Let’s do a check-in: Are your holiday campaigns…
Targeting new and established customers?
Building brand awareness?
Seeing engagement across multiple channels?
Converting?
The holidays are approaching quickly, and if your holiday marketing plan isn't quite where you wanted it to be, don't panic. While planning ahead is always ideal, there are still meaningful ways to strengthen your marketing efforts before the holiday season is over.
Last-minute pivots don’t mean throwing together random promotions or posting simply because you feel like you should. Instead, take a breath (seriously, it’s going to be okay) and focus on the marketing activities that can make the biggest impact in the time you have left.
Here’s where we’d start:
1. Review Your Offers
Before promoting anything, make sure your existing holiday offers are clear and easy to understand. Review discounts, bundles, gift cards, and seasonal services to confirm that pricing and availability are accurate. Your customers shouldn't have to (and probably won’t) search through multiple pages to figure out what you're offering.
2. Update Your Website
Your website is often one of the first places potential customers will go after seeing your holiday marketing. Take a few minutes to review your homepage, product or service pages, contact information, and calls to action. Make sure your most important holiday information is easy to find and that forms and other conversion points are working properly. If you're running paid or social campaigns, make sure your landing pages match the messaging customers saw in the advertisement or post. Make the value and next step obvious for online customers.
3. Schedule Your Social Content
Don't let the holidays pass without communicating with your audience. Create a simple social media schedule for the remaining weeks of the season. Consider highlighting promotions, gift ideas, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes content, holiday hours, important deadlines, or helpful seasonal tips. You don't need dozens of posts, but a few thoughtful, well-timed pieces of content are better than posting to fill your calendar or not at all.
4. Check Your Email Marketing
Ignoring email because you think it’s a dead medium? Stop! Email can be an effective way to reach people who already know your business. Send reminders about promotions, deadlines, availability, or holiday-specific offerings. Keep your emails concise and make the call to action clear. If your audience needs to act before a certain date, communicate that deadline clearly.
5. Double-Check Your Paid Ads
If you're running holiday advertising, don't assume everything is working simply because the campaigns are live. Be sure to review your targeting, budget, messaging, links, and performance. Look at which ads are generating meaningful engagement or conversions and consider shifting budget toward the strongest performers. Consistent review and management means not wasting valuable holiday dollars on campaigns that aren't moving people toward your goals.
Finish the Season Strong
You don't need a perfect marketing plan to make an impact during the holidays. You just need a focused one. Prioritize the channels that matter most to your customers, make your messaging clear, and spend your remaining time improving the pieces that directly support your business goals.
At Honest - A Digital Agency, we help businesses develop strategic digital marketing solutions that connect marketing activity with meaningful business results. Whether you're preparing for the holidays or planning for the year ahead, a focused strategy can help you make the most of every marketing opportunity.