There’s no doubt about the fact that this holiday season will be the biggest shopping spree that we have ever seen – this means consumers are gearing to be big spenders during the upcoming holidays and ideally you should be planning to be able to concentrate this spending in your direction as much as possible instead of letting your competitors get the upper hand.

The strategy for your seasonal marketing and content should ideally be different to that of the rest of the year simply because the nature of buying behaviour is different during the holidays due to the fact that most people are actually shopping for gifts for others or to spruce up their homes to host guests during the season. This only means that every conceivable product or service in the marketplace has the potential of increased purchase, if marketed right.

Holiday Marketing could be tricky business if the correct strategies aren’t in place. Here are a few simple ideas to get you started with your holiday marketing plans:

1. The season comes with some key shopping dates, November 24th is Click Monday, the weeks leading up to Christmas when mall hours are extended to as late as midnight and December 26th when Boxing Day sales commence. Consumers are set to make the bulk of their purchases during these periods and as such you should be prepared to focus your marketing activities to help them gravitate towards you when the time comes.

2. Take note of the separate channels available to you such as Email, Social Media and Mobile Marketing and ensure that you have content specific to the medium and the time of day, week or month your consumers would be using each specific platform.

3. The nature of the shopper has evolved with the evolution of digital media – as such they will be doing a lot more online research before deciding on which brand to purchase. Take note of how customers have come to you in previous years and you will find out how they know about you – this will enable you to increase your focus in specific areas online.

4. You could also enable your online platforms, especially your website to be able to accept sales instead of having customers come to your doorstep. If they can find you online, they should also be able to buy from you online instead of the tedious hours they would be spending on traffic ridden roads to make their seasonal purchases.

5. If your plans are bringing more customers in during the season, this becomes an opportunity for you to be able to retain them in the long run as well. Try and get all new shoppers to subscribe to your content for instance so that you keep your engagement with the customer beyond the holiday season.