Guest Blog Post: Tis the Season to Create a Marketing Strategy
By: Audrey Dmello
November is here and so are its plus points (keeping aside daylight saving) - celebration, family, friends, and it's the best time to think of how to strategize your next marketing campaign.
I read a quote that said, “Marketing is letting the world know you exist, and branding is showing how you exist” and I couldn't agree more.
If anything, whether it's a product or service-it’s quite a heavy process. From picking your brain on how to make it stand out to 8 billion people (yes, that is the world's current population) to narrowing it down to your target audience, researching, identifying gaps, and creating a unique pedestal for it on different platforms.
So, to make things easier, I crafted a few pointers I think are unmissable while thinking of a marketing strategy especially if it’s aligned during the holiday season.
GUIDE TO CRAFTING AN OUTSTANDING HOLIDAY MARKETING STRATEGY
Early Planning and Timeline Management
Start planning as soon as possible to build on momentum. Followed by a timeline for content, if needed use paid marketing tactics such as social media ads and potential promotion styles.
Audience Segmentation and Personalization
This goes without saying. Every marketing platform has a different set of audiences based on age, gender and more. Craft your marketing messages and offers to specific customer segments. This is most effective when you use customer data to create targeted campaigns.
Festive and Engaging Visuals
The world today absorbs a lot of visuals or images that are eye-catching or simply leave them hooked. While thinking of a holiday-based marketing strategy, use holiday-themed imagery and videos that resonate with the season. The more creative is it, the better. Don’t be afraid to sound funny, lively, or informal.
Multipurpose Marketing Approach
Use social media, email marketing, influencer partnerships, and in-store promotions to spread the word and ensure a consistent experience across online and offline channels.
User-Generated Content and Interactive Campaigns
A picture screams more than words nowadays which is why it will work wonders if you encourage your customers to share photos, reviews, and stories. To keep the buzz going, launch holiday-themed contests or polls on social media platforms.
SEO and Holiday-Specific Keywords
Here comes your digital marketing skills where you can/should optimize website content for holiday keywords to increase search visibility. Further, add holiday-themed blog posts and landing pages for a WOW factor.
Flexible Shipping Options and Deadlines
To push the excitement of your customers yelling “Yes! They are having a sale!!,” make sure you start promoting last-minute shipping options and communicate the shipping cut-off dates for holiday delivery.
Post-Holiday Follow-Up Strategy
To let people know that you appreciate the time and attention your brand received, plan out for post-holiday sales, and think of a few retention tactics to keep your customers. In addition to this, send out ‘Thank You’ emails and promote gift card usage.
Performance Tracking and Real-Time Adjustments
The best way to understand what worked and what didn’t, use analytics to monitor your campaigns success and make necessary adjustments. In my opinion, setting up KPIs to evaluate effectiveness works wonders.
In conclusion, you can create a marketing strategy in numerous ways, but the most effective is to understand your business goals and outline steps to achieve those goals. Soak up the learnings and put your best creative foot forward this season! It’s your time to shine!
