Blog Post

How to Evaluate Your Holiday Marketing Efforts

Amber Blevins • Dec 24, 2020

Holiday marketing often starts months before the actual holidays. Business owners everywhere spend warm, summer afternoons thinking about the snowy Christmas season and planning their marketing strategies. Then soon after, the first steps of their plans are put into action.

When all is said and done and the holiday rush has passed, many of these same business owners look at only one statistic to measure their success—sales. Sure, evaluating your sales is fundamental, but that figure alone isn’t giving you a full picture of the effectiveness of your holiday marketing campaign.

It’s better to review the effects of each aspect of your marketing strategy. This not only helps you make more sense of your current sales numbers, it helps you better plan for next year’s holiday season.

Track the Number of Sales to New Customers

Tracking the number of new customers you gain during the holiday season has a distinct advantage. This is a time when more people are in the market for basically... everything, and it seems nearly everyone is willing to spend money. Keeping tabs on the number of new customers you manage to attract, and who those consumers are, can help confirm you’re targeting the right customer base and buyer persona (or not.)

This valuable nugget of information will help you plan your marketing strategy for the upcoming year.

Track the Number of Sales to Existing Customers

The new customer logic works similarly for existing customers. While this is a customer group that isn’t going to change, the way you interact with them could. If sales to existing customers are down during the holidays, you’ll need to reevaluate your approach. Perhaps your communications weren’t effective or the services you‘re offering aren’t in line with what your existing customers want.

No matter the case, use the busy holiday season to understand what your existing customers are looking for and apply that not only to next year’s holiday marketing, but also to the upcoming year’s marketing strategy.

Check Your Email Metrics

Email marketing during the holidays can be tricky. Consumers’ inboxes are usually overflowing during this time, as many businesses ratchet up their email campaigns. But while competition is fierce, your chance for a positive return is great too, since so many people are actively shopping and looking for deals.

Keep tabs on your email metrics, particularly open rate and click rate. These numbers, combined with your other marketing stats, will help you not only understand your holiday success but will also aid in planning your future email campaigns.

Analyze Your Website Traffic

Understanding your website traffic is an integral part of your marketing strategy at any time of the year. But the holidays can offer a unique perspective simply because internet traffic increases during the holiday season.

Check out your SEO stats, compare your holiday numbers to your numbers for the rest of the year. Learn how consumers are finding their way to you and pay close attention to how they interact with your website. This will give you insight not only on the effectiveness of your SEO, but also your site’s user experience.

If you find your website isn’t producing quality leads during the holidays, that’s an indicator that it may be under-performing the rest of the year, as well.

Gauging Your Marketing Results

Some businesses look to sharply increase their sales during the holidays; others simply want to maintain consistent sales because the holidays are a slow time for their business vertical. And some businesses may have altogether different goals for the holidays.

Before you dive into the facts and figures of your marketing stats, remind yourself of your business’s original goals and examine the results through that lens.

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