Let’s get festive! It’s never too early to start planning your digital marketing strategy

Isn’t it a bit too early to start thinking about Christmas?! It might seem like it but, especially for people working in the hospitality/catering industry, August is THE season to start getting merrier by the days. Although I’m right there with you – it does feel like it’s too early to start talking about the festive period, especially with Malta’s heat not easing up any time soon, it is necessary to start planning your festive campaign during the summer months so that you can hit those numbers during the winter period. 

So, how do you plan your Christmas marketing campaign that is guaranteed to get you results? That’s what we’re here to analyse today. 

Planning a marketing campaign, including a festive one, is not an easy task, and it’s difficult to reach your target by using a single, consistent message across a variety of platforms. The truth is that it can easily devolve into a disorganised mess without a clever approach and reliable procedures in place.

What is a marketing campaign?

First things first – what is a marketing campaign? A marketing campaign is a project with a definite beginning and ending date that consists of various pieces of content or events linked together by a common topic. Planning a marketing strategy involves putting everything in place in the background so that everything runs smoothly and effectively. Having a plan can help you meet all of your campaign’s deadlines for publishing, hosting, and participating in events.

Successful marketing efforts, when well planned, accomplish the following:

• Send a single, concise message over a variety of channels.
• Increase brand recognition and recall. Revenue increases of more than 30% can be achieved with this level of regularity.
• One-off ventures are less effective at growing your firm.

Without a plan, execution is merely busy work and busy work doesn’t create profitable enterprises or fulfilling jobs. Work on a strategy-driven campaign. If you keep reading this article, I can help you with that 😉 

How to create and plan your marketing campaign

You might be wondering how to actually plan a marketing campaign now that we’ve seen what one looks like. Here’s how to organise a marketing campaign so that your messaging, content and other materials are all prepared for launch.

Choose What You Are Promoting

Every marketing effort promotes a product or service. Businesses frequently undertake marketing efforts to encourage:

• A fresh feature, product, or service
• A marketing message

This is the simplest but most crucial aspect of your campaign strategy. Your festive campaign will normally have a marketing message. However, it could also be on the lines of a new product/feature that you are launching for Christmas. 

Develop a Theme or Concept

Even when you are sure about what you are promoting, your marketing plan needs a unifying theme to keep everything in line. Start with the following easy procedure:

• Be aware of what you plan to advertise. What will your campaign distribute? To ensure you don’t skip a step throughout the planning process, use the checklist.
• Take into account the interests and problems of your target audience. What issues do they encounter, and what will capture their interest? 
• Find the areas where your brand and the interests of your consumers overlap.

Your goal for the festive period will always be how to marry your existing/new products with Christmas. When you find that – you have successfully unlocked your big idea! Brainstorming with your team is always a good step forward…if you don’t have a team, you’ll have me 😉 

Determine your marketing channels 

You are aware of your goals at this point. You’ve identified the target audience and created messaging to speak to them. You must now decide where and how to distribute your marketing message. Knowing where to generate and publish content where your audience will see it is what this implies in practice.

Your choice of channel should ultimately be determined by your business objectives. For instance, visual networks like Instagram may be the way to go if your goal is to raise brand awareness. However, if generating leads is your main objective, you’ll probably use a mix of SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media to drive visitors to a unique landing page.

For your festive campaign, always remember that video is key. We’ve all seen the John Lewis phenomenon – festive videography needs to be heartwarming and soulful – it needs to be human and be able to connect with your emotions. 

Set your goals 

It is a waste of time and resources to create content for its own sake. Additionally, you must demonstrate how your efforts are having a quantifiable effect if you want your department or agency to continue having a positive cash flow. There isn’t a better way to achieve it than by exceeding your campaign goals.

Start by carefully selecting measures and KPIs (key performance indicators). 

• Have a single, overarching campaign objective such as lead creation, revenue growth, increasing brand recognition, etc.
• Select metrics for each channel’s monitoring that entails establishing specific KPIs for email, blog postings, social media, and other channels. For instance, getting more Twitter mentions is a platform-specific objective.

Plan ahead

The marketing channels you’ll employ for your upcoming campaign are already on your list. The next step is to search through those media outlets to determine how many posts, advertisements, or other pieces of material will be required to carry out the campaign. Having a clear understanding of these deliverables beforehand might aid in time management.

Map it all out 

There are numerous moving pieces in a marketing effort. 

• Set due dates for each marketing component. Research, content creation, and approval tasks can each have their own due dates. Give yourself enough time to accomplish them before the project’s conclusion date.
• Give each team member an assignment to complete. Having me by your side will solve this problem! 

Feel free to ask for my help! 

If you’re an eCommerce business and you need assistance with the creation and setting up of a digital marketing strategy just in time for the festive period, I am here to help. It’s not too late yet! With my years of experience, I specialise in creating digital strategies proven to deliver results. 

My goal is to be an extension of your team by bringing in innovative ideas, sharing knowledge that will bring in positive results, and building a digital marketing strategy that your business is looking for.

Let’s talk! Feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn or alternatively drop me an email at [email protected]