With the holiday season fast approaching, it’s time to make sure your business’s holiday marketing strategy is ready to go! With the COVID pandemic likely throwing a wrench in the typical holiday cheer (and holiday consumer habits), it’s essential to strategize and plan accordingly so that your business can end 2020 on a high note.

If you don’t utilize any specific messaging during the holiday season, there are plenty of reasons to reconsider. This is the time for marketers and businesses to use the considerable uptick in product demand to round out the year and hopefully accomplish yearly business goals. There are several key reasons this season works perfectly as a final push:

•  The demand for product and intent to purchase is higher than normal
•  Campaigns are time-restricted, and therefore easily measurable
•  The holiday season is linked with joy and positive emotion

For these reasons (and many others), creating and maintaining a holiday content and marketing guide is critical to successfully navigate this busy time.

If you haven’t created a holiday marketing framework yet, these tips are crucial when designing and later implementing your ideas. And, if you already have your holiday plan ready, now’s the time to check it twice and make sure you’re fully prepared for the holiday season.

1. Know your purpose and audience

Just because it’s the holiday season doesn’t mean you have to focus your messaging on discount offers and product descriptions. If your brand wants to take advantage of this time of emotional appeal and create content geared towards establishing a better brand reputation, now is the time to do it. Holiday content can be used for various purposes, such as building relationships, acquiring new customers, or humanizing your brand. Don’t be afraid to go against the mold and create content with a purpose other than a purchase.

Similarly, make sure you know who you’re targeting with your holiday content. This can have a significant impact on your holiday campaign. Not only does this impact the tone of content and channel of distribution, but it can even determine which holidays you might need to base your campaign around! Establishing these key beginning steps is critical in ensuring an effective campaign.

2. Plan your channels

After establishing who you want to target, now’s the time to decide on where. With the pandemic having a huge impact on how people consume media, you might need to consider where your audience has moved if it has moved at all. This could mean a stricter focus on streaming platforms or social media campaigns instead of traditional ads and in-person deliverables.

3. Make your blueprint

The great part about a holiday campaign is that it already has a semi-structure to fall in line with the rapid-fire of holidays. Planning a time to focus on your campaign’s different aspects typically fall in line fairly easily, but nevertheless is essential to establish.

There are some important aspects to make sure you’re integrating at this point, such as an email reminding consumers that they still have items in their cart. That message, especially coupled with a statement concerning shipping times, can create the sense of urgency you need to make a sale.

If you run a business that sells a product, it’s imperative to communicate with your customers how long you require to ship your product. Communicating the absolute last day someone can purchase to receive before their holiday, such as Christmas Eve, is going to be incredibly important. Ensure you have dates like these set in your schedule so that you aren’t missing any major dates.

4. Create your content

All your holiday preparation ultimately comes down to the creation of your marketing content. Is it an email campaign? A video? Maybe even a series of images or a social media campaign. (And even more likely, it’s a combination of multiple.) It’s essential to think critically about what kind of content you are creating and ensure it is something your target will actually want to consume!

The most vital component to remember when creating holiday content is to think creatively. Consumers continuously see dry and unoriginal content from brands, especially when it’s linked to the holiday season. End your calendar year on a high note and create something that your audience will remember well into the new year!