Q4 2023 - Post 3: How to Build Your Q4 Campaign Calendar
Build a Q4 calendar that maps out all your different marketing activities and who needs to do what around the different phases of the BFCM holiday season.
Create a Q4 calendar that maps out landing pages, ads, and emails based around the different phases of the BFCM holiday season. Then share it with your team to avoid anyone looking like this come December…
đź’ˇ Pro tip: try to colour code or visually differentiate marketing activities (email, creative, paid ads, website, etc) to make it easier for your team to interpret at a glance.
The typical BFCM phases we look at for our clients are:
1. Pre-Holiday: October
Adjust goals and budgets to reflect the fact that most prospective customers turn into window shoppers in October. Add to carts typically increase while conversion rates decrease.Â
Your goal for October should be to collect as many email addresses and drive new, qualified customers to your site so you can retarget more aggressively during BFCM.Â
Plan on ramping up email campaign cadence to prep the list and get users engaged ahead of the sale emails.
HOT TIP 🔥 October is a great time to promote gift guides as a lead magnet, especially if your products are popular gifts for the holidays.
2. Pre-Black Friday: Early-to-mid November
Continue investing in prospecting to build up retargeting audiences as you gear up for Black Friday Cyber Monday.
This is a great time to promote early access for VIP customers or email subscribers that opt-in. It’s also where you can run the first part of your tiered offer if you’re running promotions throughout November.Â
3. Black Friday: Week of November 21st to 27th
This is the week we’ve been preparing for, where emails, ads, and landing pages are aligned to convert prospects and existing customers easily and efficiently.
October and early November are about acquiring visitors; Black Friday is the time to convert them. It’s important to refresh your ad creative ahead of the big week as well to make sure you’re avoiding ad fatigue from those retargeting lists.
Make sure to keep your team on the same page with a solid communication plan so nothing falls through the cracks when website, inventory, or customer service issues arise.Â
4. Cyber Monday: November 28th to 30th (if extending your holiday sale)
Cyber Monday was our top performing day of the year across clients last year, and is a great time to roll out your best offer of the year for anyone that’s been holding out. Cyber Monday is the time your offer should peak, especially if you’ve been pacing tiered offers that have continued getting better throughout November.
Extended holiday sales running to the end of the Cyber Monday week are also increasingly common to to incentivize any stragglers with last chance messaging to purchase before it’s too late.
Giving Tuesday (November 29 this year) is a date to keep in mind during the holidays as well, especially if you’re looking to contribute to charitable causes with revenue driven from Black Friday Cyber Monday.Â
5. Christmas: last minute gifting & shipping cut-off deadline
While December can offer a brief breather following the hectic holiday push, it’s also an important time to promote last minute gifting opportunities and shipping cut-off campaigns.Â
From there, you can shift your focus to any post-holiday offers and start preparing for the New Year.
Once you get the calendar set, it’s important to share with your team and stakeholders so everyone’s on the same page with dates and deadlines leading up to the most intense shopping holiday of the year.
Calendar is set, but how do we communicate these updates with our customer lists? Check out our 10 Email Marketing Strategies Your Brand Needs in Q4.