Every December we hear some version of the same sentence: “We should have started earlier.” The ads were approved late, the gift cards were not on the website yet, the email list had not heard from the business since spring, and by the time anything went out, the customers had already made their plans.
The holiday season on Long Island does not start at Thanksgiving. For most businesses it is decided in October and early November, when people are still deciding where the party is, who is catering the office lunch, and which shop gets the gift list. This year the calendar is tight: Thanksgiving falls on November 26, which puts Black Friday on the 27th, Small Business Saturday on the 28th and Cyber Monday on the 30th. That is a short run to Christmas, and it rewards whoever is ready first.
Here is how we would spend the next seven weeks.
Now: fix what customers will actually touch
Before you spend a dollar on promotion, walk through the path a holiday customer takes, on your phone, as a stranger.
Your Google Business Profile. Add your holiday hours now, including the days you close early, and check that the photos are this year’s and not three renovations ago. It is the first thing most people see, and wrong hours in December cost more than any ad will earn. We wrote a whole piece on why your profile is the best free marketing you have.
Gift cards. If you sell them, they should be buyable on your website in under a minute, deliverable by email, and linked from your homepage and your profile. A gift card that needs a phone call is a gift card somebody bought somewhere else.
Booking and ordering. Private parties, catering trays, holiday appointments: whatever people will want, they should be able to request it online at eleven at night. Online booking is your new front door, and in December the door gets a lot of traffic.
Your landing pages. If you run a holiday offer, it needs its own page that says exactly what the offer is, not a link to the homepage and hope. We covered why in where your ad clicks should land.
None of this is glamorous, and all of it compounds. Every campaign you run in November sends people through these four places.
Late October: warm the list before you sell to it
The worst time to email a customer list for the first time in six months is the week you want something from it. If the last message people got from you was in May, send something useful in late October that asks for nothing: the holiday hours, a new menu item, a behind-the-scenes photo, the date your party packages open.
It does two jobs. It reminds people you exist before the noise starts, and it tells the inbox providers your list is alive, so the messages that matter in November actually land. If your list needs a cleanup first, email marketing for Long Island businesses covers the basics.
The same goes for social. Post the things that make people want to come in, not the discount yet. The discount comes later, and it works better when the audience already has you in mind.
Early November: book the calendar and set the ads
This is when the plan should be written down, with dates:
- What you are offering, and to whom. Party packages for companies, gift cards for families, a Small Business Saturday event for the neighborhood. One clear offer per audience beats five offers to everybody.
- When each message goes out, across email, social and your profile. Put them on a calendar so nothing depends on somebody remembering on a Friday afternoon.
- What the ads are for. Holiday ad auctions get crowded and expensive, so every campaign should point at one offer and one page. Launch in early November so the campaigns have time to learn before the prices climb. If you are new to paid search, start with Google Ads for Long Island businesses.
If you only have budget for one channel, pick the one your customers already use to find you. For a restaurant that is usually search and maps. For a boutique it is often Instagram. For a B2B firm sending gifts, it is email and a phone call.
Thanksgiving week to New Year: run the plan, answer fast
Once the calendar is set, the work shifts to execution and speed. The messages go out on schedule. The ads get checked every few days, not every few weeks. And every inquiry gets answered quickly, because in December the person asking about a party for thirty is asking three other places at the same time. We make that argument in detail in speed to lead.
Two small habits pay for themselves here. Reply to every review that comes in over the season, good and bad. And keep a running note of what sold, what did not, and what people asked for that you did not have. That note is next year’s plan.
What to leave alone
It is tempting to try everything at once in the busiest season of the year. Resist it. This is not the month for a new website, a rebrand, or a platform you have never used. Changes that big belong in January, when you have time to do them properly and nothing depends on them working the next morning.
The businesses that do best in December are not the ones with the biggest budgets. They are the ones whose hours are right, whose gift cards work, whose list remembers them, and who answer the phone.
If you want a second set of eyes on your holiday plan, or want us to run it, talk to us. We would rather help you in October than hear “we should have started earlier” in January.
