While companies and consumers alike are adhering to strict guidelines and this “new normal,” the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has changed the last seven months with an unclear timeline of when companies and consumers will be back to normal, or ever really get back to normal again. 

In the midst of one of the biggest economic crises since 2008 and the Great Depression in the United States, companies might even be wondering if spending more money on holiday advertising is even worth it this year. 

However, in a recent survey, consumers are planning on spending just as much on the holiday season this year as they did last year. With companies having to minimize the number of patrons within their restaurants and store fronts, what is the next option? 

Go digital. In that survey, 66 percent of consumers plan on doing their holiday shopping online and 63 percent of consumers are more willing to spend money in stores with companies who have been taking COVID-19 seriously. 

With over $6 billion spent last year on Cyber Monday, and with a global pandemic at our doorsteps, consumers and companies alike cannot ignore their digital strategies. 

With this in mind, should a company increase their holiday marketing strategies and  spend? 

1. Dive into data first 

For any company curious about upping their holiday spending, make sure pandemic or not, that you always dive into previous campaigns and see the best budget that can be set. 

Did you spend X amount of money on a campaign in 2016 only to see it fall short? What about spending less money in 2018 and finding it yielded better results. What was different about the marketing campaigns and their overall strategies. Did you learn from 2016 and implement that in 2018. Did you try new directions of marketing and find yourself yielding those results! 

The best thing to do right now with COVID-19 in regards to marketing during the holidays  is to also review all your recent campaigns from the last seven months. While they are not holiday specific campaigns, they can provide any company with insight into their COVID-19 holiday marketing strategies. Which campaigns did better? Did you stop spending in X area and find yourself falling a bit short in sales and leads? 

Are their campaigns that blew others out of the water? If so, what would be the cause of that? While there isn’t always a 100 percent answer as to why some campaigns outperform others, it can be clear that those promotions and content is what consumers are looking for right now. 

How can you take those and implement them into marketing during the holidays? 

2. Speak with vendors, partners and fulfillment/ warehouse companies

With a coin shortage, Lysol and Clorox wipe shortage, toilet paper just coming out of a shortage and with selection in grocery stores being a bit smaller than normal, it is important to make sure your vendors, partners and suppliers are all able to get products in without any issues. 

With the supply chain and logistics industry at a bit of a rugged spot, understanding where each of your valued partners, vendors and suppliers are at will help you to understand how much more money on marketing you should spend. 

If they cannot handle over X amount of orders every couple of weeks or once a month, do not oversell and promise consumers products that might not get here before the holiday season. 

With this in mind, make sure to run the marketing campaigns as early as possible to avoid any issues with shipping and fulfillment delays that can happen. 

3. Your store front can still be critical in this process

Don’t get rid of your storefront just yet because this is the perfect solution for contact-less pick up and ordering options. 30 percent of consumers are planning on using contactless pick up options this holiday season to purchase from their favorite stores. 

4. Get your website in order 

There is no doubt that the rise of e-commerce popularity has skyrocketed in recent years, but this is even more so true with COVID-19. Any company that is selling products this holiday season has to make sure their website is ready for its online shoppers! This is because all marketing campaigns that are running live this holiday season need to link back to the specific products and promotions. Without that, it is impossible to track and measure and at the same time can be confusing to consumers. 

This means spending a bit more money on marketing whether it be outsourcing to a digital agency to handle all your graphics and website maintenance or social media marketing and PPC ads. 

Should you allocate more money this holiday season to your marketing? Only if it is possible with everything going on! Make sure to have all business aspects into place before deciding to spend more money on marketing your products, only to fall short. 

The thing is, if you do plan on doing this, start your campaign like yesterday!