to get ready for the holiday season if you start preparing your inventory, suppliers, and outstanding material six months before it actually begins. This will allow you to sort out any problems that may occur.
You can make a prediction about the number of products you need to stock by using the data that you obtained from the previous season. This will help you prevent wasting any of the items. Instead of quickly adopting concepts that haven’t been well thought out, you’ll have more time to fine-tune your marketing content and messaging thanks to the additional time.
The majority of customers anticipate finishing their holiday shopping anywhere from four to eight weeks before the big day. If you are prepared for customers ahead of time, you will be able to accommodate early risers who like to complete their purchases right on the dot. These customers are also more likely to spend a greater amount than customers who buy after the start of the holiday shopping season.
Organizing the Work from the Previous Quarter
You should have had your objectives, collaborations, and other resources sorted out by this time because the holiday that you are organizing is close to the corner at this point. You need to spend the next several months working on preparing your marketing initiatives for the upcoming holidays.
This kind of high-level strategy is only good for providing an overview of your overall game plan. Is it the most effective representation of your company’s brand? Does it ring true with the people you’re trying to reach? Before you move on to production, it is important to first review your plan and then make any significant adjustments that are necessary.
As soon as the plan is complete, you should begin working on the following particulars pertaining to the campaign:
- An innovative concept
- Metrics and objectives
- Documentation used in marketing
- Dates that were planned for use
You will receive an in-depth action plan for each of these actions in the subsequent sections of this article.
Using a Method of Continuous Planning as Your Approach
When the campaign goes live, you should be prepared to act swiftly and make immediate revisions wherever appropriate.
On the day of the launch, monitor your various initiatives. Verify that your advertisements and promotions are generating the desired number of views and clicks.
Every day, go over the results of the A/B tests. Evaluate their performances and get rid of assets that aren’t effective.
Rapid response is required for inquiries and feedback from customers. During the Christmas season, it is extremely important to maintain a high level of excellent customer service.
Even after your Christmas marketing strategies and initiatives have been implemented, it is essential to continue preparing for the season as well as what will follow it.
For instance, the holiday message that was displayed on the site would be replaced by what assets? After the first of the year, what photographs will you use to cover your social media profiles? Carry out a session of backward planning in which you change all of the seasonal messages back to their usual format.