Holiday Marketing: How Early is Too Early?
I am the senior copywriter for a successful greeting card company that does approximately 70% of our business during the holiday season, and I hate early Christmas advertising. However, early Christmas ads are a necessary beast, and let me tell you why.
If you are sitting at home on October 1st wondering, is it too early to decorate for Christmas, the answer is yes. And for those of you asking, is November 1st too early to decorate for Christmas, I still say yes, but in this preemptive gray area, permission is granted to start subtly transitioning.
When it comes to a business, though, you need to get a little annoying with your holiday advertisements, especially if a larger portion of your sales occur during the holiday season.
When Summer Ends, Holiday Marketing Has Officially Begun
Our company plans all year, and we officially begin our holiday marketing and Christmas advertising in August. I like to send nuanced holiday promotions at this time. When you start your holiday advertisements this early, you don’t want to bash your customers over the head with a Christmas tree; you just want to get them thinking about the season. You want to assure them that your business will make it easier for them to prepare for the holidays early, then sit back and relax.
2022 Inflation
With 2022 inflation high, many consumers claim they will be shopping earlier than ever. A 2022 Bankrate survey predicts 50% of holiday shoppers will begin their holiday shopping by Halloween (October 31st).
People will be looking into any way they can to save even more money during the 2022 holiday season, including buying fewer gifts, shopping at less expensive stores, and buying early to take advantage of Christmas sales and holiday discounts.
90 Day Rule
In August, you want to whisper about the holidays. In September, talk about the busy three months ahead, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. You want to start generating a buzz with your holiday advertising about 90 days before your holiday shopping season, to be safe. That includes updating web content and blog content, which will increase your visibility and organic search results.
According to a Drip survey, 85% of consumers will shop online for the holidays. If you are a storefront with a brick and mortar location, you have an additional element to consider. Social media marketing is perfect for easing into the holidays, but when frequent patrons see Santa Clause and his eight tiny reindeer in their corner store in August, you’ll likely get more than a few eye rolls. But will it actually hurt your business? Doubtful, or at least not on any measurable scale.
A good rule of thumb is to start the holiday sales before the holiday decorations. You’d be hard-pressed to find a customer who would turn down a good deal, but plenty who don’t want to see Michael Myers standing next to Baby Jesus in the manger.
But what if you are a business that sells holiday products, like Christmas cards, for example? Odds are, if you are a company that sells Christmas-oriented products or services, you also offer products for other holidays, like Halloween and Thanksgiving. If this is the case, dedicate a section of your store to holiday products and start increasing these products as the season progresses while purging your shelves of past holidays. If you are a store that only sells Christmas products or another seasonal business like Spirit Halloween, you needn’t worry about this; your customers are there for one reason only.
Major Sale Holidays
You must also set up holiday marketing campaigns for major marketing holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Sale holidays, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which both occur in November, are great opportunities to generate more business. Consumers expect major holiday sales for these events, so be prepared.
Retargeting Ads and Other Ways to Grab Attention
Let your customers know at least 60 days before that there are large holiday promotions coming, and remind them often with tools like social media and email.
Retargeting ads are a great way to stay top-of-mind during the holiday season, as they are holiday campaigns that continue to pop up during web searches even after customers leave your website. Make sure you set your retargeting ads at a reasonable frequency, so as not to drive your customers nuts or spend too much money on impressions.
If you want to keep certain holiday promotions more tight-lipped, then do so; it all depends at what frequency you want these promotions used. Direct mail marketing, cold calling, web content, and mainstream media, like radio and TV, can all be effective avenues at letting customers know that you are there for them this holiday season. There’s no one right way to do things. You should be testing each year what types of holiday marketing campaigns are most effective for your business.
Competition is high; make sure your holiday marketing campaign stands out. If you can, offer free shipping and express delivery; it’s more expected nowadays, thanks to companies like Amazon.
While bringing in new customers for the holiday season is always an admirable goal, you want to focus a good portion of your efforts on maintaining a dialogue with your current customers and previous customers.
After the Holidays
Instead of only thinking about marketing ideas for Christmas, you should also consider other holiday promotion ideas that offer perks and sales once the holidays have concluded. For your holiday promotional materials and holiday branding, you can offer New Year promotions, Q1 promotions, and more. My wife works for Zara (a large fashion chain); they do a Black Friday Sale and then another big sale on December 26th with nothing in-between. How you choose to stagger your holiday sales is up to you, but remember to do your research and test everything year after year, so you can learn from your mistakes as much as your successes.
Happy Holidays.
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