The holiday season provides a crucial economic uplift for local businesses, driving significant portions of annual revenue. While the average for a small business can be 25% or more of annual revenue, this figure can be much higher, especially for retail businesses, which may see 50% or more of their annual revenue during the holidays. This period’s importance also highlights its significance for overall annual profit, as increased holiday sales often come without a proportional rise in fixed costs.
As you begin to consider your holiday marketing plan, it would be worthwhile to recognize how marketing during the holidays is different from the rest of the year, and what you can do to position your local business for success during this critical period.
Holiday marketing differs from marketing during the rest of the year due to unique consumer behavior, elevated market competition, increased advertising costs, and a powerful emotional atmosphere. During the holiday season, these factors compel marketers to shift their strategies to focus on seasonal content, promotions, and budget allocation changes to ensure visibility in this high demand season.
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The holidays prompt a dramatic shift in how and why people shop, compelling marketers to adjust their strategies.
Motivational Shift: Regular purchases are often needs-based, but holiday shopping is driven by emotional factors like nostalgia, generosity, and the desire to create memories. Successful holiday marketers emphasize how products can bring joy, connect families, or create meaningful traditions.
Heightened Price Sensitivity: Consumers are actively seeking deals and promotions during the holidays, spurred by events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Even luxury brands may offer significant discounts to capture a larger share of the market.
Seasonal Urgency: A combination of limited time offers and deadlines like last-minute shopping cut-offs creates a sense of urgency. This motivates consumers to make quicker purchase decisions to avoid missing out on deals and ensuring gifts arrive on time.
Early Shopping Trends: Many consumers, motivated by budget concerns or toward avoiding stress, start their holiday shopping earlier in the year. This “holiday creep” forces brands to launch their promotional campaigns earlier to attract these shoppers.
The holiday season brings unique challenges and opportunities to local business, offering an opportunity to alter marketing tactics to suit the particular demands of the season including increased competition forcing companies to be louder, more creative, and more visible; and higher advertising costs driven by increased competition for ad space, particularly on digital channels.
For local businesses, a holiday season budget should be allocated across key areas including increased inventory and staffing, and marketing and promotions. The specific distribution of your budget should include an evaluation of prior year’s performance, projected sales, and the company’s overall goals for the season.
Some considerations for your marketing and promotions budget during the holidays should include:
- Allocate Based on Where Your Customers Are: A full funnel multimedia approach is best in all seasons, particularly during the holidays. Allocate your budget to reach potential customers on those channels where they congregate, reaching them at each customer touchpoint throughout their path to purchase.
- Social Media Engagement: Consider running holiday-themed contests on social media including giveaways and special offers to engage customers and build awareness.
- Offer Special Incentives: Budget for promotions like exclusive discounts, free gifts with purchase, loyalty rewards, or free shipping to encourage sales.
- Festive Displays: Set aside funds for creating eye-catching holiday window displays or in-store decorations to attract foot traffic. Be sure to replicate these themes in your online marketing.
- Collaborate Locally: Consider partnerships with other small businesses to cross-promote each other’s products or host a joint event.
To address seasonal market conditions, local marketers can employ further tactics in response:
Emotional Storytelling: While regular marketing tends to focus on product features, holiday campaigns often use narrative, characters, and festive themes to connect with consumers on an emotional level. This creates a stronger, more memorable brand association.
Technology and Personalization: Marketers use data-driven insights and AI to personalize messaging and offers. This includes customized gift recommendations for loyal customers to create a more relevant and impactful experience.
Influencer Collaborations: Partnering with social media influencers can be a key holiday strategy, especially for reaching younger audiences. These collaborations can significantly increase a brand’s reach and provide ‘authentic’ product reviews.
Off-Peak Campaigns: Some savvy marketers intentionally launch campaigns during off-peak times, such as after the holidays. This avoids the noise and high costs of the peak season and can capture consumers who are still in the mood to shop or interested in redeeming gift cards.
Adjusting your marketing tactics for the holiday season can be beneficial as consumer behaviors and market conditions shift. Adjusting your strategies accordingly allows you to fully capitalize on the surge in demand and spending, build customer loyalty, and stand out in a competitive market environment.
To learn more about successful marketing tactics during the upcoming holiday season, give us a call at Sentinel Solutions at 603-352-5896 or email to Advertising@SentinelDigitalSolutions.com.
We are experts in multimedia marketing and can help you build a compelling campaign that engages your audience and drives sales.
We’re happy to help.
Additional Resources:
- Understanding The Customer Journey Toward Business Success.
- Why a Strong Media Mix is Essential for Modern Marketing Success.
- Can Personalization Benefit Your Local Marketing Efforts?
- How Can Your Local Business Use Automation to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Marketing?
- What is Influencer Marketing and How Can You Use It to Grow Your Local Business?
