The countdown to the holidays has begun, and consumers and brands alike are putting their plans into action to make the most of the season. While a customer who puts off shopping for gifts until the very last minute can usually find something left on the shelves, brands have less wiggle room—when it comes to increasing sales around the holidays, a solid marketing strategy takes time to devise and then execute.
If a business hasn’t yet started rolling out holiday marketing campaigns, there’s still hope. Rather than leave their share of the holiday market on the table, brands can use the tips below from members of Forbes Agency Council to get some last-minute holiday marketing done.
Forbes Agency Council members share last-minute holiday marketing ideas for brands that are getting started late.
Photos courtesy of the individual members.
1. Set Up Small Digital Campaigns
The nice thing about digital marketing is that small campaigns can be set up relatively quickly. You can send newsletters to current subscribers. You can set up paid search ad campaigns. You can create social media campaigns and more. It is never too late. – Peter Boyd, PaperStreet Web Design
2. Recycle A Past Ad Campaign
Think of a past ad campaign that you used that was successful, and update it based on the current offerings, products or services. If you had a campaign that performed well in the past, reason stands it would perform well again with minor updates. Rinse, recycle, repeat. – David Kley, Web Design and Company
3. Focus On Segmentation
Leverage your existing database and information you have about digital engagement to segment your prospects to align with your holiday offers. From there, you can determine how you can connect with existing prospects by email and leverage retargeting and lookalike audiences to find a new audience for your holiday programs. – Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
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4. Focus On Digital And Social Campaigns
My advice for the procrastinators is to focus on digital and social campaigns that can be developed and implemented quickly. Often, the biggest obstacle in launching a campaign is the approval process. Agencies like ours know how to turn on a dime. While we don’t encourage last-minute campaigns that have drop-dead deadlines, we can deliver if the client is clear and responsive. – Carol Levine, energi PR Inc
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5. Combine Intent Data With Contact Data
If you’re short on time, there’s nothing more valuable than knowing which prospects are currently in-market for solutions such as yours. By combining intent data with contact data, you can zero in on individuals who hold high promise of becoming customers. This data-driven approach enables you to engage more intelligently and effectively with prospects and, ultimately, expedite sales processes. – Paula Chiocchi, Outward Media, Inc.
6. Incorporate Shopping-Enabled Links
Luckily, influencer marketing and other digital tactics often have faster turnaround times than traditional media. A great way to bring in revenue from those tactics is to incorporate shopping-enabled links, making it easy for consumers to click and buy directly from influencer content. – Danielle Wiley, Sway Group
7. Use Influencers, Paid Search And ‘New’ Content
Holiday seasons appear on the scene earlier each year. That said, given the speed of technology and targeted messaging, I don’t believe brands are late to the party. In fact, if properly executed, it may be easier now to cut through the clutter. Make use of influencers, paid search and “new” content to promote your brand. Most importantly, ensure product availability and never disappoint shoppers. – Dave Wendland, Hamacher Resource Group
8. Work With A Partner Who Delivers Successes
Work with a marketing partner who specializes in delivering successes (instead of just reach or awareness), such as by delivering new customers. This will also help with mitigating wasted ad spend during the holidays. Typical go-tos at this point would be agencies that bill by conversions, Google’s pay-per-conversion campaigns, or going for a specialized pay-per-customer vendor. – Joschka Weltgen, Compado
9. Understand Where You Allocate Ad Dollars
Determining where to spend your ad dollars is crucial to having a successful holiday marketing campaign. Starting late doesn’t allow you as much runway time for testing, so be sure to understand where you decide to allocate the majority of your advertising spend. Focus on influencer content, as they may have last-minute availability to execute campaigns. – Jordan Edelson, Appetizer Mobile LLC
10. Take An Omnichannel Approach
Today, with online publications, influencer and affiliate marketing opportunities, and email and social media marketing, brands have more opportunities than ever before to make an impression on consumers late into the holiday marketing season. Taking advantage of these channels is no longer an option; it is a necessity. – David Harrison, Evins Communications
11. Know What You Want To Offer For Holiday Promos
It’s not too late, so long as the brand has an idea of what it would like to offer for holiday promotions. With the help of the right team—one with good knowledge and solid capabilities in the digital space—they can leverage and make magic happen before the year is over. We see leads come in as late as Boxing Day (December 26!) some years. – Leigh-Anne Anderson, Anderson-PR
12. Work With Creators On A Gift Card Campaign
You can’t underestimate the power of a gift card campaign! We’ve seen great successes running late campaigns focused on giving gift cards. One of the best strategies is to work with creators who can efficiently meet two goals. First, they can post sponsored content on their own channels for wide reach. Second, they can generate a lot of creative assets for your brand to use in your own marketing. – Mae Karwowski, Obviously
13. Market To Last-Minute Shoppers
Market to consumers who haven’t started their holiday shopping yet. A large number of shoppers don’t start until Black Friday and beyond, so you still have a large audience of people who are looking for your products and services. – Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions
14. Utilize Influencers Who Do Quick Turnarounds
Even if you started planning a little late, you can still achieve great results for your holiday campaigns by utilizing influencers. Besides the fact that they usually work with quick turnaround times, they usually also take care of the idea brainstorming and all of the content creation, which saves time on your end. All you need to do is find a creator with the right target audience for your brand. – Anastasia Cecchetto, Ace Influencers
15. Drive Custom Audiences Directly To The Site
I can’t speak to the creative side, but try to use custom audiences in your media buying to hypertarget your consumer—and drive them directly to the site instead of to a retailer! – Humphrey Ho, Hylink Digital
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Author: Expert Panel®, Forbes Councils Member
