Now is the Time to Prepare for Q3 & Q4

In the past few years, when did you start working on your holiday marketing campaigns? 

Did you start in Q3? Did you wait until Q4? 

If you started in either Q3 or Q4, we’ve got news for you: You aren’t quite starting early enough.

Q2 is the time to prepare for year-end campaigns, and it’s essential to start prepping for your holiday marketing campaigns that will run in Q3 and Q4 now. 

We can help you get there, and in this post, we’ll give you the steps you need to complete by the end of Q2 to stay on track— even if you’re feeling like 2022 is off to a slow start.

Why Brands Need to Prepare for The Holidays Now 

Many brands spend the entire month of November running Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) promotions. That’s waiting too late.

You need to start earlier for several reasons, including the following: 

• It’s important to know which promotions you plan on running so you can check inventory and get your campaigns strategized, created, and ready to go 
• You can avoid potential significant bottlenecks that could impede sales potential
• You can test campaign strategies or creatives in advance, making it possible for Google and Facebook to have plenty of information on your ideal audience for more optimized and stronger campaigns 

Waiting until the last minute is common, but if you want to sell big in Q4, you need to be getting ready now. 

What You Should Do to Prepare By The End of Q2 

Let’s prepare for Q3 and Q4 by going over what you want to knock off your to-do list by the end of Q2. 

These are the seven steps we take for all of our clients by the end of Q2 in order to finish out your year strong. 

1. Determine What Promotions You Want to Run 

What products or services do you plan on prioritizing in Q3 and Q4? 

What deals are you planning on offering and when?

Look at your own sales data from the past, and data from other companies to see what offers were trending during the holiday season. A few quick searches on Google can help you see the best BFCM deals from years past as a starting point. 

 Make sure that your offers are competitive enough to stand out. 

2. Know Which Platforms You Want to Market On & Focus on Growth Now 

Most marketing platforms need momentum to get you where you want to be. 

I always tell my clients that if they want results from content marketing in three months, we needed to start yesterday. 

And most brands can’t start a new email list, for example, and have 500 subscribers tomorrow reading their first newsletter.

Want to run lots of retargeting campaigns using email for the holidays? Create lead magnets and start promoting them now. Have opt-in forms on your site and competitive offers to encourage subscription. 

3. Assess Your Budget & Plan for Allocation 

Do you know how much you want to spend and where you want that money to go?

This is a crucial part of planning. Do this now so you can plan accordingly for the rest of the year, and don’t forget to account for costs like getting help from an agency or a copywriter. 

We’ve got resources for planning your marketing budget here. 

4. Start Testing Campaigns on Individual Platforms 

It’s important to start learning what works for you on the strategy and creatives side, too.

Examples include:

• Does longer or shorter copy work best for your business with Facebook Ads?
• Are users more likely to open email subject lines of a certain character length? And what about with or without emojis? 
• Which keywords on Google Ads bring in the most high-value audiences, and what negative keywords drive irrelevant traffic that you want to eliminate? 

It’s also crucial to know that PPC platforms need time to learn about your brand and your audience in order to optimize the campaigns correctly. That optimization is crucial to getting you better results, so in addition to your own tests, you want to give Google or Facebook enough time to learn about your audience. 

Start teaching Google and Facebook about who your high-value customers are so they’re ready to go come the sales season. This is as simple as running campaigns promoting the products or services you want to go all-in on later in the year. 

5. Do Your Keyword Research 

Running Google Ads? 

Do your keyword research now. It’s time-consuming and you’ll want plenty of runway to test different keywords and keyword strategies.

Google’s Keyword Planner is a great tool that can give you insight into keyword forecasts and trends. 

It can also show you bid ranges, so you can get an idea of what your budget could get you. This can help you prioritize high-value keywords in advance. 

6. Start Creating Your Campaigns Now 

We’re big fans of being as prepared as possible here at Disruptive Advertising. 

So go ahead and create some of those email campaigns.

Load your ads into Facebook or Google on a schedule so they can be approved and ready to go.

Have blog posts written, and landing pages created. 

Even if there are any delays, this will make sure that you’re still ready right on time.   

7. Find an Agency if You Haven’t Already 

Don’t have a top-rated, results-driven marketing and PPC agency? Now is the time to find one.

And if you do have one already, make sure you like the one that you have. 

Working with an agency early gives you plenty of time for onboarding and allows them to test out different strategies to see what resonates with your audience.

Make sure that you’re choosing a top-rated, established, and proven agency with plenty of experience. 

Here at Disruptive Advertising, we’ve audited over 3,000 companies’ digital marketing strategies, run over 100M+ in annual ad spend, optimize thousands of web pages, and send tens of thousands of emails, texts, and chats each year. There are hundreds of thousands of data points we analyze, and we’ve learned from it all to be ready to help you. 

You can learn more about us here. 

4 Things to Keep in Mind for the End of the Year 

As the end of the Q2 approaches, our team at Disruptive Advertising had four things they recommend all businesses keep in mind for the end of the year:

• Have a plan for your promos, including how many you’re going to run, what type you’ll be running, and why you’re running them. Consider documenting this and mapping it all out.
• Know your inventory inside and out. What’s going to be available? What may run into issues with supply chain delays? Your inventory needs to be big and reliable if it’s going to be a cornerstone item for your holiday promos. 
• Look at past Q3 and Q4 promotions that have worked with. What is it that you’re trying to accomplish, and what campaigns have driven those results in the past? Do you want to increase customers, move people from single purchase to subscriptions, or increase your profit margins or market share?
  Start backwards, and look for the campaigns that helped get those results.
• Factor in changes in consumer behavior. COVID-19 had a big impact on consumer behavior. More people shopped online, and economic concerns changed what people were spending money on. Keep an eye on this, and take that into account. 

Final Thoughts 

As the end of Q2 approaches, it’s imperative to be ready for Q3 and Q4. 

Are you ready? 

If you’re not, we can help. We’re ready to get your campaigns in shape at every touchpoint so you can sell more and increase your customer base, sales, and profit margins this holiday season. 
Need help getting ready for the Q3 and Q4 season so you can end 2022 on a strong sales run? Get your free audit from our expert account managers here.