Best Practices for Preparing for the Holidays

The holidays can be both your most profitable time of year and your best opportunity to reach out to new customers. You can make the most of them by planning ahead. As you head into the busy holiday season, here are some best practices to keep in mind!

1. Plan Your Marketing and Promotions

While it may still seem early to plan, numerous brands already have their holiday campaigns set up for this year - and many consumers are ready! Reports have shown that 29% of customers in the U.S. said that they were prepared to start seeing holiday-related marketing on their mobile devices after Halloween. Set aside time to strategically plan your holiday marketing. Use all the data you have, including what customers responded to last year, what the current trends are, what your most popular products are, and what you know about your loyal customers' needs and tastes. The more in touch with your audience and consumers you are, the better off you’ll be! It also doesn’t hurt to research what other brands in your market did during the holiday season last year to spark creativity - just make sure it’ll work for your business. Additionally, identify the marketing channels that are most likely to give you a good return on your investment, whether this means Facebook ads, public relations, email campaigns, or even Amazon marketing. Once you have planned your promotions, go ahead and create a timeline so you’ll know exactly when to launch your campaigns, sales, and social media content.

2. Prepare for an Influx of Sales

Customers are already geared up to spend this holiday season. In fact, CNBC reports that holiday sales this year are expected to grow at least 7% compared to last year. This is the time to review your inventory, expect potential obsolescence, and put plans in place for delays. As many already know, supplies and shipping have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers have been informed to start their holiday shopping earlier than usual - which calls for even earlier planning.

3. Get Your Website Up to Speed

?The holiday shopping season is an exciting time for both businesses and consumers. In fact, Insider projects that retail e-commerce sales will comprise 18.9% of total holiday retail sales — up from 17.5% in 2020. Consumers are motivated to make purchases, and this is a great opportunity for business owners to capitalize on increased interest in their brands. While shoppers may be starting earlier this year, Statista reported that in 2020, Cyber Monday was the shopping day with the highest e-commerce sales in the United States, amounting to 10.8 billion U.S. dollars. Black Friday ranked second, with 9 billion dollars in online sales. Strong sales performance can add stress to any system, whether it’s your website or Amazon store, and impatient customers are unwilling to wait to make purchases. It’s important to test out your sites to ensure it’s able to handle an increase in sales demand when the holiday season rolls around. Once you’ve ensured your website loads in a timely manner, take the time to upgrade your website content with high quality videos and imagery. Also, be sure that the website is responsive on both mobile and desktop interfaces, and create messages for when items go out-of-stock.

4. Create Your Social Media Strategy?

Social media is key to driving traffic to your website. You can target your company’s existing customers, and garner new customers with social media ads, sponsored content, user-generated content and more. With the influx of content around the holiday season, you’ll want to make sure your messaging is clear and on-brand. Be creative, but don’t over-complicate it! Center your messaging around sales, new products, and hone in on why your products make a perfect gift. Once you’ve sorted out your content, you’ll need to consider your posting schedule and the timing of your ad campaigns. Of course, it’s better to get your holiday promotions and discounts to the masses as early as possible. But as long as you have a set budget and monitor your content closely, you’ll have a better chance of knowing whether you need to revisit your campaigns or tweak content.

5. Plan Ways to Boost Employee Morale

?Behind every successful holiday campaign is an excellent team. This time can be stressful for many people, between being busy at work, family celebrations, holiday shopping, and more. You can help your employees feel good about the holidays with careful consideration. Conduct frequent check-ins with your team about their workload and obligations, gauge their interest in work-related holiday activities, and be mindful of their need for additional time and support through the end of the year.

?The holiday season is the perfect opportunity to rethink your marketing and public relations strategies, and take your sales to the next level. You may find that some of the techniques that work best during the holidays can help you all year round. It’s also a time to show your employees, customers and everyone else in your life how much you appreciate them. As with all aspects of life and business, be sure to pay close attention to your results so you notice what’s working and what needs changing. Most of all, be creative, and stay true to your core values as a brand - no matter the season!