How to Succeed This Holiday Season With a Last-Minute Christmas Marketing Plan

Want to prepare a last-minute Christmas marketing plan that is both efficient and gets you results? Speak no more.

We know how hectic the holiday season can be for marketers. When everything is so jolly and festive, there are also many good opportunities to make a profit.

And the Christmas season is one of the busiest times of the year for marketers around the globe.

If you were too overwhelmed with tracking your KPIs or having a pumpkin spice latte (hey, we understand), fear not.

There is still enough time to take advantage of December to add some interesting Christmas spirit to your online communication.

Ready to maximize the holiday rush? Here are our best tips below.

9 Things to Consider for Your Last-Minute Christmas Marketing Plan

As a general holiday marketing guide, usually you should adhere to one rule: start early.

But we understand when life gets in the way and you can feel like it’s too late for you to start.

We’re here to tell you that’s nonsense.

While yes, it’s true that the earlier you start planning and applying your ideas for your Christmas marketing plan, the better results you'll get, it doesn’t mean that you have to wait another year to start acting upon it.

A well-thought-out Christmas marketing plan takes time to plan, strategize, and implement.

So even if you don’t get the desired results from starting late, you will always gain an enormous amount of experience that you can reapply and adjust for the following year.

Just as the seasons change, so do your customers' behaviors during the holiday season.

And understanding how your prospective buyers would act in the lead-up to and throughout the Christmas season is the first step in creating a Christmas marketing campaign.

To review your target audience, visit your Google Analytics to understand their behavior with data-backed information (don’t just go guessing, you’re better than that).

Explore your users’ demographic and behavioral tabs.

Ask yourself:

• Are there any new behavioral trends?
• Are they spending more time on a particular page? If so, why?
• Can you optimize that page to adjust it for the season?

Once those general questions are defined, move on to more targeted (i.e. seasonal) questions about their behavior during Christmas:

• Do they have any spending priorities?
• Where do they usually shop online?
• Are they early or last-minute shoppers?
• How would your product or service help them during the festive season?

Properly define your Christmas personas so that you can adjust your message accordingly.

Next, define which channels you should be focusing on during the Christmas marketing period.

As with everything else in marketing, consistency is key so knowing where you should focus your attention is key to a successful Christmas marketing plan.

Depending on how big your team is, this is also an important step to properly coordinate who will be responsible for what and their respective responsibilities.

What’s a marketing plan without properly setting SMART goals?

Even if you’re not in eCommerce and you usually expect a slow period during Christmas, goals keep you accountable and allow you to understand how well you performed.

So start thinking of ways that your Christmas marketing plan can be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

This is the tricky bit because, depending on what your business offers, it can be difficult to think about how to adapt your offers to Christmas.

Slashing prices won’t do much if you’re working on a luxury hotel campaign, but offering a free upgrade or luxurious perks as seasonal gifts might do wonders to get people booking a stay with you.

If you have an engaged email list, this is a no-brainer. Hire a designer to create a festive visual and blast off your special offers to those who have signed up.

Are you still trying to grow your newsletter? No problem. Social media ads are a fantastic way to bring attention to your Christmas offers.

Still old school? You can plan a quick Christmas PR campaign. These might be harder to track but still work great to quickly attract customers and reap last-minute rewards.

Honestly, the sky’s the limit when you plan how to communicate your Christmas offers. No channel should be overlooked and everything is possible.

What matters the most is that you just do it.

Since we’re talking about email lists, let’s quickly touch upon the importance of tweaking your email automation.

And of course, this is another easy fix to tweak a last-minute Christmas marketing plan.

To do so, check if any of your automated emails need a seasonal touch.

Abandoned cart items could get a follow-up email offering a Christmas discount. Likewise, a ‘thank you for your purchase’ automation could include a seasonal message.

How can you optimize your email signatures for your Christmas marketing plan? By adding a decorative holiday touch to it.

A Christmas email signature will help you stand out by bringing smiles to your readers.

Also, a seasonal banner is a great way to promote your holiday sales and products, and simply spread holiday cheer.

Now that you’ve started thinking of your Christmas marketing plan details, it’s time to get started on content creation.

Knowing how and where to communicate with your potential clients allows you to properly decide what assets you need to create.

• Could you create a quick Christmas marketing video? Maybe gather your current employees for a festive Instagram reel or TikTok?
• Or do static visuals help engage your audience more? Canva is a free tool that allows you to quickly create engaging visuals without any prior experience in graphic design.
• Can you adjust your copywriting to be more festive? Little tweaks can go a long way.
• Perhaps you could take new product photography to reflect the end-of-season mood? No time to hire a photographer? A good smartphone will do the trick!

An easy way to adjust a last-minute Christmas marketing plan is to think of creative ways in which you can repurpose your existing content.

And, of course, ensure that you optimize your supporting content.

Consider the pages that your campaign drives users to for further information. Ensure that their experience is consistent the entire way.

These are all easy, quick wins that you can implement into your last-minute Christmas marketing plan.

Failure to modify supporting content may result in a confusing user experience and this could affect the effectiveness of your campaign.

After completing the nine steps listed above, your last-minute Christmas marketing plan is ready to be implemented.

Keep in mind the importance of keeping a close eye on the outcomes of your plan so you can observe how it performs in comparison to the objectives you established.

Then, you can utilize that data to identify what was successful and what wasn't.

By doing this, you will be able to enhance any marketing plans you make in the future, regardless of the season.

And hey, if everything else fails, remember you always have next year to improve on your shortcomings.