Santa's sleigh bells may seem far off in the distance, but they're just around the corner for businesses. The holiday season is a gold rush for companies and an essential period that can significantly impact annual revenue. Every year, it feels that holiday marketing comes earlier as more companies vie for customer attention.
Even if your company doesn’t begin its holiday marketing well ahead of schedule, developing plans early helps you stay more in control of how you engage with customers throughout the season, hitting beats on every holiday.
Reasons to Plan Your Holiday Marketing Early
Developing your holiday marketing well in advance gives you additional time to focus on creating fantastic campaigns and knowing how to place them for your audience to see. It increases opportunities to connect with customers when convenient for both parties.
1. Helps Spread Brand Awareness
Starting your holiday marketing in advance is like placing the first ornament on a bare Christmas tree. It allows you to attract your audience's gaze before being bombarded with a myriad of messages from competing businesses.
As one of the first to push your holiday offerings, you can spark curiosity, foster a stronger digital presence, and increase your chances of being top-of-mind when customers begin ticking off their holiday shopping lists.
2. Allows for More Engagement Opportunities
Christmas isn't just about receiving; it's also about engaging. Planning your campaigns earlier helps you more strategically engage with customers at a better timetable as you develop your online presence. That could include launching your holiday marketing campaigns earlier to extend your window for meaningful interactions with your audience. Prolonged exposure can result in a snowball effect of brand interaction, customer inquiries, and, ultimately, a rise in conversion rates.
A longer window of time also allows you to make strategic adjustments, so you can tighten a campaign that isn’t resonating to your expectations or capitalize on one that’s successful. It also lets you gradually ramp up your marketing, starting small with SEM or other digital ads to target people who do their holiday shopping early. Then you can increase your marketing closer to each holiday to entice customers throughout the season.
Remember, engagement isn't a one-stop shop – it's a journey. Launching a campaign early gives you more time to cultivate these customer relationships, pulling them closer to your brand. It also gives you more opportunities to connect with customers over time, increasing the number of touchpoints necessary to earn their attention.
3. Puts You Ahead of the Competition
Planning your holiday marketing campaign ahead of time allows you to pace your strategy, refine your approach, and build a solid lead before your competitors have even begun to think about it.
By planning your marketing endeavors in greater depth, you can thoroughly analyze market trends, understand your audience's preferences, and design targeted and effective campaigns. This foresight can provide an unparalleled competitive edge, enabling you to position your brand strategically in the marketplace. Early planning can put you ahead and keep you ahead, letting you capitalize on the early exposure you received to consumers' attention during the holiday season.
4. Gives More Time to Develop Plans
Planning earlier also gives you more time to prepare, refine, and perfect your holiday marketing strategies. That grants you the luxury of anticipating and addressing any potential hiccups, crafting a well-structured campaign primed for success.
More time to plan lets you monitor trends and make changes or develop contingency plans to launch if the situation does not play out optimally on your first launch.
5. Promotes Sales Whenever Customers Look
Customers have the opportunity to conduct their holiday shopping whenever it’s convenient for them, whether that’s still in the summer or a week before they need them come winter time. Early planning lets you create ads that match customers’ intent and attention. You can craft different digital ads that target the early shopper and ones that target the last-minute shopper, using distinct verbiage to make it resonate with them.
Accounting for buyer intent helps you earn the attention of all shoppers when they’re ready to dive into the holiday spirit.
Plan Early to Get a Jump on Holiday Marketing
You may not be Santa, but you certainly have a sleigh-full of potential to make your holiday marketing strategy a resounding success. Planning your marketing early is a strategic move that amplifies your brand presence and ensures visibility whenever customers look your way. It also empowers you to fully control your marketing from start to finish.
You can also take complete control of launching your holiday campaigns with advanced tools like McClatchy's AdManager, to harness the holiday spirit in your favor. It allows you to create and launch ads at your convenience, providing tools and guidance to find success.
