2018 Holiday Marketing Guide: How to Prepare & Promote

Most businesses spend each new year's beginning developing a plan for the coming months. This program serves as a high-level guide to help you reach significant milestones for your business. Without it, goals are worth nothing more than the digital screens on which they're displayed.

So how do you create a dynamic promotional plan and calendar to reach your marketing goals for 2018 -- especially by leveraging time-sensitive events like holidays, major events, and seasons? Here are five steps:

How to Create a Promotional Plan

1 - Outline Succinct Goals

Before you create your plan, outline your business' top marketing goals for the year. Your goals need to be specific, measurable, and time-bound so that you can choose the right promotional strategies and appropriately measure the success of each goal. For example:

1. Gain 3,000 Facebook likes in 2018
2. Increase an email list by 45% in 2018
3. Increase new customer sign-ups by 15% in 2018

2 - Set Your Marketing Budget

The cost of running a promotion varies widely depending on tactics used to reach your marketing goals. A photo contest might cost you nothing more than a few hours of administration time and the cost of one product to give away. Meanwhile, a sweepstake for a lifetime supply of your best-selling product might cost thousands of dollars. Also, consider how seasonally relevant content or promotions might factor into your budget as some quarters or months may require a heavier spend. For example, if you sell tax software, you might want to budget for a promotion at the end of March versus a promotion in August.

4- Choose Promotional Tactics That Fit Your Goals & Budget

You've set up goals and a budget. Now it's time to decide what promotional tactics are most beneficial for your business. To start, take inventory of what you've done in the past, examine what worked. Then use those examples to explore new promotional tactics that help your business grow in the coming fiscal year. For example, you want to increase Facebook page likes. You might use a coupon campaign that asks the user to like your page before entering to receive the coupon code. Or, you could host a sweepstake where users earn additional chances to win by referring friends to the campaign.

5 - Build a Promotional Calendar Around Holidays & Events

Next, you must operationalize your goals and tactics by putting them on a promotional calendar. Before mapping this out, consider essential holidays and events that occur throughout the year. Capitalizing on major holidays and events to create content or promotions that attract additional coverage and awareness for your brand is critical. When done correctly, seasonal promotions result in higher engagement and conversion rates. Why? People are already focused and interested in the event. But remember: Quality seasonal marketing requires more foresight and creativity than simply publishing a topical post or promotion. First, said marketing should internalize and honestly relate to the holiday and your industry or product. If you achieve this, customers can make a connection, and the marketing is more likely to resonate. So keep the content interesting, useful, or entertaining. Last but not least, you probably want to avoid 100% on seasonal content -- your promotional calendar should also have time-tested, evergreen content. A kind of relevant content your audience doesn't quite get anywhere else, if possible. Take a look at the following calendar with crucial marketing holidays in 2018 -- keeping in mind the importance of choosing relevant seasonal holidays and events for your promotional efforts; these holidays will most resonate with your core audience.

JANUARY

Jan. 1 - New Year’s Day Jan. 7 - The 75th Annual Golden Globes (NBC) Jan. 10 - People’s Choice Awards  Jan. 9 - 12 - Consumer Electronics Show (CES)  Jan. 15 - Martin Luther King Day Jan. 15 - Australian Open Jan. 21 - SAG Awards Jan. 28 - The 60th Annual Grammy Awards Jan. 31 - Total Lunar Eclipse

FEBRUARY

Feb. 2 - Groundhog Day Feb. 4 - Super Bowl 2018 Feb. 5 - 16 - New York Fashion Week  Feb. 9 - 25 - Winter Olympics Feb. 9 - 14 - Rio Carnival Feb. 12 -13 - Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show  Feb. 13 - Mardi Gras Feb. 14 - Valentine’s Day Feb. 16 - Lunar New Year Feb. 18 - Daytona 500 Feb. 19 - President’s Day Feb. 24 - Chinese New Year Parade  

MARCH

March 4 - The 90th Academy Awards  March 9 - 18 - SXSW March 11 - Daylight Saving’s March 17 - St. Patrick’s Day March 21-23 - Global Pet Expo March 29 - MLB Opening Day March 30 - April 7 - Passover March 30 - April 2 - NCAA Final Four March 30 - Good Friday

APRIL

April 1 - Easter April 1 - April Fool’s Day April 5-8 - PGA Masters April 7-8 - USA Science & Engineering Festival April 11 - Stanley Cup Playoffs April 13-22 - Coachella April 16 - Pulitzer Prize Announcements April 18 - Tax Day April 22 - Earth Day April 26-28 - NFL Draft 

MAY

May 4 -5 - Kentucky Derby May 8-19 - Cannes Film Festival May 13 - Mother’s Day May 18 - June 14 - Ramadan  May 19 - Armed Forces Day May 19 - Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle May 19-22 - National Restaurant Show May 21 - June 10 - French Open May 27 - Indianapolis 500 May 27 - Scripps National Spelling Bee Week May 28 - Memorial Day May 31 - NBA Finals

JUNE

June 10 - Tony Awards  June 14 - Flag Day June 14-15 - 2018 FIFA World Cup June 15 - 2018 NHL Draft  June 17 - Father’s Day

JULY

July 2-15 - Wimbledon  July 4 - Independence Day (U.S.) July 7-28 - Tour de France July 15 - 22 - 147th The Open

AUGUST

Aug. 2-5 - Lollapalooza  Aug. 9-13 - Perseids Meteor Shower Aug. 27 - Sept. 9 - U.S. Open  Aug. 29 - Sept. 2 - Burning Man

SEPTEMBER

Sept. TBD - 70th Emmy Awards Sept. 3 - Labor Day Sept. 9 - Grandparent’s Day Sept. 10-11 - Rosh Hashanah Sept. 11 - Patriot Day (9/11 Remembrance) Sept. 19 - Yom Kippur Sept. 22 - Oct 7 - Oktoberfest Sept. 27-30 - Ryder Cup 

OCTOBER

Oct. TBD- 2018 Nobel Prize Announcements Oct. 8 - Columbus Day Oct. 16 - Boss’ Day Oct. 19-23 - Diwali  Oct. 20 - Sweetest Day Oct. 23-31 - 2018 MLB World Series Oct. 31 - Halloween Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 - Dia De Los Muertos

NOVEMBER

Nov. 4 - Daylight Savings Time Ends Nov. 6 - Election Day Nov. 12 - Veteran’s Day Nov. 22 - Thanksgiving Nov. 23 - Black Friday Nov. 26 - Cyber Monday

DECEMBER

Dec. 2 - 10 - Hanukkah Dec. 6 - Saint Nicholas Day Dec. 7 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve Dec. 25 - Christmas Day Dec. 26 - Boxing Day (CA) Dec. 31 - New Year’s Eve

Parting Words

Stay tuned for month-by-month guides (Like January 2018 and February 2018 ) with even more information on essential holiday and hashtags!

The Woobox blog is here to help you succeed in your marketing efforts. Learn more about how you can leverage giveaways, coupons, and instant wins; user-generated content and contests; polls, quizzes, and games; landing pages, downloads, and forms; and Facebook page apps with your seasonally inspired events to reach your marketing goals this year!