School is in session (or will be very soon for some!) August is rushing past and September will be here very, very soon.
It’s time to get started planning your Marketing and Advertising Strategies for the holidays.
The early bird gets the worm! Here are 5 things you can do right now to make sure your business is ready to heat up those sales this holiday season:
1. Get Social
Social Media requires consistency to reach an audience. Now is the time to crank up the activity on the Social sties that best suit your business. Start growing your followers with targeted advertising, send weekly emails with useful information to your customer database and invite them to watch your Social accounts for sales and promotion updates.
Offer a special savings for people to like your Facebook page or follow your Twitter. Brick-and-mortar locations can put up a sign inviting customers to follow your business on the social sites.
Make sure that when you do share holiday specials you have an audience, build your following now!
2. Grow Your Database
Gather emails from your customers so you can reach them with future news and special offers. Request an email sign-up on your website, post an update on your Social sites, create a sign-up link in your emailed receipts, or run some ads and request an email sign-up with a special offer or gift in return. When you are ready to start promoting your seasonal specials you will have a list of interested consumers ready to get your messages.
3. Plan Your Promotions
Start mapping out your promotions for 2019. Plan to participate in all the main “holidays”, such as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Free Shipping Friday, as well as the main holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah.
4. Do a Trial Run
Summer is slow, people are at the pool they aren’t in the stores or online shopping, and if they are, they are getting ready to buy school supplies. Give your holiday promotions a trial run by offering pre-season special or a Back-to-School offer. Give people a preview of what is to come this holiday season.
5. Prep an Ad Campaign
Staring a general advertising campaign on Facebook now is a good way to grow a following and meet the
Starting an ad for Christmas on December 1 will not get you as many views as an ad campaign that has been consistently running. Set up a campaign now promoting a general offer or just introducing your business, keep it running daily and then edit it to fit your holiday specials when you are ready.
With a bit of planning and prep work now, your holiday promotions can be a great success this year. Make 2019 the best year yet!
Need help? Give us a call, we have been running holiday promotions for businesses for several years now and we can help you. Visit our website for more information and then contact us.