Planning for the holidays always involves big lists – there’s food and gifts to buy, travel to plan and events with family and friends to juggle. Planning your holiday marketing needs a list too. But if you put in the effort in the weeks beforehand you can enjoy some well-deserved time off when the holiday rolls around, knowing that your marketing is working for you in the background.
In this blog, we’re highlighting some of the key things you need to tick off your holiday marketing checklist.
Have you updated your opening hours?
If your business reduces hours or closes down for a period over the holidays, then remember to update your details. You can put a pop-up on your website for the duration of the holiday period and make manual temporary changes to your social media listings and Google Business Profile. You might also like to do a social media post with your holiday hours. If you are closed but can be contacted for emergencies, remember to add the relevant phone number.
Do you want to send a holiday message?
Many organisations choose to send a message to their customers for the holidays. It could be a simple graphic or a photo of your team in the holiday spirit. When you are creating your message, consider whether it’s relevant for your audience. Not everyone celebrates holidays like Christmas, so you might want to have a simple “Happy Holidays” or “We’re taking a break” theme instead of referring to the specific celebration.
Have you planned your sale marketing?
Holidays often coincide with sales, so make sure you have planned this as part of your holiday marketing. Make sure your posts are going out in time for people to see them, double-check your discount codes and make sure everything is consistent across your website and your social channels.
Have you adjusted your content or posting frequency to suit the holiday mood?
During holiday periods, routines change. Your customers might be less active online or not online when they usually are. Depending on what you offer and what you know about your customers you could go one of two ways.
If you anticipate that your customers will be away or busy, opt for brief and light content that maintains your business presence in their minds without overwhelming them. Consider reducing the frequency of your posts too, recognising that fewer eyes may be on your content.
On the other hand, if you think your customers will have the time and inclination to consume content during the holidays, possibly using the time for learning, explore the option of providing long-form content such as how-to guides, short e-books, or online courses.
Can you schedule your socials in advance to save time?
It’s great to be able to give your team (or yourself if you are a one-person operation) some time off over the holidays. If you don’t already schedule your social media, then one way to do this is to schedule your social media posts for the whole period in advance. Yes it means a bit more work the month before, but it also means you won’t have to be logging on every couple of days to post an update. If you have a blog or email newsletter, and you have time you could also write those in advance. If you don’t have time, use your holiday message to highlight that you won’t be producing any content until after the holidays.
If you are planning to set and forget your social media and blog posts, it can pay to play it safe with your subjects. That reduces the risk of upsetting anyone and having to deal with the fallout when you want to be relaxing.
Have you made a plan for emergencies?
Even if you play it safe with your marketing, you do still need to have an emergency plan. What will you do if you have to change a sale promo, your website or social channels go down or something happens in the world that means a seemingly innocuous post you scheduled three weeks ago is no longer a great idea?
Marketing done by an outside agency or contractor? Find out if they will have anyone to deal with emergencies over the break, or whether you need to cover it yourself.
Marketing done in-house? Ask if your usual marketing person is happy to be on call. If they can’t be, is there another team member who can do it or can you do it yourself?
And don’t forget to give whoever is in charge any usernames and passwords well in advance of needing them!
We hope this checklist has given you some advice for your holiday marketing plan sorted. Want more top tips to make the most of your social media and digital marketing? Dive into one of our courses and learn in the comfort of your own home with help from our expert tutors.
