The winter celebration season is a great time to relax and enjoy a well-deserved holiday, but you’ll want to make sure that your campaigns don’t end up suffering for it.
Face it: that time when you’re off work is time that many people kick back to catch up with favourite blogs, conduct a lot of e-commerce, and catch up on social media with friends and family they miss out on during the normal work year.
You’ll need a marketing strategy that buoys you through this time of year, and keeps your brand top of mind—even while you may be at home enjoying some turkey.
1. Go for strategy over volume
Prune the channels you plan to maintain, so that you’re only hitting those of high value. This is not the time of year to stretch yourself too thin, since everyone (your team included!) is under extra stress. Some firms think this means they can duplicate content across channels—but this would be a NO, because it looks particularly lazy. Also, your audience is going to looking to the web more and more for escapism and entertainment this time of year, so keep that in mind when planning content.
2. But don’t forget about frequency—or recency
Automation tools are fantastic, and the winter season is a great time to employ them—keep your content flowing! But make sure that you’re not over-automating, because it’s real-time social engagement with your audience that makes good content into a stellar experience. Don’t bow out of your own conversations!
3. Keep your branding consistent
Now is not the time to experiment with new messaging. Operate under the assumption that you’re only operating with 80% of your audience’s usual attention span during this busy season, and remember that your team also needs to be in top shape to test new strategies. Both you and your audience need to be functioning on all cylinders to get helpful engagement, and analyse the data that results.
4. Stay on top of the news
Stay relevant to your audience by following trending hashtags, big news stories, and conversations. Even if you don’t have the resources to fully engage as a brand in the moment, you’ll be able to recoup that in the new year with content that analyses or recaps what was happening during holiday time. Better to squirrel that information away that to dive, scattershot, into conversations or threads that you’re not prepared for in the moment.
5. Share the burden
If your team is all on holiday, rotate one person a day (or something similar) to keep an eye on your social media or relevant news stories. The last thing you want to do is tune out completely, or overburden one team member.
6. Regroup
Capitalise on the fact that many of your clients and much of your audience is taking a brief hiatus, and use this time of year for housekeeping within your own firm. Set up projects, strategies, proposals and budgets for the new year, and analyse year over year data to see what happens to your audience during this season. You’ll be better prepared to tackle next year’s holidays if you understand what happened this year.
The Christmas season doesn’t have to throw your marketing plans out of whack. With a little planning and a clear goal, your company can still come out on top—and start the new year on a high note.