Holiday Marketing Planning: Monthly Goals and Action Items for 2022

Forget January — September is society’s New Year. When summer comes to a close, and we go back to school and work, we shift how we live, put routines in place, and change our buying behaviors.

That doesn’t mean you put off your holiday marketing plan until the leaves start turning orange and pumpkin spice lattes start popping up on menus. To get your brand on gift givers’ radars, you need to start early.

Read this list and check these actions off twice to make the most of the rest of the year!

Key Holiday Marketing Goals and Action Items

Getting your goals in order is key to successful growth through the end of the year. Here are the goals you should focus on and action items to hit them, broken down month-by-month.

September Goals: Reach New Customers and Get Organized

Double down on reaching as many new customers as possible while CPMs are lower this month. Plan your campaigns through the end of the year, put logistical processes in place, and get all of your ducks in a row to manage the busy shopping months to come.

September action items 🍂

✅  Reach new customers by establishing a brand awareness campaign to build your email and retargeting contact pools for the months to come.

✅ Establish shipping deadlines and iron out logical operations.

✅ Put a cart abandonment strategy in place that includes a personalized email and retargeting approach.

✅ Plan your seasonal promotions, creative, and budget allocation strategy to kick off in October.

✅ Implement analysis and tracking solutions that will enable you to optimize your campaigns down the line.

October Goal: Engage Holiday Shoppers Now 

In the last few years, shopping holidays like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday have exploded into week-long events. As a result, shoppers will start gift-buying as early as the first week of October and look for promotional offerings through November. Make sure you’re prepared by planning your promotions and engaging your audience.

October action items 👻

✅  Consider creative tactics like video advertising to cut through the noise and reach your customers.

✅  Begin running CRM retargeting campaigns to engage loyal customers with your seasonal promotions.

✅  Start running your cart abandonment campaign strategy.

✅  Connect directly with your customers through organic social media and content marketing.

November Goals: Reach, Engage, and Convert! 

Continue running promotional shopping strategies throughout November. Engage with your customers directly, clearly, and often. If there’s one key thing direct brands can offer that giant online retailers, like Amazon, don’t, it’s deep and meaningful relationships with their customers.

November action items 🦃

✅  Holiday shopping is in full swing — consider budgeting for increased advertising spend to stay competitive. Our data suggests that CPMs typically rise 3x this time of year.

✅  Continue running browsing and cart abandonment campaigns to motivate highly engaged shoppers to purchase.

✅  Segment CRM lists of past holiday shoppers and create personalized email and retargeting campaigns.

✅  Analyze the performance of your campaigns often and adjust quickly as needed.

December Goals: Reach Last-Minute Shoppers, Engage Advocates, and Focus on Analytics

Consider enticing last-minute shoppers with creative and efficient gift ideas like digital gift cards to continue driving sales as the holiday shopping season comes to a close. Create ways for happy customers to share their amazing experiences with your brand as they’re celebrating the holidays, and hone in on performance analytics and reporting.

December action items 🎄

✅   Don’t stop running cart abandonment campaigns.

✅  Ensure you’re delivering a cohesive, personalized experience across ads, emails, and your website.

✅  Uphold shipping and delivery expectations you set with customers early on, and communicate clearly throughout the process. (We’ve all seen how shipping delays have wreaked havoc on the ecommerce industry in the last two years!)

✅  Encourage customers to share how they're celebrating with your products on social media to foster advocacy and word-of-mouth marketing.

✅  Double down on reporting and analytics. The performance data you gather this season, in particular, will give you a taste of what to expect in 2023 and shape your future marketing strategy.

AdRoll Has Your Back 

Without a sound holiday marketing strategy and comprehensive planning, the holiday season can be overwhelming. Stay on track by implementing this calendar of action items into your holiday marketing plan today! Keep the cheerful feelings going and use AdRoll to launch all the campaigns you need to make your holiday marketing success. From brand awareness to cart abandonment, you can launch and learn from all your campaigns in one place.

Last updated on October 17th, 2022.