The holiday season is almost here! As a shopper that might make you happy, but for the marketer in you, it means time to start planning, budgeting, and putting things in place. If your 2014 holiday season marketing plan is not already in place, get your calendar out today and make plans to capitalise on that seasonal rush for the rest of the year. One of the most important things to put on that planning calendar now is the year-end review. In January, it is imperative that you sit down as soon as possible and evaluate the season. List what went right, what went wrong, and your ideas for improving next year. The holiday season only comes once a year and it is important to continuously work on improving your sales and marketing.
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Your planning guide should be something you go back to each year and adjust for changes. Creating a calendar ahead of time for your marketing plan will make the busiest time of the year much easier. The holiday rush is stressful enough without having to worry about planning and executing too. It should be a combination of things that must be done during the season and some things that are done ahead of time.
What’s in a Holiday Marketing Schedule?
The calendar you come up with should be as detailed as possible with dates, plans of execution, descriptions, and alternate ideas to be used in case a backup is needed. Here are some of the things that management and marketing departments should discuss for the holiday planning calendar:
- Concentrate on optimising sales within the short window of time you have. Capitalise on new trends and be ready to replace offers if merchandise does not arrive or is defective.
- Have lists of popular items, top sellers, and market them as buying guides.
- Establish yourself as an authority while also staying top of mind with your target audience. Send out holiday tips for your industry or ones that are relevant to your customers.
- When will emails be deployed, what will the topics be? Even go as far as to develop the wire frames and start working on the content for each one. Task the art department and content writers for the whole season ahead of time.
- In store displays should be sketched and detailed with plenty of time to send to the printer or art department.
- Digital graphics should be completed ahead of time for online campaigns. Always request a few extra graphics from the art department so that they are available if you decide to run an extra campaign or change an existing one.
- Coupons, discounts, and offers all written down and scheduled for start dates and end dates.
- Plan out a social media schedule ahead of time. What will the themes be themes for each week? Plan out all the topics for cascading social channel posts related to the email and advertising plan. Decide on nomenclature and a cohesive voice for the entire department.
- Try to coordinate with to work together with complimentary or other local businesses on cross campaigns to reach more of your target audience by sharing customers.
- Stock up on supplies. Take into consideration that since this time of the year is busier, you will need more office supplies and more of everything you use to execute your marketing plan. Buying them ahead of time will ensure that you do not run out or waste time during the holiday rush making office supply orders.
BONUS #11: This is also a time of the year when promotional gifts are most popular. Remember to order them ahead of time and plan out a clever and useful promotional gift to give to your customers or clients for the holidays.
One of the most important things to plan on though is being flexible. Do not expect everything to go as planned. Just accepting that will make your life during the holidays much less stressful and allow you to “roll with the punches” as they say.
