It’s easy to get side-tracked on your holiday planning with so much going on today – especially if you don’t have a plan to follow. We’re here to help. Over the next two months, we’ll be sharing 100+ tips and advice from our Account Managers and Client Strategists to give you a roadmap for a successful holiday season.

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Get the full 100+ tips now or follow along with our series.

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‍There could be unique challenges this holiday season. Katherine Brown, Enterprise Account Director, advises that organizing and thinking ahead are key to holiday success.

Here are some of the key areas you can focus on now to ensure success during the holiday season:

• Ensure you and your team see the big picture with a holiday marketing calendar. Execute from it each day as it will help you map out daily, weekly and monthly campaigns while tracking deadlines, ownership, messaging, budget, and goals.
• Begin the process of updating your creative assets with a festive look and feel. Holiday designs for broadcast emails, triggered messages, and onsite popups all should be ready-to-go.
• Prepare 1-2 “oops” messages so you can quickly respond to an issue or mistake during the season. Creating this now will avoid panic later.
• Focus on growing your SMS subscribers now via your social and email channels. You’ll want to launch early Black Friday deals via SMS, and other exclusive or last-minute holiday specials throughout the season.

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We all know this holiday won’t be “business as usual,” and eCommerce shopping will likely set new records. While this may sound nerve-racking, Kris Fulton, Director of Client Services, says a win for Retailers will be in their ability to stay flexible and pivot quickly in the face of changes. She also advises not to walk away from past success.
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Here are three strategies that should be at the top of your list this season:

• Win the inbox battle by leveraging customer and behavioral data to increase targeting and personalization to stand out from the vast increase of messages during the holidays.
• Mobile, mobile, and mobile – Help your customers transact quickly from any device. Be sure to test the customer experience from your email or SMS to purchase conversion to ensure a seamless experience.
• Leverage SMS for instant direct communications with your customers – Consider adding SMS messaging to support order confirmation, order ready, and order pick-up messages to promote ease of shopping.

To get all 100 tips and advice, download our Holiday Marketing Guide.

More tips are coming soon.