Tis the season! According to a new survey by Deloitte, holiday sales this year are expected to increase by 3.5 to 4% over the same period last year, bringing the cash register total to a whopping $965 billion.
And the increased activity isn’t just welcome news for B2C retailers and e-tailers. Companies in the B2B space often find that the holiday season is an opportune time to connect with prospects who are usually busy in meetings and off attending conferences during other times of the year. Surprisingly, it’s often far easier to get 30 or 60 minutes of face time (or ear time) with a decision maker around the holidays than any other time of the year.
In light of the above, we outline 5 steps to help you create a marketing plan for the holidays so you can enjoy some festive rewards and revenues:
5 Steps to Creating Your Marketing Plan for the Holiday Season
1. Identify Your Objective
Before focusing on what you’ll do or how you’ll do it (we’ll get to that in a moment), start with the end in mind by realistically asking what you want to achieve. Do you want to increase engagement? Add more leads to your pipeline? Get more prospects asking for a demo, downloading an eBook or making a purchase?
2. Determine Your Resources
List the resources – including budget, tools, in-house staff and external specialists – that will be assigned to the campaign. This step is vital because it gives you a realistic sense of what you have to work with.
3. Map Out Your Tactics
Once you’ve determined what you’d like to achieve – at least in broad, general terms – and figured out what resources you have to work with, the next step is to lay our your tactical plan. This includes building a schedule and identifying deliverables, communications (e.g. social media, website, other online channels, offline channels, etc.) and of course, integrating a seasonal theme since you want to ride the holiday momentum.
4. Make it Sharable
A fundamental aspect of the holiday season is a feeling of community - both among people who know each other (e.g. family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, etc.), and among strangers who are brought together in a shared purpose (e.g. people watching a parade together, going ice skating, or even shopping at the mall).
Ensure that your campaign incorporates this characteristics by making assets – such as holiday postcards, Infographics, or anything else that you create – easy to share. The more circulation you get, the more influential your campaign - and it won’t cost you an extra cent!
5. Get Staff Involved
Last but not least: get your staff involved! Not only will this boost morale – which can be very welcome at this time of year – but it will also help send the message to your customers and community that your business is full of seasonal cheer. It’s a positive image that can make a deep impression; one that can last well after the holidays are over. And don't forget to share the holiday love on social media!
The Bottom Line
The holidays are an ideal time to reach out and connect with customers – and an optimized, targeted marketing campaign can certainly make your season brighter.
To learn more about creating successful, results-based marketing campaigns contact Leap Clixx today. Since it’s already December, we may not be able to craft and launch your holiday campaign this year, but don’t worry: tax refunds (for individuals) and pre-fiscal year end spending (for businesses) are just around the corner, and, for many businesses, that’s the “unofficial” holiday season!
Topics: Inbound Marketing
