The holiday season is of great importance to just about every retailer. In fact, it often makes the difference between a profitable year and one that falls short of expectations.
The raw numbers illustrate the scope of the opportunity: In 2017, U.S. retailers reported their largest holiday sales increase since 2011 — 4.9-percent. In total, U.S. consumers spent roughly $680 million during the holiday period.
To ensure that your business receives a sizable slice of that pie, it’s imperative to get an early jump on your Christmas marketing strategy and efforts. In fact, the most successful firms take a “Christmas in July” approach to seasonal marketing.
Prepping your Christmas marketing strategy five months early
The pre-holiday duties for retail marketing are as vast as they are important — holiday decorations, outdoor marketing, merchandise layout designs, the designation of door busters and loss leaders.
The key to success in all these activities is simple: Allowing your business sufficient lead time to hit the holiday season running, armed with fully-realized visions and thoroughly-tested tactics.
Mobile marketing presents one good example: The rise of mobile has had extraordinary impact on how consumers navigate the process of shopping.
Today’s consumers use their mobile devices to check and compare prices, purchase items, redeem coupons, etc. Just as importantly, these coupons (and other promotional messages) are seamlessly delivered via mobile device.
Even if your customers don’t redeem a particular offer or engage with a promotion, you can still glean key business intelligence by analyzing their behavior.
Metrics such as the number and type of messages opened, the time spent engaging with each message, and amount of social sharing can all offer a window into consumer wants and needs.
To get the full advantage of this kind of data, it’s important to start engaging early. If a business begins running A/B testing in July to determine which kind of Christmas marketing strategy works best, they can enter the all-important holiday season armed with the most relevant and engaging content to share with customers.
In the context of mobile messaging, this kind of advance work is critical in terms of developing the kind of holiday marketing content that will get people into stores, and ultimately deliver the kind of ROI you’re looking for.
Finding the right partner
If your business is seeking to raise its game during the upcoming holiday season, now is the time to begin preparing a comprehensive and forward-thinking Christmas marketing strategy.
BIGEYE is a leading Orlando marketing agency with extensive experience helping clients create compelling seasonal marketing campaigns that truly move the needle. Contact us today and let’s get your business ready for this holiday season.
