Black Friday shopping is over, holiday decorations are going up, peppermint flavored coffees are popping up all over the place and we’re officially in the midst of the holidays.

So what better time to run a marketing campaign for your business than this season? But before you decide to end the year with a marketing campaign, there are three areas you should consider to make sure it is successful.

The Setup

Like every marketing campaign, the first item that needs to be done in your holiday campaign is setting a goal.

Think about what exactly you want to achieve with your campaign:

• Do you want to bring in new customers?
• Do you want to promote a special to existing customers?

The goal of your holiday marketing campaign should be set in stone before anything else because it will define who exactly your promotion is for, how you will execute the campaign, and how to determine if the campaign was successful in the end.

Another important thing to do before launching a campaign is to set a benchmark for success. In other words, how will you gauge the holiday campaign’s success?

Set both qualitative (like engagement on Facebook) and quantitative (total number of sales) goals and remember to use your benchmarks after the campaign is over to measure the campaign’s effectiveness.

The Execution

After your goals have been set, it’s time to think about how you will execute the campaign.

• What are you offering to your customers?
• Do you have promotion you run each holiday?

Consider facilitating a holiday pay-per-click campaign or a custom Facebook promotion if you are looking to bring in new business. Or, if you want to offer a holiday promotion to existing customers, send out an email campaign to an existing list.

The goals you set before launching the campaign will help make the execution phase easier so you will know which channel and tools will be best for reaching your audience.

Remember to also cross-promote your holiday campaign through multiple channels.

For example, if you have a landing page on your website with a special promotion, you can (and should) also use your social media communities, email marketing, and home page banners to help maximize your reach.

The Measurement

The next step is to make sense of what you find. Did it meet your goals?

Remember the goals your set in the beginning? Use that information to determine how successful your campaign really was.

If you set a benchmark to reach a certain percentage of sales or increase your Facebook fanbase by a number of followers, look at those numbers compared to the actual numbers that came in.

If the campaign was less than extraordinary, think about the steps you could take next time to ensure the campaign is more successful.

These three areas work together to ensure your campaign is organized and has the potential to be as successful as possible. We hope your holiday marketing campaign is a hit! 

Have you run an unexpectedly successful holiday campaign in the past? Or is your history full of flops? You can learn from both! Tell us about your experience on our Facebook timeline. comments powered by Disqus