Creating a Holiday Master Marketing Game Plan
Episode 470: Show Notes
Are y’all ready to start hearing Jingle Bells? Well, you need to prepare yourself cause the holiday season is fast approaching even though it felt like we all lived in a time warp this year. Usually, we are not great with planning far in advance, but this year, while the weather is still warm, we thought we would jump ahead and create a holiday master marketing game plan. Q4 has this weird way of flying by in the blink of an eye, so we want to share with you some of our top strategies to make the most of the festive season. Because, while the world is in recovery mode and things are uncertain, we know that people are still spending their dollar bills, and the predictions suggest that people will spend more money online this year than they ever have. Whether you are in products, services, coaching, or something else, people are spending their cash on the internet, so let’s capitalize on that and see how we can leverage this fact this coming season. While we do not know what exactly you will be offering these holidays, we can help you work backward (from the end of December to where we are currently) to give you a pretty clear idea of what you need to work on and when. So, fill up your cup and be ready to take down notes, cause this is going to be a goodie!
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Decide When You Want to Stop Working and Communicate It
The first thing to do is to decide when you want to be out of the office, whether that is for a couple of weeks or just around Christmas and New Year, and when you want to open up shop again in January. Identify the specific dates by which you want to stop and start, and block them off on your calendar. This might sound oversimplified, but you need to set up some boundaries and this is the best place to start. If shipping stuff is part of your job, then you need to make sure that all that gets done before your closing date, and remember there are likely to be far more packages needing to be sent this year, so the shipping services might be overwhelmed. Get it out of the way sooner than later. There are already massive shipping delays, so keep this in mind when making your plans.
Then you have got to get your emails set up to communicate your boundaries to your clients or customers, informing them about the last dates by which they can order, when shipping will cease, and when you will close and reopen your office again. Tell them the deadlines and due dates way in advance to cover yourself and ensure that you get the maximum business. Know which channels you will communicate this information on and figure out your email auto-responses, announcements, and so on. You need to schedule this content just as you would any other type of content. These ‘housekeeping’ posts are equally as important as any other ones since they will help you avoid a billion questions in your inbox. Also, post these five times more frequently than you think because people don’t always read posts the first time.
Start The New Year Relaxed By Setting Yourself Up Beforehand
If you are anything like us, you will know that going back to work after being off can be hard! The years we have felt the most relaxed about the transition have been when we’ve done the most work before going on holiday. Historically, we have planned entire launches, created deliverables, including emails, scheduling, social, and everything else happening in January in October/November the previous year already, so that we are prepared to get going as soon as we are back at the office. Don’t leave everything for your last week in December either since then you simply want to be tying loose ends before logging off.
What You Need to Do In November
In the US, we have two big holidays close together: Thanksgiving in November, followed by Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, and then, of course, Christmas in December. It is easy to plan heavily for one and then kind of forget about the other, so if you want to be intentional about both holidays, think ahead. November is when you want to plan for December’s promotions, and in December, you plan for January’s. So, you also need to figure out when you will be out of the office in November – and block those days. Then you want to think about whether you will take the mainstream approach to these holidays or whether you want to capture the audience who is not looking to shop on those days. If you are using ads to get the word out, just remember there is so much more competition when everybody else is also advertising for Black Friday, so the ad prices skyrocket. Some businesses have had great success by going against the grain and the trend, so think about where you want to be. There are pros and cons to both approaches but be wary of being hypocritical and bashing Black Friday deals but then having one before or after Black Friday – it comes down to the same thing. Also, be careful of putting all your eggs in one basket by hoping that one of these holidays is going to break the bank. Rather see the season as a whole for the opportunity it is rather than just focusing on a single day.
