The kids just went back to school, pumpkin spice is recently back on the menu, and the leaves are just barely thinking about changing. So naturally, it’s time to start planning your holiday marketing campaign.
It might sound early, but a successful holiday marketing campaign takes more than adding some snowflakes to your social graphics on December 1. Whether you’re planning branded holiday gifts, a seasonal promotion, a video, social media advertising, or a dedicated landing page, getting started early gives your team more time to develop a great idea and actually execute it well.
So, when should you start planning your holiday marketing? For a lot of businesses, September is the sweet spot.
Start Holiday Packaging and Branded Merchandise Early
Planning on custom holiday packaging, client gifts, employee swag, or branded merchandise? I can’t emphasize enough that these should be some of the first items on your holiday marketing checklist.
Physical products typically have the longest lead times. Depending on the product, vendor, customization, and quantity, production alone can take three to four weeks (or longer!). Add another week for shipping depending on the vendor, plus potential delays as the holiday season gets busier.
And that’s assuming your first choice is actually in stock.
Starting your holiday merchandise planning in September gives you time to explore more creative options, request samples, compare vendors, develop artwork, and create something people will actually want to keep. We had to take all these factors into consideration when we designed a custom holiday gift box for the folks at Avanti Cigar.
It can also help you avoid one of our least favorite holiday traditions: those dreaded rush fees.
Give Holiday Video Marketing Time for a Great Idea
Thinking about creating a holiday video for your business? Video can be one of the most memorable ways to celebrate your company culture, thank customers, promote a seasonal message, or simply have some fun with your brand.
While the actual video shoot might happen in a day, there’s plenty of work that needs to happen first. Developing the concept, writing a script, storyboarding, coordinating schedules, scouting locations, finding props, and planning the production all take time.
Then comes editing, motion graphics, music, sound, revisions, and probably at least one conversation about whether that joke is too weird for the company holiday video. Starting early gives your creative team time to develop an idea that’s actually worth watching instead of settling for whatever can be pulled together before everyone leaves for holiday break. We took about a month (between projects) to plan, produce, and edit our Hallmarketing holiday video series by December. It took time, but it was worth it to see it all come together!
Build a Holiday Social Media Campaign, Not Just a Holiday Post
Black Friday. Giving Tuesday. Holiday giveaways. Seasonal sales. Year-end fundraising. Last-minute gift promotions. There’s a lot competing for attention during November and December.
If you’re planning a holiday social media campaign or seasonal digital advertising, start with the strategy, not the graphics. What are you promoting? Who needs to see it? When should the campaign launch? And, most importantly, what do you want someone to do after they see it? From there, you can build a holiday content calendar that includes copy, photography, graphics, video, paid social creative, audience targeting, and scheduling.
Planning early also gives you the opportunity to think beyond one promotional post. You can tease an upcoming offer, build anticipation, launch the campaign, retarget interested audiences, and follow up with additional content. We planned 3 weeks worth of social content to release throughout December promoting our “Wonder List” toy workshop last season – that holiday magic didn’t happen overnight!
Suddenly, you’ve created an actual holiday marketing campaign instead of a last-minute post with a Santa hat on your logo.
Create a Landing Page for Your Holiday Promotion
Nothing says “holiday cheer” quite like clicking a beautifully designed seasonal ad and landing on a webpage that hasn’t been updated since July.
If your holiday advertising is asking someone to click, make sure there’s somewhere worthwhile for them to go. A dedicated holiday landing page can give your campaign a focused destination for a seasonal promotion, event, product, fundraising initiative, or special offer.
The webpage itself can often be built relatively quickly. It’s everything that goes on the page that can take time. Do you need new product photography? Video? Custom graphics? Promotional copy? Updated pricing? A form or registration process?
Planning the digital experience at the same time as the rest of your holiday campaign helps everything work together, from the first social ad someone sees to the page they visit and the action you ultimately want them to take.
So, When Should You Start Holiday Marketing?
There’s no single timeline that works for every business, but if your holiday campaign involves multiple channels, custom creative, printing, merchandise, photography, or video, September is a great time to start planning.
That doesn’t mean your holiday campaign needs to launch in September. Starting early means more time for creative ideas, more vendor options, fewer rush fees, smoother production schedules, better coordination between channels, and a lot less panic when December suddenly appears out of nowhere (because it will).
So while everyone else is debating whether it’s too early to put out the pumpkins, marketers should already be asking: What are we doing for the holidays this year?
Then talk to us about how Posture can help make it happen.
