Holiday Planning for Your Marketing Strategies

As the holiday season gets closer, it’s time to start planning—not just for family gatherings and gift lists, but for your business’s marketing strategies. The holidays are consistently one of the most profitable times of year, but in order to capitalize on this opportunity, it’s essential to use the right tactics. That’s because every business in your industry will be vying for consumer attention. With digital marketing becoming more widespread, it will be even harder to stand out from the crowd. At Salem Media Group, our digital marketing experts know exactly how to create targeted marketing plans that capture the attention of your target audiences. How do we do it? Let’s explore some of the top strategies you can use to begin planning your marketing strategies for the upcoming holiday season.

Diversify Your Advertising

With so many different online platforms and devices available, most consumers now have a multi-channel presence. This means using just one traditional form of advertising just won’t cut it, especially not during the busy holiday season. Your target audience isn’t just watching cable television anymore—they’re using desktops for work, laptops for personal entertainment, smartphones on their lunch breaks, and tablets for apps and games.

Your holiday marketing strategies need to take all these devices and the platforms they access into account. This means creating content for mobile, desktop, social media, and streaming ads, in addition to any physical or real-world marketing you plan to incorporate. By literally surrounding your customers with your brand’s presence and message, you can engage at multiple touchpoints. This will significantly increase your chances of having your customers retain your message and ultimately convert.

Mitigate Risk with Multiple Platforms

There are other reasons to spread your marketing efforts across various platforms. Solely investing in one platform or type of ad can be a high-stakes gamble, especially during the holiday season. Platforms can experience outages, algorithms can change, and audience behavior can shift, particularly during the holidays. Your diversification efforts will act as a marketing safety net. If one ad doesn’t connect with audiences, it won’t be the death of your entire campaign—you’ll have several others running on other platforms that can make that essential connection with your consumers.

Pay Attention to Analytics

Every marketing platform can offer different forms of analytics. By using multiple avenues for your ads, you're gathering a more comprehensive data set about customer behavior. This allows you to change your marketing strategies as you go if it turns out they’re not getting you the results you want. It will also give you valuable data for the future. You can use this information to predict customer behavior and sales in the years to come.

Timing is Everything

So, you’ve created your content for all of these different platforms, and now it’s ready to be unveiled to your customers—or is it? Timing is everything, and this is especially true when it comes to marketing during a busy holiday season. The most compelling and engaging advertisement could fall flat if it reaches the wrong audience or plays at the wrong time. Understanding when to launch and intensify your advertising efforts can exponentially increase your campaign's effectiveness. For example, you may have a strong advertising push right around Thanksgiving and then ramp up again just before Christmas to ensure you’re reaching audiences at the peak of their holiday shopping. Alternatively, you may take advantage of the mid-December lull to offer special sales and promotions that are not coming at the same time as offers from your competitors, so they’re more likely to stand out.

Get a Head Start

Do holiday products and ads seem to be coming sooner and sooner every year? There’s a reason for that. It allows brands to get a head start on their holiday marketing and plant the seeds in their customers’ minds early. It also gives you plenty of time to boost your brand awareness and recognition. If your holiday ads are running in early November, that means customers will have weeks to become familiar with your brand before deciding to make their purchases. Starting early doesn’t mean you have to bombard your consumers with over-the-top pitches—try subtly positioning your brand to build excitement and pique their interest. Once you have their attention, you can bring out your campaign in full force.

• Beat The Competition: An early start gives you the advantage of being first in the market, allowing your message to resonate before others flood in. Early messaging can be more subtle and brand-focused, sidestepping the promotional noise that characterizes the peak season.
• Use Key Dates & Consumer Behavior to Your Advantage: Tailor your advertising around popular shopping days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the weekends leading up to major holidays. Maximize these high-intent periods by increasing your ad spend. This puts your brand front and center when buyers are most active.
• Last-Minute Shoppers: Post-holidays is also a time to convert last-minute shoppers (or consumers with some extra capital to spend after receiving gifts). You can adjust your campaigns with urgent messaging, fast delivery, or convenient last-minute gifts for procrastinators.

Building Momentum for Success

• Build Up Your Campaigns: Think of your campaign as a storyline. It should gradually build up to a climax, which will be around the peak shopping dates. Intensify your advertising both in frequency and promotions as the season progresses.
• Remind Your Customers: As the holiday nears, implement retargeting campaigns to remind consumers of their interest in your products. This is especially helpful for consumers who aren’t sure what they want to purchase and may have added products to their carts on a whim. When you remind them about their interest, they’ll be more likely to remember your brand when they’re making their final decision.

Contact Salem Media Group Today to Build Your Holiday Campaign

At Salem Media Group, we’re here to help your brand make the most of the holiday season. Whether you’re looking for new leads, wanting to boost revenue, or become a social media mogul, trust our digital marketing experts to take your business’s advertising to the next level. Get in touch with us today to get started on your holiday marketing campaign.