Holiday planning in August? YES, friends. For too many years, too many of us don’t start thinking about holiday promotions and marketing until we see the big box stores roll out their holiday messaging. Then we start scrambling to throw something together that ends up half-baked and not nearly as effective as we know it could be. Want to know how to avoid that this year? Start thinking about it now!

In my experience, the best time to start officially launch your holiday marketing campaign is on November 1, right after Halloween. That’s when customers are starting to feel the holiday spirit the second they leave the house. But if you can get to them before that in an email – chef’s kiss!

So if you want your promotions to start in November, you have to start creating them and getting them ready to launch in September and October. But you need to make some decisions before then. That’s why NOW IS THE TIME to start planning for the holidays!

Here are a few questions to ask yourself THIS MONTH, so you can start preparing all of the elements of your campaign next month and have everything ready to go by November:

• What products or services do you want to highlight this holiday season?
• What kind of promotions do you want to run? Discounts? A special deal on a service package? Free gifts? Decide on the specifics.
• Are you going to participate in Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday? Plan out how you want to structure your deals and discounts and what should be offered at each sale milestone.
• How, and how often, do you want to communicate with your audience? What do you want to do for your newsletters, sales emails, and social media posts? How can they support each other?
• Are there any partnerships you can take advantage of? Holiday festivals where you can have a booth? A local Chamber of Commerce event you can get involved in? Check the dates, rates, and start reaching out now if you want to participate.
• Do you plan to run any ads on social media or elsewhere? Get a plan and budget together.
• Do you need a special photoshoot to highlight your products or communicate your message? Figure out the details, set a date, and get it in the works now!
• Are there any influencers in your niche that create gift guides for the holidays? If you want your product or service featured, contact them now to start the conversation.
• How can you feature your product or service using video? Thinking about reels and short form videos now will save you so many headaches down the road!
• What is your holiday branding going to look like? What separates your product now from the rest of the year? Will you have special packaging? A new color palette? This will help you design all of the images and graphics related to your campaign.

Have you ever noticed that stores like Anthropologie have a special holiday shopping bag design that coordinates with their emails, social posts, and their ads? It all ties together beautifully! All of that is decided a year (or more!) ahead of time.

So why think about Christmas in August as a small business owner? Because you will end up more prepared, less stressed, AND you will have the most profitable holiday season yet. Now that sounds like something to celebrate!