How to Build The Perfect Holiday Marketing Campaign

The most profitable time of the year calls for a great holiday marketing campaign. Many e-commerce businesses are already getting seasonal budgets approved and implementing new strategies to drive sales.

Developing a holiday marketing campaign with these simple steps is a sure-fire way to increase brand awareness, drive traffic and maximize profits before you’re greeted with a new year.

Keep up with your competition this season and take time to plan ahead.

Key Takeaways

• Holiday e-commerce sales in the United States are expected to see a 16% increase from last year
• Before planning your campaign, you must first clearly define your goals and understand the habits of your target audience
• The three most effective ways to promote your marketing campaign are email, social media and blogging
• Closely analyzing this season’s successes and failures is key to perfecting future campaigns

Launching a marketing campaign that captures the attention of your target audience is the holiday season’s secret to success.

Why Your Holiday Marketing Campaign is Important

The holidays are easily the most saturated shopping season of the year. This year, holiday e-commerce sales in the United States are expected to see a 16% increase from last year and rise to $236 billion!

Business owners across the country are taking advantage of this opportunity and developing holiday marketing campaigns to increase their business’s profitable revenue. If you want to maximize your profits this season, we suggest you do the same.

While you perfect your upcoming campaign with the steps below, it’s important to keep in mind the following tips:

• Keep it simple
• Have a backup plan
• Partner with other brands and non-profits for support
• Consider both loyal and new customers
• Understand your competition

Doing so will help ensure a successful holiday season for you and your business. Take the time to plan your well-thought-out strategies and use this step-by-step guide to plan your best holiday marketing campaign yet.

How to Build Your Marketing Campaign

Don’t pass up the opportunity to drive sales this season. Here are seven steps to put you on the right track toward developing a winning holiday marketing campaign.

1. Determine Your Goals

Before you begin planning your holiday marketing campaign, it’s important to define your marketing goals. Without a clear idea of what you’re aiming to achieve, you heighten the chances of launching an unsuccessful campaign.

The goals of your marketing campaign should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. SMART goals help ensure growth in your business’s brand awareness, traffic and sales by the time your campaign comes to an end.

Image Source: Workamajig

Although most campaigns are designed to drive sales, there are more benefits to great holiday marketing than raking in the dough. To make the most of your strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

• How will I reach more people and improve my business’s reputation?
• How will I establish new relationships with collaborators and partners?
• How much traffic do I expect my campaign to drive and how will it affect my business’s growth?
• How will I track my campaign’s progress?
• How can my campaign help build my email list and positively impact future sales?
• Do I want to build or receive links? If so, how will new links improve my domain authority?
• How many social media interactions do I want to influence?

Answering the questions above in-depth will help determine a clear campaign strategy to ensure you’re on the right path to achieving this season’s goals.

2. Understand Your Audience

The success of your campaign greatly depends on how well you understand your target audience. Gather as much information as possible about consumer habits to guide your marketing decisions towards maximizing your campaign’s performance and ROI.

First, figure out when your customers start their holiday shopping and how much money they’re willing to spend. Then, consider the following questions:

• What motivates them to shop?
• What are their hesitations?
• What are they most concerned and excited about?
• Which marketing channels do they spend most of their time on?
• How has your audience responded to past campaigns?
• Why would they choose your products over those of competitors?
• What feedback have they given you to incorporate into your campaign?

Catering your holiday campaign to the needs and wants of your target audience is key to creating a strategy that they will care about and respond to. To learn more about the significance of defining your target audience, enjoy the video below.

Video Source: QuickBooks

3. Define an Offer

After defining your goals and understanding your audience, it’s time to get clear on what you’re willing to offer. Holiday offers come in many forms, such as:

• Coupons
• Events
• Templates
• E-books
• Online courses
• Videos
• Tools

While you decide which form is best, keep in mind how much time your audience is willing to spend accepting offers this holiday season. As one of the busiest times of the year, many customers are looking for a quick, easy reward.

4. Build a Landing Page

After getting clear on your offer, build a landing page where your audience can redeem their reward.

With saturated holiday campaign competition, design a landing page that’s both compelling and convincing. Some essential elements include:

• Attention Grabbing Headline – draw your audience in with an irresistible headline
• Visually Pleasing Layout and Images – keep them occupied with interesting visuals
• Clear Definition of Benefits – let them know how your offer is too good to pass up
• Form for Conversion – request customer information in exchange for your offer

An impressive design combined with an irresistible offer is sure to catch some traffic – and raise your conversion rate.

5. Construct a Promotion Plan

Your incredibly good-looking landing page is nothing without visitors to appreciate it. Next, construct a promotion plan to get the word out and drive traffic to your page.

Each promotional message should be shared on channels that are optimized for conversion, or customers taking action towards accepting your offer. The top 3 most effective ways to promote your offer are email marketing, social media and blogging.

Image Source: Marketing Charts

Email Marketing

Having a previously-established email list puts you one step ahead of the game. Determine which recipients are most likely to convert and let them know what you’re offering this holiday season.

Draw them in with a compelling subject line, clear and concise copy and sharing options. Incorporating personalization into your messaging will make your audience feel special and more likely to accept your offer.

Social Media

Post consistently on social media channels to spread the word about your offer. Be sure to switch up both your messaging and visuals to avoid being repetitive and increase viewer engagement.

Additionally, cater each post to each specific channel. For example, Twitter and Facebook are great opportunities for interesting visuals, while TikTok and Instagram are perfect platforms for short promo videos.

Blogging

Blog posts are one of the most efficient ways to get the word out about your offer and attract new people to your site.

Create a post that introduces your campaign, explains how to take advantage of your offer and includes a compelling CTA that encourages readers to view your landing page. This way, people who reach the end of your post will have a clear next-step towards accepting their reward.

6. Go Live

Now that you’ve set yourself up for success, it’s time to set your plan into action. But before going full throttle, it’s a good idea to issue a “soft launch” to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Ask your close community, such as employees and family members, to take your campaign for a test-run so you can spot any errors before sharing your offer with your target audience.

Once everything is running as expected, it’s time to let ‘er rip! You’re ready to publish your promotion and reap the sweet benefits your holiday marketing campaign has to offer.

7. Measure Your Results

Once you’ve launched your campaign, it’s time to start measuring your results.

Take another look at your previously-defined goals and determine which objectives your campaign achieved. Analyze which tactics worked best and which didn’t go as planned.

Taking notes of your successes and failures will help you adjust future campaigns according to this year’s performance. This way, you’re one step closer perfecting your campaign strategy in years to come.

Build Your Holiday Marketing Campaign Today

Optimize your profits this season with a holiday marketing campaign that’s tailored to the needs of your target audience. Clarify your goals, define a promotional plan and drive more traffic to your site.

Start mastering your holiday marketing strategy today and check out our SEO Blog Writing Service or schedule a quick consultation to learn more!