Back-to-school is the official signal that summer is over (insert sad face emoji). And even though it is still before Labor Day, your holiday planning should be well underway. Or, at the very least, started. But, we get it! Thinking about holiday when the temps are still making us want a pool day just about every day isn’t exactly what you would like to be doing. Fair enough.
So, we thought that we could help by compiling some tips and tricks to make sure that you have these next few months covered!
While you may be able to check some things off already (and cheers to that), the holiday season can be chaotic and unpredictable. So, let’s get started!
The summer months provide the perfect opportunity to conduct audits of your marketing campaigns and your overall site health and performance. And while those things are important, we are going to dive right into what you should keep in mind for pre-holiday through December.
In September, so right about now-ish, you need to be setting up your pre-holiday strategies.
Define Pre-Holiday Strategies:
- Outline your marketing communication & promotional cadence
- Update creative assets, templates & automated messaging
- Curate merchandise & gift guides
- Create dedicated landing pages for key holiday dates
- Apply a mobile first approach
For October, be applying Agile (with a capital A) strategies to all marketing initiatives. Learn more about Agile Marketing here.
Apply Agile Marketing Strategies:
- Plan for changes in shopping behavior
- Listen, target and respond to your shoppers quickly
- Start promoting gift guides, trend collections & special offers to influential bloggers, PR channels, and through social media
- Initiate holiday campaigns
- Leverage dynamic channel functionality to customize the user’s experience
Ah, and we are on to November, the moment of truth! Now, you execute all of those amazing campaigns you have spent the last two-three months crafting. Don’t worry; you got this (or, your future-self has got this).
All Systems GO:
- Execute holiday promotions
- Update holiday content
- Optimize campaign performance
- Maintain an up-to-date inventory pulse & be ready to shift the product or promotional focus if items run out of stock
Now it is time to watch all your hard work pay off! Not saying that you can sit back and relax, but it is time to acknowledge (and congratulate yourself) for all your hard work.
Assess Performance and Fine-Tune:
- Monitor intra-day performance to quickly identify any unexpected changes
- Continually assess performance & adjust strategies as needed
- Highlight shipping deadlines in your emails & ads to drive a sense of urgency
There you have it! A few tips and tricks to help you stay on your game. Check back often, as we will be publishing more content throughout the holiday season.
