Your Holiday Marketing Should Start LONG Before the Holidays Do
Every year, the holiday season seems to sneak up on small-business owners. One minute it's October, and the next you're scrambling to put together a promotion, design a graphic, write an email and get everything posted before the weekend.
Sound familiar?
Here's the problem. You can have a fantastic offer, but if nobody knows about it until the day it starts, you've given your customers very little opportunity to take advantage of it.
Holiday marketing takes more than announcing a sale and hoping people show up. It takes planning, repetition and a little patience.
And if you're thinking about running a Boxing Day promotion this year, now is the perfect time to get started.
The Friday Sale Problem
Imagine a business owner who decides to run a Black Friday promotion.
They put together a great offer, create a social media graphic and send an email announcing the sale on Friday morning. By Sunday evening, they're disappointed. Sales were slow, engagement was low and the promotion didn't bring in nearly as much business as they'd hoped.
By Monday, they've decided that email marketing and social media advertising don't work.
But think about what actually happened. Their customers had a single weekend to notice the promotion, consider this offer alongside all the others competing for their attention, make room in their budgets and take action. Some were working. Others were travelling, spending time with family or simply not checking their emails.
And plenty of people who might have been interested never saw the promotion at all.
You can't announce a sale on Friday, expect everyone to see it by Saturday and decide marketing doesn't work by Monday.
The promotion itself might have been great. The problem is that hardly anyone had time to hear about it, let alone act on it.
Give People Time to Notice, Remember and Act
There's an old marketing concept called the Rule of 7, suggesting that someone needs to encounter your message seven times before making a purchase. Seven isn't a scientifically established magic number, but it's certainly more than one!
People are busy. They might see your promotion while waiting for their coffee, opening an email between meetings or scrolling through social media before bed. They could be interested and still forget about it five minutes later.
Repeated exposure helps people become familiar with your business, remember your offer and build confidence in what you're selling. That's why a thoughtful marketing campaign includes multiple opportunities for customers to see your message. An email introduces the promotion. A social media post showcases what's included. An advertisement reaches someone who hasn't heard about it yet. Another email reminds interested customers that the deadline is approaching.
Each message has a purpose, and together they give people more opportunities to act.
And remember, there's a fine line between keeping your customers engaged and driving them crazy. A well-planned campaign gives people reasons to open your emails.
Bombarding their inbox every day is a great way to earn yourself an unsubscribe, or worse, a one-way ticket to their spam folder.
A Boxing Day Campaign You Can Start Planning Right Now
Let's look at what this could mean for a small business planning a Boxing Day promotion.
Instead of waiting until December 26 to announce the sale, you could start preparing six weeks beforehand and begin introducing the promotion four weeks before it launches.
Here's what that might look like.
Example: Your Boxing Day Campaign Timeline
6 WEEKS BEFORE | Plan & Create
Finalize your offer, schedule your campaign and prepare your graphics, emails and ads.
4 WEEKS BEFORE | Build Awareness
Introduce the promotion and give customers something to look forward to.
3 WEEKS BEFORE | Generate Interest
Showcase what's included and explain the value.
2 WEEKS BEFORE | Send Your Email
Share the details and give customers time to plan.
1 WEEK BEFORE | Keep It Visible
Post reminders, answer questions and build anticipation.
BOXING DAY | Go Live!
Launch the promotion and make purchasing easy.
FINAL DAY | Last Chance
Send a final reminder before the offer ends.
This is just one example. A larger promotion might need a longer runway, while a smaller offer could use a simpler schedule.
The important part is that the campaign is planned before it begins.
And remember, introducing a Boxing Day promotion early doesn't mean you have to start discounting your products in November. You're giving customers something to look forward to and a reason to remember your business when the sale arrives.
Make Your Marketing Work Together
A holiday campaign often involves more than one marketing channel.
You might have an email campaign, social media posts, paid advertisements and a promotion featured on your website. Ideally, they should all feel like parts of the same campaign. That means consistent visuals, messaging, promotional details and deadlines. Customers should recognize your offer whether they see it on Instagram, in their inbox or on your website.
And when someone is ready to act, make it easy!
If your email advertises a Boxing Day package, the button should take customers somewhere they can learn about or purchase that package. Sending them to your homepage and expecting them to hunt for the offer creates an unnecessary obstacle.
A good campaign considers the entire experience; from the first time someone sees your promotion to the moment they make a purchase or enquiry.
Don't Forget to Measure What Happened
Once the promotion ends, there's still something valuable to do: look at the results.
How many people visited your website? Which emails generated clicks? Did your advertisements bring in enquiries? How many purchases or bookings came from the campaign?
The answers help you understand what worked, what could be improved and where to focus your marketing budget next time.
And this is one of the benefits of having a marketing team manage your campaigns. At IA Creative, we can help coordinate the messaging, schedule the emails and advertisements, and track meaningful results so you're making decisions based on more than likes and crossed fingers.
A well-planned email marketing campaign can be an important part of that strategy, keeping your offer in front of interested customers throughout the promotion.
The Best Time to Plan Is Before You're in a Rush
We're still in October, which means there's time to put together a thoughtful Boxing Day campaign.
You can decide what you want to promote, create the materials, coordinate your marketing channels and schedule everything before the holiday rush takes over.
And even if Boxing Day isn't relevant to your business, the same approach applies to seasonal promotions, special events, product launches and limited-time offers throughout the year.
Give yourself enough time to create something worthwhile, and give your customers enough time to notice it. Or, if you'd rather leave the planning, creating and coordinating to us, give us a call and let's get your holiday campaign rolling!
