The holidays are fast approaching and as with every year this is a busy time for you and your team. On top of all the marketing campaigning, content creation and advertising you also have to balance crazy family members, preparing a side dish for the big meal and your own gift shopping!
Panicking can’t be good for the festive spirit so here are 5 “must do’s” that every marketing manager should consider for this holiday’s marketing campaign.
- Immerse Your Audience
It’s the holidays and everyone is a festive mood, so make sure that mood remains throughout the season. Always give your consumers more to see, more to interact with, more to be a part of.
You can create this immersive experience by designing themed content or incorporating interactive pieces like video, virtual reality, games that involve product preference or the like. Decorate your site with festive lights, create a bracket with favorite holiday songs battling it out or an interactive Christmas list that you can send to your family where they can change the rank of the most wanted products.
Make it fun and unique to guarantee your products on your consumer’s wish list and encourage their friends and family to check out your products as well.
- Build Content Early
Hopefully before you build your “Hallelujah” inspiring holiday marketing campaign you already know who your target audience and have an idea of the channels and platforms they use for their holiday shopping.
With that information and the relevant data you can start building your content marketing strategy early. By publishing your content days or weeks before the malls crowd you can test run the digital or printed content to see how you customers react. It also allows you to be the first possible shopping destination for your customers because they saw your marketing efforts first and it will constantly be in the back of their minds.
Even if you don’t intend to publish your holiday themed content early, you can still create it in advance and get it out faster and easier when the time is right. This allows you to beat out your competitors, have perfect timing and still be able to breath, which is something we all need to do a little bit more during this festive season.
- Incorporate Varied Content
Utilizing only one form of content marketing isn’t going to boost your sales or your leads this season. Instead, try mixing it up and stirring in multiple platforms and channels for your creative content.
With that said don’t underestimate any of the available digital marketing platforms, social media is just as important as email which is, again, just as important as interactive content.
Having multiple types of content keeps your holiday campaign fresh, relevant and everywhere so you are targeting your desired audience everywhere they go in an organic and unique way. You will be able to impress your consumers, while expanding their digital marketing experience and educating them about your brand, deals, and products.
- Keep to The Theme
This is where you can look back to your childhood and be inspired by the truly incredibly corporate entity that is Disney. Follow their example this season by going all out with your holiday theme and keeping to it, religiously! That means no princesses in frontier land or a Minnie Mouse smoking a cigarette.
Have pride in your holiday theme by carrying out the same voice throughout your written content, keeping the jolly tunes on at all times and making sure every last detail plays into your theme.
Make sure your customers understand that when they are on your site or your app that what they are experiencing is your and only your offered customer experience. The business is you and customers should get that when they are immersed in your digital experience (that mixed with a little bit of holiday spirit!)
- Measure (But Only What’s Necessary!)
When the holidays are over, have the data you need to make your next holiday campaign even better than the last! During your 2016 holiday campaign measure relevant data that relates to your consumers, their reactions, what they liked and didn’t like, what they purchases, how many times they visited your site, etc.
Try challenge marketing with brackets, StackUp’s, MatchUp’s, or interactive lists to gain insights into your consumers and gently push them further through the buyer’s journey in a new, fun, way
Utilize this data gained from interactive content to further personalize the customer experience you offer and thus improve your holiday marketing campaign. These measurements will allow you to pat yourself on the back as you light a sparkler for the New Year and also give you a clearer insight on how to better and challenge yourself in November and December of 2017.
With the holidays approaching it is important to remember the must do’s in creating the most effective holiday marketing strategy. With the previous tips you can create a creative, unique and all around amazing campaign that will not only be a true gift to your brand but also one for your career.
Best of luck and Happy Holidays!
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