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3 Proven Holiday Marketing Strategies For Business Owners

Plan your holiday marketing campaigns now so that execution will be smooth and stress-free!


Tiana Starks, Creator of the Fortune 500 Marketing School | Credit: The Arcade Above Us
Tiana Starks, Creator of the Fortune 500 Marketing School | Credit: The Arcade Above Us

The holidays are upon us, and many business owners are scrambling to determine how they will capitalize on the holiday sales blitz.

Yet, many will procrastinate, waiting until the last minute to develop a promotion strategy for the holiday season. Thus, resolving to throw together several lack-luster last-minute sales. Or worse, they will do nothing at all. Don’t be that type of business owner. Start planning now.

There are many ways to create a sale or discount for your customers, but the question is, “What is the right approach for your particular business model?” Furthermore, “What approach will positively impact your bottom line and create a positive experience for customers?”

It’s time to develop your holiday marketing strategy today, so you’ll be ready to hit go and increase sales and profits when it’s time.

Many new business owners discount their products or services to attract customers. However, this is merely a signal to consumers that your products don’t have much value. The holidays can be tricky because we live in a culture where consumers expect big deals the day after Thanksgiving. However, as business owners, we want to maintain the value of our products. The good thing is, the holidays give us an inherent reason to discount our products, without it being a reflection of quality. Therefore, we can obtain more buyers, who will hopefully become loyal brand advocates.

 

Holiday promotional strategies that get results

The key is to use the right promotion strategy. Here are three holiday season promotion strategies to give you a head start on creating your campaigns and increasing your sales without killing your profits.

 

1. Create one valuable offer throughout the entire holiday season.

To succeed with this strategy, you must have a keen understanding of your target audience. You must know with certainty what their core desires and pain points are to develop messaging that resonates. This is not a guessing game. If you do not know your audience, trying to implement this strategy for the holiday season can be devastating. It’s a hit or miss game.

 

2. Create a different offer for each high volume holiday shopping day.

This is the most widely used strategy. Any brand can effectively deploy this type of campaign and drive sales with the right message. The key here is understanding your profit margins. You don’t want to discount so much that you squeeze out the profit to get more customers or sales, especially during the holiday season.

Consumers tend to be less loyal during the holidays, often looking for the best deal, because they know most brands are offering discounts. Instead, provide the best discounts to your existing customers, who have already shown their brand loyalty. Remember, it costs much more to attain a new customer than it does to retain an existing one.

 

3. Create a mix of weekly value add and discount promotions throughout the season.

This strategy creates continuous engagement and anticipation with your audience while also promoting trust. You can acquire a good amount of data on the types of campaigns your audience responds to, and those that don’t move the needle.

If you choose this strategy, you have the flexibility to up the ante during high volume sales days, offering a sweeter deal at those times. The key to this strategy is to set a budget and stick to it. Changing ads every week can become costly and time-consuming. If you are creating campaigns in-house, batch the development of your ads once your strategy is defined to drive more time and resource efficiencies.

 

No matter which holiday promotion strategy you choose, remember that timing is crucial for any holiday promotions campaign(s). Your communications must be well-timed and aligned with consumer expectations to make an impact and encourage them to choose your products. Plan your marketing campaigns now so that execution will be smooth and stress-free!

 

Tiana Starks is the creator of the Fortune 500 Marketing School, where she developed the 1-Funnel Framework and 5A Marketing System to simplify marketing for her clients while driving 6-figure sales. She teaches business owners and marketing managers how to implement data-driven, strategic marketing solutions so they can scale and increase profitability.

 

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