6 Mistakes to Avoid in Holiday Marketing
Pumpkins, menorahs, and Santa Claus, oh my! That’s right, the holidays are approaching, and you need to know what mistakes to avoid in holiday marketing. The holidays are often the busiest season for businesses. With Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, and several other holidays coming, you need to prepare! Each holiday creates opportunities to reach your audience. You’re doing your business a disservice when you fail to set up your holiday marketing ahead of time.
Why is Holiday Marketing Essential?
Businesses experience an influx in sales and website traffic during the holiday season. It’s a money-making time for businesses. You want to make arrangements for online and in-person sales to increase. Not only that, but your audience appreciates your efforts to accommodate them during the holidays.
You know how your email inbox is full at all times around the holidays? That’s because the companies you subscribe to are aware that it’s the most popular time to buy. They know that when you see the email subject line that says “30% off sale,” your heart does that little excited pitter-patter thing. Utilize the same kinds of marketing strategies to keep up with others in your industry. Provide a user-friendly, enticing chain of marketing, and customers will come!
6 Mistakes to Avoid in Holiday Marketing
Holiday marketing is necessary, but there are some ways not to do it. Avoiding these mistakes keeps your plan solid and productive. You need to find a healthy balance between how much, how often, and how you market in general. This balance is no easy task, but when you master it, your holiday sales and your brand exposure increase dramatically. Your typical, year-round strategies are not enough when the holidays roll around. You’ll want to avoid some common pitfalls.
1. Starting Too Late
It’s never too early to start planning marketing strategies for the holidays. A month or two in advance is typically best practice, but earlier than that is acceptable too. If you start too late, your audience will find a different brand to support this year.
2. Lacking SEO
Improving your Search Engine Optimization creates a more user-friendly, personalized experience for your audience. Your insights tell you what generates the most traffic, so you can produce more of what works. Using correct SEO requires you to study data and compare it with your proposed digital marketing plan. Then, you can adjust your efforts and improve SEO even more.
3. Not Using Targeted Landing Pages
Landing pages are not the standard “home” or “about us” pages of your website. They are specific pages that prompt visitors to complete a Call-to-Action to redeem a holiday promotion. Landing pages can be lead generating, click-through, explainer, or product detail pages. Ultimately, landing pages are a quick way to highlight your CTA and get customers to act on it.
4. Not Having Promotions
Holidays without promotions? No way! Neglecting to capitalize on promotions during the holiday season is like ignoring your business. Sales, incentives, loyalty programs, free samples, email marketing, and social media blasts are some ways you can promote your business. Creativity is your only limit. Plus, your promotions need to be advantageous for your audience.
5. Skipping Holidays
“Holidays” doesn’t just mean Thanksgiving and Christmas. It also includes Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, and those are just some. Not everyone celebrates the same holidays, so be mindful of the way you market each of them. Your brand’s inclusivity is paramount in your customer retention and overall desirability.
6. Not Expressing Gratitude
Your customers are the reason your business thrives! Be sure to express how thankful you are that they’ve chosen to support you and your brand this year. You can do so with an old-fashioned but effective “Thank You” card, special promotions, or whatever fits your business’s personality. Customers are the heartbeat of why you do what you do. Don’t neglect the importance of letting them know they’re valued.
Win This Holiday Season
If you’re feeling overwhelmed about how to market for the holidays, contact Content Journey for help. We will assist in behind-the-scenes work to make your holiday content marketing amazing. We know holiday content marketing, and we want to know you!
While you take care of the myriad of other things required to run a business, we will master your content marketing. We’ll take you from Halloween to Hanukkah to Valentine’s Day before you can say “happy holidays!” Okay… maybe not that fast, but you understand our enthusiasm!
