The holiday season is a crucial time for businesses, and agency marketers play an important role in ensuring their clients’ success. With the festive spirit in the air, it’s the perfect time to attract new customers, engage with existing ones, and boost sales. But with so many brands competing for consumers’ attention during this busy time of the year, it’s essential to have a well-planned holiday marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll explore some top holiday marketing strategies for agency marketers to help their clients stand out and sleigh the competition.
Pre-Holiday Planning
The first step in a successful holiday campaign is pre-holiday planning. During this stage, you will choose holiday campaign goals and holiday offers. It is crucial to include shipping deadline dates to promote orders before the holiday season begins. Good planning means that you’re keeping your audience in mind when choosing which holidays to feature. It is essential to select those holidays that resonate well with your target audience, taking into account cultural and religious diversity.
Staying Organized for Client Success
Staying organized during the holiday season is crucial for agency marketers. As hectic as this period can be, it’s essential to keep track of all campaign elements to ensure a smooth and successful outcome for your clients. One way to stay organized is by using a holiday marketing calendar. This tool can help you plan out your marketing activities efficiently, keeping track of key dates and deadlines. Include important dates such as when to launch specific campaigns, when to schedule promotional emails, and when to post on social media. Do yourself a favor and keep a separate one for each of your clients to avoid confusion.
Website and Social Media Strategy
Deck out your clients’ websites with holiday calls-to-action (CTAs) and holiday banners with changes in hours, even if they’re an e-commerce company. Plan a holiday social strategy, publish interactive holiday polls, and create engaging social media campaigns around the holidays. Update company profiles with holiday hours, optimize social media for shopping, and create social media posts about your holiday hours, shipping cutoffs, hashtags, discounts, contests, and any other holiday initiatives. Don’t forget the importance of scheduling content, using social media planning platforms like HubSpot and Hootsuite, and the benefits it comes with. Utilize the power of social media to reach a larger audience and get your holiday campaigns noticed.
Email Marketing
Segment email lists based on purchase behaviors and reward loyalty with early bird and special discounts. Consider sending holiday-themed newsletters and utilizing sign-up forms to grow your email lists. Use email automation to send promo offers and remind customers of sales. And remember to add a personal touch by sending holiday greetings and thank-you emails to show appreciation.
Keep in mind the importance of subject lines in your holiday email campaigns – after all, they are the first thing your subscribers see. Create catchy, holiday-themed subject lines that prompt users to open your emails. A/B testing can be a useful tool to determine the most effective subject lines, helping you optimize the open rates. Also, incorporating holiday-themed emojis in your email subject lines can add a dash of cheeriness and draw attention, potentially increasing your open rates during the festive season.
Furthermore, utilize the power of storytelling in holiday emails. Share heartfelt holiday stories or experiences tied to your clients’ brands, or highlight how their products can create memorable holiday moments. This approach can foster a stronger emotional connection with audiences, enhancing customer loyalty.
Paid Ads
Maximizing your clients’ brands’ visibility during the holiday season requires a well-rounded strategy, and paid ads play a pivotal role in that. An effective paid ad strategy allows you to reach a wider audience, increase brand exposure, and boost holiday sales.
Start with Google Ads, optimizing them for holiday keywords and phrases. Tailor your ad copy to the holiday season, highlighting special deals, discounts, and limited-time offers.
Don’t forget about retargeting ads either. These are particularly effective during the holiday season, as they allow brands to reconnect with people who have previously interacted with the client’s brand. Retargeting ads remind these potential customers of offers, potentially nudging them toward making a purchase.
Social media platforms offer powerful tools for reaching target audiences. Paid social ads can help drive brand awareness, engagement, and conversions during the holiday season.
On platforms like Facebook and Instagram, use carousel ads to showcase multiple products, or try dynamic ads to personalize content based on user behavior. LinkedIn-sponsored content can be effective for B2B companies, while promoted tweets on Twitter can help spread your holiday message.
Post-Holiday
The Holiday season has concluded, and it’s time to gear up for the post-holiday phase. You need to revert your clients’ hours to normal and remove banners that have already served their functions. Also, it’s time to fix Google Profiles to ensure that it shows accurate opening times that correspond with daily operation periods. Finally, create post-holiday ads for gift card shoppers, highlighting the best deals of the season. When it comes to analyzing your campaign performance, be sure to review it in detail, learning what worked and didn’t work and pivoting your future strategies accordingly.
Holiday Breaks and Mental Health
Finally, it’s important to discuss the importance of taking breaks during the holidays. The holiday season can be stressful for everyone, including agency marketers responsible for their client’s holiday campaigns. It’s essential to take time off and prioritize mental health. Take a break from your daily tasks and enjoy the festivities with your family and friends and do things that you genuinely enjoy. Disconnect from work to avoid burnout and recharge for the next phase of the agency marketing process.
At Raka, we understand that the holiday season can be a hectic time for businesses. Let’s make the most of this holiday season together and create memorable experiences for your customers. Contact us today to learn more about how we can support your holiday marketing efforts. And remember, the greatest gift you can give your business this holiday season is the gift of strategic, thoughtful marketing.
