How To Build A Holly Jolly Holiday Marketing Strategy That Converts

The leaves are beginning to turn colour and fall off of the trees, everyone is ordering pumpkin spice lattes, and you, my fellow business owner, are deep in the leg work that makes a holiday marketing strategy effective and successful. 

Brands of all kinds and all sizes can reap the rewards of a well-planned and executed holiday marketing strategy. ‘Tis the season for consumers to spend more than usual, for events and outings to become more regular, and there are so many opportunities to reach and acquire new customers. You won’t find many golden opportunities like this throughout the rest of the year, so it is imperative that brands build a sound strategy for the season – and get on it early!

Many of the biggest and most successful brands in the world have their holiday marketing strategies planned months in advance, if not the year prior. At the very least, you should be completing your holiday marketing strategy in October and begin executing in November. 

Does your holiday marketing strategy need to differ from your everyday marketing strategy? Yes. This season is unique for most industries, with key dates to be aware of, audience priming that needs to be completed, and special attention to gift-giving and the way that consumers shop during the holidays becoming a necessity. 

Here are a few key pieces of the holiday marketing puzzle to consider when building an effective holiday strategy:

Identify Your Holiday Goals

No strategy is complete without smart, attainable goals and benchmarks that you can track. Depending on your industry, your goals will likely look different during the holidays than they do throughout the rest of the year.

Invest In Marketing That Targets Your Goals

Don’t just jump into a marketing tactic because it’s trendy and everyone else is doing it. Your marketing tactics should be developed based on the goals that you’ve set out. 

Paid Media

Are you trying to reach a new or broader audience? Are click-throughs important to your brand during the holiday season? You may consider adding paid media campaigns across online and offline platforms to your holiday marketing mix. 

Organic Social Media

It’s not as simple as posting a ‘Happy Holidays’ graphic that you found in Canva or promoting that you have Black Friday promotions. Organic social media requires a lot of effort and strategic planning to be effective and move the needle on your marketing campaigns. You need to have a detailed plan as to where your audience is, what content would be valuable to them, how they can easily shop your products or services, and how often you need to be in front of them.

Influencer Marketing

There are so many ways to work with influencers, and the holiday season is a wonderful time to promote your brand through the people that your audience is listening to. Giveaways, git guides, discount codes and more can be even more effective when paired with an influencer campaign.

PR + Gift Guides

Do you have a brand story worth telling? Earned media can be a powerful marketing tool, but you must have something valuable to share. When it comes to PR and placement in gift guides, it all needs to make sense.

Email Marketing

It’s the most wonderful time of the year to activate that email list! This audience has already shown interest in your brand, so now is the time to truly show them what you can offer. Pay close attention to your subject line and ensure that each email is packed with value for the reader.

Campaign Tracking

Do not, under any circumstance, fail to track your holiday marketing campaigns. This is so important to understanding the success of your campaigns or identifying areas of improvement. This step will also make your strategy planning phase much easier next holiday season.  

If this sounds overwhelming, we get it! Marketing your large or small business is no easy task, and adding the holiday element to this mix can be a handful. To build a holly jolly holiday marketing campaign that drives conversions and meets and exceeds your holiday goals, you need some support and guidance. You can find a TON of helpful tips and insights in our How To Build An Effective Holiday Marketing Strategy downloadable guide here.