Marketing For The Holidays: Prepare Now and Reap the Rewards Later

We've all seen businesses have lackluster sales around the holidays, even though they have great products or services that would be useful to their customers and perfect for the season. If you don't want to be one of those businesses, make sure you start your holiday marketing early and prepare your strategy so that when it comes time for your customers to decide on which holiday gifts to buy, you'll already be top of mind. Here's how to do it right.

Create holiday content now.

Content creation is essential for any company, especially during the holidays. By starting to brainstorm now on content that will be relevant to your customers, you can generate interest in your products and increase online sales. Here are some ideas for content you could produce:

If your product focuses on holiday decorating, create an inspirational ideas post with photos of how people decorated their homes this year. If it's clothing or jewelry, show how they're perfect holiday gifts. And if it's food-related content like a cookbook or recipe blog, share recipes incorporating favorite seasonal ingredients like pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce. Ensure all content includes pictures and links to your website, so you get credit for those online purchases.

Find out what influencers will be talking about around the holidays.

In this age of social media, influencers are more important than ever. What they are talking about or posting about can significantly affect sales. One way to find out what influencers will be talking about is to look at their social media feeds. Do you see any posts about holiday spirit or shopping? If so, you know those topics will be famous for influencers this time of year.

Another option would be to search for hashtags related to the holidays on Instagram. This can lead you to influential people who share content with these tags, giving you an idea of what they think is important around this time of year.

Use analytics to determine where you should focus.

Google Analytics is a great tool that can be used to get data on what consumers are looking for when it comes to holidays. This data can be used to create content that will resonate with your audience and prepare marketing campaigns in advance of the holiday season. If you're using email marketing, you should use seasonal graphics and templates to engage your readers before sending out an email blast. If you're publishing blog posts, include holiday-related keywords in the content, so people searching online know they have found what they were looking for.

Follow these tips now, and reap benefits later.

1. Research holiday trends. Knowing what's popular will help you generate ideas on how to market your products or services.

2. Create a marketing plan. Create a holiday marketing plan, so you know what needs to be done by when, including any deadlines for promotions or discounts.

3. Update your website with holiday promotions and sales now, before it's too late to make changes! Your site is an easy way to keep customers up-to-date on holiday sales.

4. Identify gift-giving occasions (e.g., Christmas, Hanukkah) relevant to your business and create custom offers for these days. Promoting new gifts at this time of year can increase sales without costing you more than a few hours of work ahead of time!

5. Set aside a budget in advance. It's best to set aside funds so that you don't run out halfway through the season; try spreading it out over four equal installments throughout November and December if possible.

6. Set goals for sales per week/month for each product line during the holidays; this will help determine how much inventory should be ordered from manufacturers/suppliers, if applicable.