Why Having A Well Planned Digital Holiday Campaign Is Key

Raise Brand Awareness

Holiday campaigns are famous for raising brand awareness because it often promotes images of positivity, warmth, and excitement. Creating a campaign that promotes this kind of festivity amongst your customers is a powerful sales technique. One that often leaves a lasting impression on the consumer and possibly a sense of nostalgia.

In the 2021 holiday season, it’s expected that online holiday sales will reach 2.14 billion dollars. This means that a well crafted online holiday campaign is essential. To ensure maximum results, the key is creating a real reason and a sense of urgency that will bring customers to the final stage of their journey.

Build Trust & Loyalty

A well-planned holiday campaign has the potential to build relationships that continue into following years if well executed. Add a personal touch to the customer experience by following up with a card, thanking them for their business, emailing a surprise discount, free shipping, or special membership offer.

This kind of personalization builds trust and a stronger relationship with your customers. Who doesn’t love a free coffee or getting all delivery fees waived on their next purchase? These kinds of benefits create loyalty all year round.

Know Your Personas

Knowing your “Buyer Persona” is essential. A Buyer Persona is a somewhat fictional representation of your ideal or target audience. This information is obtained through extensive research and will help you to have a clearer marketing strategy specific to the different personas. This part is an art all of its own. Creating a campaign specifically targeted at your unique buyer personas will separate you from your competitors and ultimately hold your buyers’ attention.

You'll need to understand which platforms are best for reaching certain audiences. Sometimes a holiday giveaway on Instagram is the best route, or maybe one on Facebook or Pinterest, when promoting a new product line. The data will explain more and give direction for the best path. Make sure to look at past years’ data to gain insight on where to begin.

Time for a plan

With all the uncertainty of 2021, it’s alright to feel more than a little anxious about the 2021 holiday season. It’s been weird the past few years but what always remains true is that you need to plan ahead!

There are several holidays to target but it’s necessary to have a strategy. This ensures it starts at the right time and targets the right customers. Before jumping straight into creating your campaign, it’s important to map out the “How,”, “What,” “Why,” and “When.” Set your website up for success through updating site maps, sign-up forms, chatbots, and detailed analytics. You’ll want to make sure you are capturing leads and gathering data about your customers as they visit your site.

Deals & Offers

More than ever, especially with the financial challenges many have faced these past few years, potential customers are always on the hunt for the best deal. Extending deep discounts or giving things out for free isn’t the only way to attract customers looking to save money. A good alternative would be to offer a discount on a bundle or a membership. Offering a percentage off an order over a certain dollar amount is usually very enticing, especially when buying in bulk can get pricey.

Keep your personas in mind and sprinkle in a little creativity where possible with your offers.

Free Shipping

Consumers often prefer free shipping over other discounts. A deal that comes with free shipping and is only offered for a limited time can muster a sense of urgency that benefits everyone. Make sure your messaging and fine print is clear to avoid issues and complaints. After all, delighting the customer at the end of their journey helps to build loyalty!

Make a List, Check It Twice

Before you can start to plan out your campaign and timeline, you’ll need to determine which holidays you want to focus on. Some may be more relevant than others but that’s entirely up to you and your business mission.

Major US Holidays - 2021

Labor Day, September 6
Halloween, October 31
Thanksgiving, November 26
Christmas Day, December 25
New Year’s Eve, December 31

Shopping, Giving, and Other Festive Days - 2021

First Day of Autumn, September 22
Black Friday, November 27
Small Business Saturday, November 28
Cyber Monday, November 30
Giving Tuesday, December 1
First Day of Winter, December 21
Christmas Eve, December 24

Other Cultural and Religious Holidays - 2021

Rosh Hashanah, September 6 - 8
Yom Kippur, September 15 - 16
Diwali, November 4
Hanukkah, November 28 - December 6

Create A Timeline

Take a look at peaks in traffic and sales from past years to help inform the delivery of your campaign. Data like this is among the most important parts of planning a campaign. You can also look at which channels were most successful in driving traffic and conversions. Creating a timeline of important campaign dates will organize and inform your holiday campaign, ensuring its success.

Measured & Attainable Goals

Once you’ve done some digging into your existing data to plan your new campaign, you’ll need to work out what the overall goal is. By looking at previous performance, you’ll be able to gauge if the goals you set are realistic.

Of course, your goals will most likely focus on getting as many sales as possible from holiday shoppers. However, 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. This creates brand loyalty that encourages customers to keep coming back.

Choose Where Your Going To Market

Holiday email marketing is particularly effective for sending targeted campaigns to customers who have already shown an interest in your brand. Social media channels on the other hand offer a way of reaching a wider audience. These can include Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and so many more. Sometimes it makes sense for your brand to have a presence on one platform vs. another, but any way you slice it, the content is key. Don’t be afraid to have a presence on multiple platforms. More accounts = more exposure!

Did I Mention Content Is Key?

Planning ahead with data from previous campaigns will help determine which content is the right fit for your campaign goals. Make sure you are highlighting a new product or service you may have previously launched in the year so that your marketing feels connected. Different marketing channels require slightly different approaches, so you’ll want to make sure your campaign is targeting the right people at the right time on the right channel.

Get Your Buzz On

Creating a teaser campaign boosts awareness and creates a buzz around your brand and products. While you may not want to launch your seasonal sales before your audience has even begun thinking about their holiday shopping, it’s important to start drumming up excitement in advance to prep your planned campaign.

If there's a big reveal on a specific date, a good strategy would be to create suspense with creative social posts. Your research on Buyer Personas will help guide your choice of which platforms are best suited. Videos and short animations are a surefire way to get attention, boost brand awareness to start conversations with your personas. Juice it up and have fun!

Follow-Up With Customers

Make sure there is an incentive for coming back. Holiday promotions are great for attracting new customers, however in order to see a return benefit, retention is crucial. Build trust and loyalty by showing your new customers some love with a deal or perk or even points toward the next purchase to keep them coming back year after year. The relationships you build may be the deciding factor between your business and your competition.

Feel A Bit Overwhelmed?  We Can Help!

If you are wishing you had a little marketing elf to do your buyer persona research and get your website and holiday marketing plan wrapped up with bow, we can step in. We’re not from the North Pole but Tytanium Ideas’ team of Digital Marketers can help you craft beautiful, engaging campaigns that will drive business at every stage of the customer journey. We can sort through the madness and get your digital marketing holiday campaign dialed in for the 2021 holiday season.