Planning your holiday marketing campaign

​Competition is fierce and marketing can be challenging. Experienced business owners know to plan their marketing moves well ahead of the holidays, because the right moves can make the difference between success and failure. So, what are those moves?

Create a marketing budget

Start small and grow your budget based on the success of your results. Don’t spend more on marketing than you can afford. I recommend targeting seven to twelve percent of your annual revenues towards marketing.

Create one or two campaigns offering incentives and promotions to purchase

Did you know that Black Friday is on November 25 followed by Cyber Monday on November 28? This could be a great opportunity to build a campaign. Pick two promotional things you want to do and then - with your marketing expert and on the channels you've chosen - come up with a campaign (a series of messages, follow-ups, tasks and to-dos) to support those two promotions.

Choose your main marketing channels

AdWords, social media, local ads, emails, and newspapers are among the many places to spend your marketing money. If you sell car parts, it's possible that social media isn't your best channel. But if you're a florist it may very well be. Once you decide on one or two channels, you can focus your efforts and money there.

Optimise your website

You’ll likely be getting leads and driving sales from your website this holiday season. It’s important to re-visit your search engine optimization (SEO) practices and make sure your site is optimised. Try to get an early start because things frequently change in the search world and it takes time for these changes to propagate through the Internet.

Engage a marketing resource to help you

Savvy business owners learn early to focus on what they do best - and outsource the rest. Regardless of your size you should budget for a marketing expert to help you. That way, they can apply their knowledge to do things they know best while you do the same.

Determine metrics and measure, measure, measure

Be it clicks, views, responses, downloads, or actual sales, marketing data can help you learn important insights about your shoppers and which campaigns perform best. In the end, remember that your marketing is meant to create leads, which can translate to business revenue. So, make sure your metrics are focused on that one important goal.