Start Thinking About The Holidays Now August 13, 2020, | Posted by Guest

Even though schools are only just starting back up within the past couple of weeks, it’s already time to start thinking about your strategies and tactics for the holiday season. In fact, a lot of email marketing professionals have been working out the best possible plans for the holiday season this year--particularly since this year, more than any other in recent memory, is so uncertain. Site Impact’s experts are on top of it, of course, and today we’re going to take a quick look at what you should be doing to make sure you make the most out of even this very unusual peak shopping season.

Start plotting out your calendar now

If you’ve already got a marketing calendar for the year--even if it’s been somewhat ravaged by recent events--you’re already one step into this particular stage of getting ready. If you threw the marketing calendar out when lockdowns started, you’ll have to start fresh. Right now you need to be plotting out which holidays you’re going to be marketing to between now and New Year’s Day; that can seem like a daunting prospect, but it really just requires looking at the data for your busiest holidays, and using that as a guideline. Maybe you don’t get a lot of traffic on Labor Day; why would you spend time crafting a campaign for that, when you could devote more resources to Halloween? Sorting out your priorities and plotting out which holidays you’ll be targeting now will save you a lot of frustration and effort later.

Embrace the uncertain

There is no telling whether this year’s holidays will be marked by more lockdowns, whether people will be spending as much--a thousand other factors that could come into play. Instead of trying to predict the unpredictable, embrace the uncertain. Start planning your email marketing campaigns (as well as your holiday inventory and other efforts) around what works in all scenarios. Curbside service, delivery options, and other conveniences will be in style this holiday season more than ever, regardless of whether or not quarantines are in effect. People will still want to have their share of holiday cheer, but whether or not they’re able to get out to the store to shop for it, you should be ready to make it possible for them to get it at home--and prepare your campaigns to focus on that factor.

This early on, it may seem like a waste of time to start planning for the holiday shopping season, especially when there are so many uncertainties to confront. But make no mistake: now is the perfect time to start getting your calendar together, and to start preparing to announce the convenient options you have for people. Even without the looming risk of another quarantine, a lot of consumers have reported that they plan to do a significant portion of their holiday shopping online or through alternative pickup methods. For brands of all sizes, it’s going to be important to have campaigns ready to go, keeping prospects up to date on availability, shipping options, and more. Contact Site Impact to hear how we can help you get your holiday 2020 battle plan sorted out.