When to Start Planning Your Online Marketing Strategies for the Holidays

Your business can really benefit from jumping onto the holiday marketing bandwagon early. According to a recent study, almost half of all holiday shoppers start to think about future purchases in October – or even earlier!

If it takes you a month to design and implement your strategy, and if you begin your planning process early, you should be in good form, and there are many great reasons that you should get started early.

Why You Need to Plan Your Holiday Marketing Early

There are a variety of reasons that you need to get started with your online marketing planning sooner rather than later:

• You’ll get repeat customers. According to a 2013 Constant Contact survey, the early bird will get repeat customers. Over half of business owners that responded to the survey reported that customers earned during the holiday season became loyal, repeat customers.
• Poor planning will lead to poor performance. Without proper planning, it is likely that your business campaigns won’t take into account what worked in the past. You won’t have time for originality and could end up running a generic – and less successful – campaign.
• You have a lot of ground to cover. An Accenture report states that nearly 75% of shoppers are done with their holiday shopping by the end of November. If you start late, you could miss the boat.
• You’ll save money. Reactive marketing can be bad news for your advertising budget, possibly leading to costs in other areas. This could eat into your bottom line. Fortunately, if you begin your holiday marketing early, you can spread out the costs over several months, and you might even get better pricing from vendors.
• Relieve your stress. Planning your online marketing strategy early can make an incredibly stressful time for your business easier to manage. You’ll have peace of mind knowing that your campaign is up and running, and you can feel confident that your well-planned marketing efforts will deliver a healthy return on your investment.

Early planning of your online marketing strategy will also give you time to test out what works and doesn’t work, and you can go back to evaluate the success of your efforts from previous years.

Tips for Developing Your Online Marketing Strategy for the Holidays

Once you decide to start on your online marketing plan, there are some tips that can help the process go smoothly:

• Create marketing for both mainstream and niche holidays. Christmas isn’t the most important holiday for everyone, and different audiences will value different holidays.
• Create holiday-themed offers. Keep your marketing efforts relevant and timely in order to maximize your ROI and audience engagement.
• Rethink marketing copy. Most of your existing online marketing ads can be repurposed for your holiday campaigns. Just make sure that you use holiday-themed keywords that will serve as attention grabbers.

Conclusion

If you find that you are behind in terms of your holiday marketing planning, don’t worry. If you get started today and use some effective online marketing solutions, you can still implement a successful promotion that will boost your holiday sales.