Christmas starts earlier every year: it might sound like a cliché, but when it comes to your marketing strategy, it’s true. The festive season is arguably the busiest and most competitive time of year for most businesses, and because of this you need to be prepared. To reap the benefits of increased consumer spending, planning is everything. Here’s where to start. 

1. Review previous campaigns.

A good starting point is to review your previous Christmas campaigns to see what they delivered and how they accomplished this. By seeing what worked for you before and crucially, what didn’t, you can avoid the pitfalls of spending your marketing budget on channels that don’t deliver for you or your clients. That’s not to say you should be completely restrained by the past and ignore previously unsuccessful media platforms, but you can use your earlier experiences to tweak and adjust your approach.

2. Pick a launch date.

A well thought-out timeline is of vital importance to managing a successful Christmas campaign. First and foremost, you should have an appropriate launch date that you are working towards. If you launch directly after Halloween you can prepare for a long-lasting campaign and you can maximise the number of potential customers who will see your product offering. Your timeline should account for important dates on the run up to Christmas e.g. Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can also use this timeline to flag important dates for clients particularly last dates for shipping, both locally and internationally. If you are targeting an international market, it is also worth researching local holidays and customs when it comes to holidays and gift giving.

3. Set your goals according to your budget.

Once you have your timeline in place you will need to set measurable goals to benchmark the success of your campaign activities. These goals will inform a number of aspects of your marketing activity particularly your budget. Christmas is incredibly competitive in terms of marketing spend, and you may find that the budget required for your campaign to be successful is higher than what you have spent on previous campaigns. Set your goals accordingly. Regular stock keeping is important at this period, if your campaign is a success or exceeds your expectations, you don’t want to let yourself or your customers down by running out of product.

4. Ensure your message is customer centric. 

At such a competitive time of year your marketing messaging is vitally important and needs to be given careful consideration. You should be prepared to research what channels are most relevant to your potential customers. These channels will inform the look and feel of your marketing creative and each media platform should have creative assets tailored towards it for maximum impact. If you are running a campaign for an extended period, you should be prepared to review and adjust your creative and marketing mix, if you feel your campaign is not performing and to avoid wasted expenditure or negative customer experience.

5. Think small.

Small incentives can go a long way at this time of year. Consider offering free shipping on large orders and giving repeat customers access to discounts or offering a loyalty programme. These incentives can make all the difference when it comes to converting a sale.

6. Remember Romjul.

Romuj is a Norwegian term for those hazy days between Christmas and New Year when you don’t know what day it is. Typically, these days are spent eating around the mini Bounty bars left in the chocolate tin and getting in an obligatory daily walk. It’s an idle time or many, and as such, is a time of significant online shopping. Your campaign should also account for this kind of post-Christmas activity. Factor in people spending more time online during the Christmas holidays and offer appropriate sales and incentives. 

7. Set a reminder in January.

Finally, set some time aside in January to review your campaign to see if it met your set goals or if it succeeded in unexpected ways. Use these learnings going forward to inform future marketing campaigns, Christmas or otherwise.

If you need help with your Christmas campaign strategy, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us at hello@designit.ie or call +353-1-230 3757.

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