A How-to Guide for The Perfect Holiday Marketing Strategy

Each time the end of the year approaches, marketers face that age-old challenge — how can I make this year’s holiday marketing better than the last? To help out, we’ve made this holiday marketing guide. Follow along for everything you need to know to create your holiday marketing campaign, as well as tips for ensuring its success. 

Online shopping continues to grow rapidly around the world. In the US, ecommerce sales are expected to reach $908.73 billion in 2021. To make the most of this surge as an ecommerce business, you’ll need to ensure you have a solid plan in place for your holiday marketing that harnesses the potential offered by digital channels. 

But, with so many elements to consider in your holiday marketing, this is no easy task. So we’ve put together all the information you need to create a holiday campaign that delivers results. 🚀

How to Create a Winning Holiday Marketing Strategy

Before getting into the details of exactly how you should implement your campaign this year, we’ll first delve into some of the opportunities the holiday season has to offer, along with insights that will help inform your strategy. Here’s what to expect:

• Why is a holiday marketing strategy important for your business?
• Key trends to inform your holiday marketing strategy
• Holiday dates for your marketing calendar
• 6 steps for creating your holiday marketing strategy

Why is a holiday marketing strategy important for your business?

Whatever your product, industry, or target market, holiday marketing has the potential to bring in serious rewards for your business.

As the above definition highlights, a central element of holiday marketing is campaigns that aim to capitalize on shoppers looking to make seasonal purchases. 🍂

Holiday marketing has the potential to drive sales for various reasons:

• Demand and intent to buy are higher than normal. In the holiday season, more customers are actively looking to buy, making your job as a marketer a lot easier. 
• Campaigns are time-limited. Holidays are centered around a defined period, creating a sense of urgency that will push customers to buy. 
• Holidays create a sense of positivity. Capitalizing on these festive feelings among your customers through emotion-driven holiday marketing campaigns is a powerful sales technique. 

Source

However, with the focus on seasonal sales it’s easy to forget that this is not the only benefit holiday marketing can bring. Holidays also offer other important opportunities for your business, such as:

Key trends to inform your holiday marketing strategy

Any successful holiday marketing strategy has to be anchored in the latest market data. 📊 Of course, design, messaging and intent are important too. But given this period is so crucial in terms of sales and revenue, having a look at consumer and ecommerce trends is never a bad idea. To get started, here are a few:

Look beyond Black Friday

Obviously, Black Friday is still a key date in marketers’ holiday calendar. But the growing popularity of Cyber Monday means neither one should not be your sole focus. To maintain consumers’ engagement and build excitement, offer different deals throughout the five days following Thanksgiving. 🦃

Now, this is where having an air-tight holiday marketing strategy comes in. Being prepared for campaign after campaign is no easy task. If you’re short on inspiration, or just looking for tips, take a look at Sendinblue’s lists of more than 50 Christmas email subject lines.

Further reading: The Perfect Thanksgiving Email: A Two-Part Strategy

Mobile ecommerce

In 2021, it’s estimated that nearly 73% of ecommerce sales will occur on mobile devices. 😲 Given this figure, your holiday marketing strategy has no choice but to be mobile friendly. (Especially during the holiday season when we’re all short on time). Making sure your campaigns and website are responsive should be a top priority.

For help optimizing your campaign content for mobile devices, this article will point in the right direction with free responsive email templates! 📱

Sustainability

According to the Capgemini Research Institute, 80% consumers in 2021 make purchasing decisions based on sustainability considerations. Of course, sustainability is a long-term project and can’t/shouldn’t be made up just for your holiday marketing campaign. 🙅‍♀️

Instead, this is an opportunity to highlight whatever strides your brand has made in terms of sustainability. It’ll have a real impact on sales and consumers will be more likely to choose your business than another. 🌱

Don’t forget about free shipping

Lastly, it’s important not to forget the power of free shipping. According to a survey by Deloitte in 2019, when consumers were asked which holiday promotional offers appeal to them most, free shipping ranked a close second after price discounts. 

Consider planning a time-limited, flash sale on free shipping to create a sense of urgency. Just make sure you’re messaging is clear in terms of delivery times to avoid disgruntled customers.

