Whoever wrote It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year obviously didn’t work in marketing.
The late nights, quick turns and pressure to perform amplify even more right around now. And to those who procrastinate, we say don’t worry!
Most people won’t finish their shopping until sometime in December.
Here’s how to maximize your remaining peak earning weeks.
Focus On One Thing
Let’s be realistic: You won’t conquer the world in six weeks or less. That reality should comfort you because you don’t need pages and pages of strategy – what you need is clarity. That means homing in on your single biggest goal.
- If it’s sales, focus on abandoned cart emails or products with the highest margins
- If it’s sign-ups, focus on gift guides or other lead magnets
- If it’s brand awareness, you want reach and engagement
Trying to accomplish everything and the kitchen sink usually ends up accomplishing nothing it all. Remove the distractions and pour everything you have into what you want to achieve the most.
Don't Reinvent The Wheel
While you might be tempted to reach for the stars, it’ll be much easier to grab some low-hanging fruit.
Look at the existing marketing assets you used this year and see which performed best. It could be:
- Emails with open rates >20%
- Click-thru rates above your account’s average
- CPAs or CPLs lower than average
Rearrange, refine and voilà: new campaign assets that took an hour or two instead of a day or two. And if all else fails, you can copy your best-performing ads from last holiday season.
Quick Wins
Speed is the name of the game at this point. Use that to your advantage and focus on more immediate media:
- Paid social – Lean into User Generated Content (UGC). It’s faster and more realistic, anyway.
- Email – Consider 1.5X more sends per week during the peak shopping weeks
- Retargeting banners – Shorten attribution windows to seven days or even one day
- Paid search – Promote “Can’t Miss Prices” with a clear discount code in the ad
- Local search – Update your Google My Business and other platform profiles with store hours and inventory photos
While you’re at it, channel your urgency into your messaging: short and to the point but human, limited-time offers and countdowns.
Be Ready To Pivot
- Pause an ad if its CTR underperforms by 25-30% after two or three days
- Reallocate budget from ads with CPAs 50% above target
- Double down on the channel that’s delivering 60% of conversions
Follow Through
Believe it or not, your audience still exists after the holidays. Even if they don’t become an official customer, you can pursue them with a more formal strategy once the season rush ends.
And for those that did convert? Send them an email 14 days later asking them if what they bought was a hit.
Last-Minute Holiday Campaign Checklist
- Single goal identified
- Three assets to repurpose
- Two creatives designed (primary and retargeting)
- Emails scheduled
- Daily KPIs defined
- Budgets by channel allocated
- Post-holiday nurture prepared
You Can Do It
It may not be fun. You might even feel a little stressed. But with these tips and checklist, you can build a successful holiday campaign that converts sooner than you think.
Need a little extra help? Schedule a no-cost digital strategy session now.
