We’re almost in October and the leaves in the Northeast are already starting to change. That means the holiday season is upon us. My friends at NetElixer, one of my favorite Paid Search partners, sent out this great email with a 9 week holiday planning calendar in it.
I like the NetElixer Calendar. Below I’ve added chart covering the key items you should consider for your holiday digital marketing plans
Date
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Key Holiday Actions
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Now to October 20
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- Build your Holiday Editorial Calendar for blog posts, social media engagement and blogger outreach
- Start communicating to your affiliates about holiday schedules
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October 23 to November 15
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- Early Emails. Keep your standard email schedule
- Offer special deal and vertical holiday email newsletters
- Coordinate offers with home page of site, PPC, blog, social, landing pages and outreach
- Landing pages with specific offers
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November 16 to November 23
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- Continue Emails, blog and social integration Push last minute shipping deadlines, let folks know when they will get their products
- Preview Black Friday offers
- Don’t forget to feed affiliates Black Friday offers
- Consider publishing Black Friday offers to Fans of Facebook and your favorite Affiliates early
- Make sure your customer service and support groups are educated ready to handle increased questions on products and offers.
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Black Friday through Cyber Monday
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- Monitor traffic, make sure everything is running correctly
- Note successes and disappointments. Plan for post CyberMonday sales
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November 29 to December 10
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- Adjust editorial calendar, posts, outreach and home page to reflect sales levels, competitors and any other relevant factors
- Last minute specials coordinated through all channels.
- Be sure to coordinate with product management and purchasing to identify last minute deals
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December 11 to 19
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- Critical to re-post shipping deadlines
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Have you built your holiday calendar yet?