Call me crazy, but I love returning to work after the Christmas break.

Everything’s slowly picking back up after the sales craze (and awkward family festivities!)

Finally, there’s time to breathe and reflect on what you did last year – and consider what’s next.

The start of the new year is perfect for planning upcoming marketing campaigns, product launches, or events you want to attend.

And to make all that easier, we’ve whipped up something special for you:

 

Our 2019 Holiday Retail Calendar

It has all the major retail holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, plus some more obscure celebrations (like Star Wars Day or Pi Day) to spark your creativity.

You can use the calendar to schedule social media posts, craft your content calendar, plan sales campaigns, or just keep on hand for instant inspiration when you need ideas for a new promotion.

There’s an online version below the article – just bookmark this post to come back to it or download it directly from our resource center.

And if you want to print it out, there’s a handy printable version, too.

So, now you have all the holidays at your fingertips, let’s see how you can create high-impact marketing campaigns.

 

10 tips for successful holiday campaigns

 

1. Time it right

It seems obvious, but like the saying goes, “Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unacceptable.”

So make sure you send your campaign out on time.

When is that exactly? It depends on the occasion – from a few days to a few weeks before the holiday.

For instance, do your customers need an early heads up to get ready (say, buying a costume in time for their St Patrick’s Day party, or gifts for Christmas) – or is it OK if they learn about the promotion on the day?

 

2. Be creative

Most promotional campaigns are simple price drops or free shipping.

To stand out, get creative.

For instance, you could offer a sweet deal to people who visit your shop wearing a Star Wars-themed gadget, or dress in green for St. Patrick’s Day.

Choose something that’s relevant and fun for your customers, and you’re bound to engage them and generate buzz around your campaign.

 

3. Think beyond sales

Holidays are the perfect opportunity to do something different – even if it doesn’t generate any extra revenue.

Volvo Poland recently ran a creative campaign to highlight their commitment to the environment and corporate social responsibility.

Through their Christmas tree rental service, they stopped 5,000 trees being cut down (and wasted), and raised funds to plant even more trees (10 for each rental).

How brilliant is that?

If Volvo said their engines emit less CO2, most people wouldn’t care – or would argue new regulations forced them to do that anyway.

But this campaign showed they genuinely care about their environmental impact – not just profit.

 

4. Keep it simple

Holiday campaigns call for quick work, so you don’t miss getting the word out.

So, simplify your processes – with predesigned templates, workflows, and animations.

And tools like Beam – our new social media app – make it easy to create and schedule your promotional posts.

 

 

And of course, GetResponse lets you create your email campaigns in a snap. So you can focus on the things that matter most to you.

 

5. Sync your marketing channels

Facebook is an obvious choice to run your campaign – if your audience is there.

But is it the only place they hang out? Probably not.

Find out where your audience spends their time – and show up to reinforce your brand.

Then sync your social media campaigns with landing pages, email sequences, and even your messaging tools.

This will drive up your conversions and cut customer acquisition costs.

 

6. Monitor social media mentions

As we said before, it pays to work fast on your holiday campaigns.

Going a step further, social media monitoring tools (like Sentione or Brand24) can help you rapidly respond to your audience – by alerting you to mentions of your brand or relevant topics.

Let’s say you’re organizing a speed dating event for Valentine’s Day, or a clean-up for Earth Day, and you want more people to get involved.

With social media monitoring tools, you can find and respond to people asking for recommendations or ideas. Since they’re already thinking about these occasions, you have a better chance of attracting them to your event.

 

7. Do keyword research

Before you start creating and distributing your marketing assets, consider keyword research first.

That is, start with the ‘what’ and then look at the ‘how’.

Thanks to keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Serpstat, you’ll know what phrases people use to search – and the top ranking results.

You’ll then have a better idea of their interests and needs – and how you can serve them.

Sounds too complicated? Start with a simple search in Quora or Facebook groups, to see what terms people use when talking about your solutions or related topics.

 

8. Do a mini marketing audit

Wondering where you should share your message? Do a quick marketing audit first.

Chances are, you already have places to promote your campaign and increase its impact. Like your welcome emails, thank you pages, or social media cover images.

Keep a list, so you can quickly pinpoint the perfect distribution channels for your future campaigns.

 

9. Segment your audience

Do you really know your audience? Segmenting your customers can help you decide which groups to target – based on their engagement or revenue-generating potential.

Already done it? It’s still worth checking your customers are who you think they are.

 

10. Create workflow templates

We know workflows are a great tool for marketing automation campaigns, and that templates help simplify your emails and social media posts.

But they don’t stop there.

You can also create a template that lists all the tasks your team does regularly – across campaign design, social media, distribution and so on. This can save you a lot of time in the long run.

It’s the same for integrations between your different tools – like Google Sheets, Trello, or your CRM.

With task automating solutions like IFTT, you can streamline your process and save tons of time delegating tasks – or copying and pasting data between different dashboards.

 

How will you plan your next marketing campaign?

There you have it: your 2019 holiday marketing planner, and 10 tips to make your campaigns even more impactful.

So now, it’s time to take action!

Use these to create spectacular campaigns that resonate with your audience and get them engaged and excited for your offer.

Already have ideas for some creative holiday campaigns? If you’re happy to share them, let us know in the comments.

And once again, you can either bookmark this post, download this holiday retail calendar from our resource center, or print out the print-friendly version.

 

The post Plan Your Campaigns with Our 2019 Holiday Retail Calendar #Infographic appeared first on GetResponse Blog – Online Marketing Tips.

Source: getresponse