Source

Further reading: 6 Knockout Holiday Marketing Ideas to Charm Your Customers & Increase Sales

Holiday dates for your marketing calendar

One of the first steps to crafting a successful holiday marketing strategy is determining which events you want to focus on. Some are obvious, such as Black Friday and Christmas, however you don’t have to stop there. There are other holiday days you may not have considered that could be relevant depending on your business. 

Here are some key dates for the 2021 holiday season:

Source

6 Steps for creating your holiday marketing strategy

Now you know the what and the why, you’re ready to start planning, desi​​gning, and ultimately executing your holiday marketing strategy.🎁

But first, you’ll need a marketing platform with the tools to engage shoppers this holiday period.

Step 1: Analyze previous campaigns

While it’s true that 2020 wasn’t the most average year on the books, it’s still important to examine previous trends for your business.

For example, take a look at when there were peaks in traffic and sales throughout the period to help inform the timeline for your campaign. You can also look at which channels were most successful in driving traffic and conversions.💸

Step 2: Define your goals 

Once you’ve done some digging into your existing data, as with any campaign you’ll need to work out what you’re aiming to achieve. By looking at your previous performance you’ll ensure the goals you set are realistic. 

Of course, your goals will most likely focus on getting as many sales as possible from holiday shoppers. But this doesn’t have to be the sole purpose of your campaign. As you saw above, holiday marketing presents many other opportunities for your business, particularly in terms of building customer relationships and raising brand awareness.

Step 3: Decide on your channels

The most effective holiday marketing takes a holistic, cross-channel approach. 

Holiday email marketing is particularly effective for sending targeted campaigns to customers who have already shown an interest in your brand. Meanwhile, SMS marketing allows you to quickly get customers’ attention, for example with a time-sensitive offer. Social media channels, on the other hand, offer a way of reaching a wider audience. 

And, if budget allows, don’t forget about paid marketing like Facebook ads to increase your visibility and cut through the noise. 🎯 

Step 4: Plan your timeline

Before you jump straight into creating your campaign, it’s important to map out what you want to do and when. 

Here are some key stages for your holiday campaign:

• Building your list

Before launching your campaign you can pave the way for success by gaining subscribers to target once your campaign is live. Create signup forms that persuade individuals to give their details so they can be the first to hear about your upcoming sales and offers. This also helps understand what certain customers are looking for in specific.

Source

• Raising awareness

While you don’t want to launch your seasonal sales before your audience has even begun thinking about their holiday shopping, you can still start drumming up excitement in advance of your planned promotions. Creating a teaser campaign will help build buzz around your brand and products. 🤩

• Promote your offers

Once the holiday season is in full swing, it’s time to push your offers through targeted campaigns on your chosen channels.

• Follow-up with customers 

Once your sales are over don’t be tempted to put your feet up! Holiday promotions are great for attracting new customers but in order to reap the true benefits, retention is crucial. This means you need to show your new customers some love and persuade them to buy from you again. You could do this, for example, by offering them a percentage off their next purchase in the new year. ✨

Step 5: Segment your audience

With the ever-increasing competition in the ecommerce space, your campaign needs to stand out. One way to get subscribers’ attention is to tailor your messaging for different groups through contact segmentation. 

Factors to consider when segmenting subscribers for your holiday campaign include their current level of engagement and their preferences based on previous purchase behavior. 

Step 6: Plan your messaging and create your content

Now it’s time for the fun part – designing the messaging and content for your campaign. Build your content around the timeline you have prepared and your chosen channels, and adapt messaging to customer segments and the different stages of your campaign. 

As well as designing content like promotional emails, ads, and social media posts, create a central landing page for all the information related to your seasonal offers. With Sendinblue, you can easily create beautiful landing pages thanks to the drag & drop editor and customizable templates. 

And once you have your content finalized, you’ll be all set for the holiday shopping season. 🎄

Ready to Revamp This Year’s Holiday Marketing Strategy?

A key takeaway from this guide is that planning is crucial to your holiday campaign’s success. By dedicating enough time to this, you can ensure that your business makes the most out of the holiday shopping season. 

For more content like this, download our 2022 holiday marketing calendar! It’s full of important dates and helpful marketing tips for every month of the year ⏬

2022 Holiday Marketing Calendar

Downloading this calendar means you're signing up to our monthly newsletter, too. If you don't feel like getting regular marketing tips delivered to your inbox, you can always unsubscribe. 😉

Send me the calendar

* You can unsubscribe at any time.