With many industries pulling in over 30% of their yearly revenue during the holiday season, it’s time to get serious about digital marketing.
- Everything dies off on Dec 18 when shipping won’t get it there by Xmas. Front load your media budgets to Nov and early Dec!
- Seasonal Industry data! – hit your agency, platforms, tech providers and search engines for relevant tips and market data that can make you shine at Christmas time.
- Who’s covering? Let’s face it, there WILL be a shitfight about who’s working on Xmas eve, Christmas day and especially NYE and NYD. The earlier you rope in that recently joined unsuspecting junior the better. He may feel better about waking up on a random couch on new year’s day faced with reactivating campaigns from his blurry iPhone.
- Hard to reach account managers get even harder to reach. That Search Engine rep who takes 4 days getting back to you at the best of times has probably already told you to get in all your questions by Dec 8 when he’s flying home to London or Delhi. It’s now or nineteenth of Jan!
- Fight the lure of generic Xmas strategies like buying high volume keywords like “Christmas gift”. If it hasn’t worked 5 Christmases in a row what makes you think this one’s gonna be any different.
- Christmas skin? We’re not talking about that tasty layer of fat you only eat on Dec 25th every year (right?).
Put a touch of Christmas on all your landing pages and promotions. You don’t need to skin your whole website with reindeer and frolicking elves. Something as simple as a little Santa hat on the corner of a website frame will demonstrate credibility, brand tone and can boost average session duration and conversion rates. A silly Santa meme on Dec 24th sent via Hootsuite could make that unrealistic LIKES target your boss set last January a reality. You may even get a Xma$$$ bonus. Better than a 1 year membership to the jelly of the month club!
- “Last 30 days” data ain’t gonna cut it. Get proactive about Device and ad scheduling to meet the “out and about” nature of the holidays. This will vary by industry but you can count on conversion rates spiking in retail and mobile being key between Xmas and NYE. Mobile bid multipliers or routing all your budget to “mobile only” can help you crush competitors on platforms like Facebook Ads, Google Shopping, Bing Ads and Adroll.
- Shake off that hangover and have a look at what actually happened. Looking at y/y data 11 months from now will not be as effective as doing some custom reporting to assess wins and loses of this years Xmas campaign. Set a calendar invite on Oct 15 to look at the data again and kick-start Xmas planning once again.
Don’t be a Griswold these holidays! Your jolly Nimbull digital marketer is here to help!