Think About The Kind of Content You Want to Put Out
When thinking through your schedule it is also important to consider what kind of content you want to post. Do you need social graphics or will you be sharing on Instagram Stories? Are you doing ads, and if so, what you are planning for ad copy? Is there a landing page that you will put up and what will your product listings look like? Or will you go totally left field and have one-on-one conversations with your clients? Because whatever you decide, it is going to require planning and creating content, whether it is an image, a video, or a DM, it needs to happen beforehand. The bigger you can make your collateral bank to pull from, the easier the whole process will be. Also, consider the value -things that you can offer around the holiday season and how you need to prime your audience before pitching a product.
Getting Your Sh*t Sorted for October
October is when the November promotions get planned, so you ask yourself the same questions about when you will be away and what the deadlines are. Plan when your promos need to start going out and the content and graphics that will go along with them – and put these plans into your calendar. We like to give ourselves a one or two-week window prior to your cart opening or sales starting, whatever kicks off the promotion. We do promos for about one or two weeks, just priming people for whatever we are going to drop. We give them tons of value and launch-like content, then we start telling them about the dates, and then only do we do more straight-up sales posts. It also depends on what you are selling. For courses and digital products, you will have to add value before pitching, whereas if you are selling a physical product, you might give behind the scenes sneak peeks. We also encourage you to create coherency and unity among your promotions across the holiday and shopping season instead of having one that is far better than the others that then just appear skimpy. Think about how your promotions can work together rather than having separate entities that might be conflicting. Also, here is a key bit of information: You don’t have to have sales in order to participate in the shopping season. You can sell your things for exactly the same price – just build sufficient hype around it and people will still buy. If you speak to people’s pain points or offer something timely, that is plenty to get people excited about.
Advice for People Who Have Customers in Different Countries
For those of you who aren’t from the US, you need to know that we go into a giant bubble where we don’t even know what is happening in other countries during this time. Canada has a different Thanksgiving, for example, so it might be worth your while to figure out what is the norm over there or elsewhere. When do people shop? What are the norms for sales and promotions? Boxing Day is huge in other places whereas over here you don’t hear much about it, but figure out what your audience elsewhere needs and wants and speak to that or at least include them in what you are doing.
How To Avoid A Dry January
Many people are disappointed when they open up shop again in January only to come to the end of the month feeling meh because it was so quiet. We’ve done it twice now where we launched something (successfully) in January, and it has given us the momentum we needed for that time. What you need to consider is how your offering fits into how the rest of the world operates because remember, there are certain trends and seasons where things just happen differently. For example, you should buy bedding in January because that’s when these kinds of items go on sale. So, think about how or if there is a seasonal element to your product or service so that you can capitalize on that instead of missing an opportunity. Here are some ideas: Think about offering New Years’ specials if you are in the planning, organizing, or health space. Think about challenges, meal plans, and all things that speak to people’s need to get back into shape and their lives organized. In January, people are most motivated to build new habits, so think about how your offer can solve one of these problems for them. And this is true for every industry: Education, business, health, home, whatever. So, have content around “New Year New You” – it gets people excited every time. A challenge is a great way to build your email list or possibly start a group program. You could also take the leap of launching something brand-new in January because we have witnessed how supportive people are during this time. We have also seen that product-based businesses do better in November and December whereas courses, education, and services like that do better in January. So, if you are a service-based babe, think about offering a January-only promotion for clients to book for the remainder of the year. So, technically you can be half-booked for the year by the end of January. Whatever you do, remember that January does not have to be slow; plan to start the year with a bang. And keep things simple: people need to know exactly what your offer can mean to them.
Quote This
We just want to encourage you that you guys don’t have to mark down your stuff in order to participate in hype for holiday.
Highlights
Decide When You Want to Stop Working and Communicate It. [0:08:48.1]
Start The New Year Relaxed By Setting Yourself Up Beforehand. [0:11:45.1]
What You Need to Do In November. [0:13:24.1]
Think About The Kind of Content You Want to Put Out. [0:18:15.1]
Getting Your Sh*t Sorted for October. [0:25:44.1]
Advice for People Who Have Customers in Different Countries. [0:34:40.1]
How To Avoid A Dry January. [0:35:55.1]
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Holidays, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, Planning, Promotions, Sales, Offers, Product-based, Services
