It’s the holiday season. Time to kick back, relax and take some hard-earned time away from the office. Your business, however, can’t afford to go dead over this critical time for spending and brand awareness- so what’s a savvy marketer to do? Follow these smart tips from Zebra 360 Online Marketing, of course!
1. Set and forget is your friend
Almost all modern social media platforms allow you to schedule posts ahead of time- and if not, your marketing company or a smart choice of third-party software should be able to take over the load. That’s not an excuse for slapdash planning, however. Make sure you have smart, tangible metrics at the heart of your plan- then queue everything up so you maintain your hard-won presence on the platforms, and your fans don’t feel forgotten.
2. Curate careful content
People may seem to disappear at this time of year- but believe us, they haven’t. It may be a day or two, but they will soon be back. Make sure it’s your carefully curated content they are consuming. Keep it seasonal and light- now is not the time for heavy subjects and serious topics. Celebrate milestones and clients. Give in to the party atmosphere. Allow the general vibe of goodwill, festivities and fun to resonate through your content, while still keeping on target to achieve your goals.
3. Don’t fall into the reshare trap
It’s tempting not to spend much time on original content right now. It’s ok to reduce your posting frequency a little during a time where everyone’s minds are elsewhere, but don’t let all your careful work through the year come to nothing by fading from significance. If you start posting only spammy re-shares, you will lose your audience.
4. Ensure customer engagement solutions are in place
It’s not all about content, however. If people reach out to you, they still expect to be heard! Ensure you still have a responsive strategy for clients over the holiday period, remembering that not all demographics of your clients celebrate on the same schedule as you personally do. Be sure to prominently display changed holiday hours and closure periods so no frustration occurs, and keep a few channels still flowing for customer service. Smart automation through chatbots and similar can help cut the load down and ensure prompt replies to basic questions, but have at least a skeleton crew (or a smart plan) to ensure more complex queries are handled too. All staff on leave should have clear auto-replies in place to indicate their absence- and who else can handle critical queries.
5. Make the calendar work for you
You can reduce much of the year-end load by knowing how the calendar impacts your industry. Is this a time of year where people are looking to spend up the last of their corporate budgets on your offerings? Are you in an industry that benefits from holiday parties, increased luxury/beauty purchases and company bonuses to be spent on your services? Do you provide getaways and holidays? Or is this the time of year where your clients shut up shop totally? Make sure you plan these variations and ‘deadlines’ into your year-end marketing efforts and take full advantage of them.
With a smart plan in place for year-end marketing, you can truly enjoy your holiday without having to start from scratch in the New Year again. The Zebra 360 Online Marketing team wishes you and yours a peaceful, relaxed holiday season and looks forward to helping you make the very best of your marketing in 2019.
