Holiday Marketing 101: The Definitive Guide

By Techfunnel Author - Published on December 22, 2022
Holiday Marketing

There’s a reason why certain brands flourish over the Holiday season, whereas others struggle to be noticed. With a distinctive strategy in place, they prioritize human connections over and above revenue-only marketing and sales tactics. Undoubtedly, shopping during the Christmas season is among the most crucial periods of the calendar year for marketers and retailers. Your strategy and technology must reflect this. How can you guarantee that your brand receives the attention it deserves at the most “valuable time” of the year? To discover how to keep reading.

Understanding the Meaning and Importance of Holiday Marketing

Holiday marketing, also referred to as seasonal marketing, is the application of techniques and platforms to advertise a brand, products, or services intensely around a particular holiday.

Prior to, at the time of, or even after the holiday date, seasonal marketing efforts often include promotions that urge customers to make purchases. Branding is a vital aspect of holiday marketing because it helps businesses increase brand recall alongside the excitement that naturally accompanies a holiday or event.

Holiday shopping differs from usual shopping because each product in your customers’ shopping carts has special significance. A well-planned marketing strategy for the holidays may boost sales and bring in massive revenues. Furthermore, it enhances customer loyalty by fostering positive connections with them.

And what’s best about Christmas marketing? Understanding your audience’s goals and aspirations is much easier!  People who purchase things for the holidays do it with a clear and specific intent. For example, the kinds of purchases made on Christmas vary from those made on New Year’s Day, and marketers should tweak their campaign content and target appropriately.

5 Steps to Create a Holiday Marketing Campaign

This year, stick to the essentials of marketing but add some seasonal cheer to the tried-and-tested strategies that have been successful across the years. This is how:

Step 1. Review last year’s outcomes

Review information from previous years to see where you succeeded and where you need to make changes. Evaluating your historical/past strategies and initiatives will help you avoid repeating errors. Consider investigating customer data as well as performance metrics. Has your customer base evolved significantly during the last year? What are the most relevant demographics? Identifying these important characteristics of your target consumer will help you in crafting compelling Christmas messaging.

Step 2: Tailor marketing to your audience segment

Identifying your target market or target audience is critical for a winning holiday marketing gameplan. If you have younger customers, such as Gen Z or Millennials, try boosting your social commerce campaigns to promote holiday-themed promotions and special deals. And if you’re looking to combat the competition from the”big boys,” — or the major players in any segment — creating a compelling offer may be the key to success this year.

Step 3: Plan your holiday marketing schedule to outlast the holidays

Determine the messaging you will utilize for every channel and establish a timetable. This includes selecting when you will run advertisements, send emails, and publish on social media to connect with your present and prospective customers. It is also advisable to invite new prospects and customers to register for your mailing list before and throughout the Christmas season so that you may keep in touch with them all year long.

Step 4: Optimize your channel mix

Christmas is a very hectic time for your customers. Consequently, it is necessary to use the appropriate channels to reach the right individuals at the right moment. Try enhancing your website through the use of email campaigns, social media, and digital listing or review sites. One should consider both organic strategies and paid alternatives like Google Search Marketing as well as social media ads to expand your reach.

Step 5: Prepare for the new year

As the year comes to an end, it is important to remember that holiday marketing isn’t everything.  This is a fantastic time to create content that addresses the many queries that people have — about a product or service — and look for answers online. This type of material not only showcases your expertise but also helps customers use your products or services more effectively. Remember, the goal is to make your customers enjoy, value, or achieve their dreams with your product or service.

MarTech Tools and Enablers You Need this Holiday Season

Around the year and especially during the holidays, to meet the changing needs of the customer, marketers must use digital technology. Here are the key components of your holiday season martech stack for 2022:

1. A social customer relationship management (CRM) system

Social CRM is a useful tool for launching real-time conversations over the holiday season since it offers insights into what your target audience is currently interested in. A social CRM system helps companies monitor, evaluate, and boost their social media activity. It may also help you in identifying individuals who can serve as brand evangelists and address issues promptly.

2. Google Analytics (or any web analytics tool)

Google Analytics offers data on who visits your website, the routes they took to get there, as well as what they do once they are on your website. On a more elevated tier of the program, an SDK for assessing the effectiveness of your mobile app with customers is available. With new customers flooding your website during the holiday season, this information can be extremely useful.

3. A marketing cloud

A marketing cloud (like Salesforce or Adobe) is an extremely valuable tool for cellular notifications, organizing email campaigns, coordinating advertising campaigns with CRM data, and monitoring consumer browsing activity. During the holiday season, integrating these technologies is a great way to develop a brand voice that is uniform and consistent across all channels.

4. Inventory management and optimization

Inventory may have a major impact on the marketing decisions you make for your customers. Technologies for inventory control & management, inventory distribution, e-commerce, and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) integration are vital for small, medium, and big enterprises. Most importantly, it lets you keep track of what your customers purchase, guiding your future marketing initiatives.

5. Forms for first-party data

The program lets you test and identifies the most effective variants or versions of any lead capture form. Additionally, you can view the contents of unsubmitted, partially-completed forms. After using your web forms to acquire a lead, you could utilize a different form to follow, and try and close a transaction. Why shouldn’t one re-engage consumers with a purchase-specific feedback form?

Holiday Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Now that you know what your holiday marketing strategy and martech stack will look like, here are the key best practices to follow:

  • DO keep it simple. It may be tempting to design and (over-design) an intricate holiday marketing campaign, but this will only distract your efforts from the execution.
  • DON’T repeat your holiday campaign from last year. Get creative, take inspiration from topical trends, and think outside the box.
  • DO demonstrate gratitude to your buyers. Your customers have chosen your brand over fierce competition — an email or physical thank you note can encourage repeat customers.
  • DON’T forget to reconnect with your network. The holiday season is a great time to reach out to a cold lead or a segment that has not made a purchase in a while.
  • DO offer discounts and rewards. While a lot of the shopping will be done for friends and family, customers will appreciate receiving a little something for themselves.
  • DON’T center your messaging around Christmas alone. Both the US and the UK are highly diverse markets, and marketing to customers with different religious backgrounds can be a good way to go global.

Finally, keep in mind that it is never too late to run a holiday marketing campaign. Even if you’re getting started just before the Christmas weekend, there are small modifications you can make to your website to dress it up for the holiday season. And, of course, the 25th of December is only one day – you will have several opportunities across the upcoming months to gain from the holiday cheer and special observances. Simply adapt our top 10 seasonal marketing ideas to whichever holiday you are targeting.

Happy holidays to you and your customers!

Techfunnel Author | TechFunnel.com is an ambitious publication dedicated to the evolving landscape of marketing and technology in business and in life. We are dedicated to sharing unbiased information, research, and expert commentary that helps executives and professionals stay on top of the rapidly evolving marketplace, leverage technology for productivity, and add value to their knowledge base.

Techfunnel Author | TechFunnel.com is an ambitious publication dedicated to the evolving landscape of marketing and technology in business and in life. We are dedicate...

Related Posts