How to plan your promotions during the pandemic for the 2020 holiday season [10 MINUTE EXERCISE]
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I know it sounds CRAZY but the busy season is quickly approaching. Your business has been through the wringer this year - A LOT has changed and, because of that, your offers will need to shift.
This isn’t your average year so, you can’t do average business.
Right about now (early August), if you haven’t already, I recommend figuring out what your end of year offers are going to look and feel like for your business. The earlier you start to prep this year the better. Here’s why:
The pandemic means more prep time. If you don’t have some form of e-commerce set up, you need to figure that out ASAP in case restrictions tighten up again (which is anticipated!). This will allow you to best design your upcoming promotions to suit the new needs of your audience, no matter what happens. YOU MUST meet them where they are. August/end of summer is the quiet before the storm. Pre-labor day, people tend to keep living in their vaca, chill zone bubbles but, come September 7, all bets are off. Things get WILD. I don’t say this to scare you, I say this to prepare you. Don’t get lost in the shuffle by not setting yourself up for success early. Being proactive about this allows more flexibility in your marketing.
It’s an election year and consumers are more distracted than ever. Those channels you use to market your business will be OVERLY SATURATED with political messaging here in the United States from August well through November and December. This means, the earlier you start garnering your audience’s attention, the longer you’ll be able to hold it.
The busy season has a knack for creeping up quickly and, if you’re not prepared, especially during a time as unpredictable as this, it’ll knock you right off your rocker. I want to help you avoid that at all costs so, here’s a quick exercise to help you plan your upcoming promotions in just 10 minutes. To be honest, this exercise works well for most promotions, not just for the busy season. I use this same marketing method when I’m planning a special launch for a course or program too and it works wonders!
Here’s what’s coming up:
September 7 - Labor Day (Summer “vaca” officially ends, most schools are back in session, big businesses start seeding holiday advertisements, stores adjust displays). GAME = ON.
November 26 - Thanksgiving
November 27 - Black Friday
November 28 - Small Business Saturday
November 30 - Cyber Monday
December 1 - Giving Tuesday
Then, of course, there’s the religious holidays and the New Year (2021 please save us!).
Looking at the calendar, this leaves just 3 MONTHS until the most popular shopping season of the year begins (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) and about 3.5 months until shipping cutoffs. While the above shopping days are still popular, they will look a lot different this year because they will primarily take place online.
Is your business set up for this?
There’s a lot to consider. Believe me, I know how overwhelming that can feel BUT, hear me when I say…there’s a way to make your marketing planning easier and you don’t need to write a 100 page marketing plan to make the magic happen.
You can be a seasoned small business owner with a brick and mortar location, a service provider or newer online business owner who relies on product sales. No matter the type, there are opportunities for you to whip up a worthwhile promotion or two that creates a significant uptick in sales for your business.
This 10-minute exercise will break down a complicated task into manageable steps for you!
How to plan your holiday promotions during the pandemic
Visualize your timeline.
Start planning backward from the earliest date above to help you visualize your timeline and set a goal. When will your special messaging start and end? When are your most profitable days during this time? When is your audience most active throughout the year? Working backwards will help you visualize exactly what your business has the capacity for in terms of marketing and allow you to focus on crafting offers that uniquely influence your customer. With the pandemic being as unpredictable as it is, I would add an extra buffer of time to your holiday timeline and start seeding earlier than you normally would.Design your offer(s).
What offers performed well / had good response in the past? What offers (existing + new) could work now given the unique situation we’re in? How can you further incentivize your audience so they get more excited, not more exhausted? When you consider your offer(s), I want you to think about what added-value offer you could provide your audience that they don’t have access to ANY OTHER time of year. For example: Give a BONUS with your order versus giving a discount OR how about hosting an annual social media giveaway for your customers vs your followers/everyone on social? And, what about your subscribers? Do they get something special that no one else does this time of year? You want to add value to your customer’s experience, not take away from it. You also want to add to your bottom line and not take away from it :) so always consider added-value opportunities. Here are offer examples for service providers and product makers/retailers.Get going!
Create deadlines for yourself (and your staff), plan your messaging and start promoting your offer(s) based on your timeline. Be strict about this! Nothing has to be perfect, it just has to get done. This is the most critical stage of planning for the holiday season. Once you nail your offer(s), the planning phase begins. This is where batch planning (creating all of your content over the span of a few days then automating it) comes in INCREDIBLY handy. You can learn exactly how to do that right now using my Complete Content Planning System.
Another key factor to note when planning your marketing content is that the end of the year is a popular time for abandoned carts. Setting deadlines will help you visualize and plan your messaging so you’re hitting all key areas.
For example: Consider strategies for those in your audience who are ready to purchase and those who are hesitant to purchase. Perhaps you will have an abandoned cart email or two at the ready, as well as targeted messaging on social for those cautious shoppers?
Did you know that abandoned cart messages are opened two times more than any other types of emails? And that sending as many as THREE of those kind of emails is 44% more effective than sending just one?
Just because you share a message once (whether it’s an email, blog, or social media post) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t or can’t share it again. Once is never enough. Someone typically has to see a piece of content 7 times before they remember it. You have to show up for your people, especially during the busy season, when their attention is fragmented. If you’re communicating meaningfully, and not just for your own personal agenda, they’ll appreciate it.
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