Halloween is creeping up on us and Thanksgiving is closer than we think. The holidays – which often end up a month-long endeavor – will be here before we get the chance to catch our breath. While we have a moment, we should take some time to hash out some of this year’s holiday marketing ideas in advance. Don’t listen to the Scrooges – it’s never too soon!

1. Social media

Social media is arguably the best way to interact with new and existing customers.

• Choose a contest that will work well with the platform you are using and will appeal to your audience – photo, video, trivia, sweepstakes, etc. What usually works best is a contest that requires little-to-no effort on the part of your audience, like “enter for your chance to win.” The easier it is to participate, the more people will take part.
• Another great way is by sharing holiday posts. Pinterest is ideal for this: pin gift ideas, crafts, recipes and so on. You can share these posts on other social media, too, instead of having to dream up new posts for each platform.

Holiday-themed social media contests are a great way for your brand to stand out as fun and festive. They pave the way for referrals and social shares.

2. M-commerce

Holiday marketing efforts have already started going mobile. Have you? Last year, HubSpot reported that: 80 percent of holiday marketers would invest in a mobile or tablet application, up from 49 percent in 2011. Three in 10 multichannel retailers planned to their notify customers of their in-store Black Friday deals with mobile alerts, up from 18 percent from 2011. Fifty-seven percent of marketers used mobile-optimized websites and 50 percent used mobile advertising.

Judging by the increase in m-commerce marketing from 2011 to 2012, this year marketers will most likely either maintain the same amount of mobile methods as last year or increase them. Either way, make sure to leverage m-commerce methods.

• Give customers the option to create holiday wish lists or idea lists on your website via their smartphone or tablet and email or text them to friends and family.
• Make their experience especially smartphone-friendly by allowing them to drag and drop items into their wish lists.
• Offer exclusive deals via text message alerts. Invite shoppers to sign up for your text message service for exclusive, limited time deals.

These holiday marketing ideas could work especially well on Black Friday, Cyber Monday or the days leading up to Christmas. Customers will appreciate the convenience of crossing items off of their Christmas lists without having to leave the couch.

3. Web design

Another quick and easy way to show your customers your fun, festive side is to add some holiday spirit to your web design.

• This could be as simple as putting a Santa hat on your logo or changing your color scheme to include red and green.
• Apply this to social media profiles that allow for modification, like Twitter and Tumblr. The combination of a holiday-themed background and a few tweets or posts about your Black Friday deals could gain a few new followers.

Not to mention, the holidays make people happy and care-free, usually inspiring them to spend money on themselves or a loved one. It’s a perfect time for sales opportunities. Showing that you are getting into holiday spirit alongside your customers could help get them into more of a buying mood.

4. Landing pages

Landing pages are a perfect opportunity to target your holiday marketing. People tend to make quicker and easier buying decisions during the holidays as they are desperate to get their shopping done on time.

• Offer time-sensitive price incentives specifically designed for the holiday season for them to quickly act upon, such as “Get 40 percent off your purchase when you spend $50 or more before Christmas Eve” or “Ten Great Gift Ideas for Dad” with a list of your top-performing products.
• Offer a free gift if they make a purchase before a certain date, like a t-shirt or ornament.

These holiday marketing offers will inspire them to respond to your call to action when they see it instead of clicking away and forgetting about it. This will also give you an opportunity to show off your best products.

5. Marketing emails

Holiday marketing emails allow you to nurture visitors who haven’t yet made a purchase and rewarding existing customers with exclusive offers that they can’t refuse.

• Help them cross items off their shopping lists and wish lists by sending emails with offers and incentives for the items they’ve searched for on your website.
• Remind existing customers that the holidays are coming up quickly – you could even give them a countdown – and offer them an exclusive, limited time coupon or coupon code that can only be used until a certain date.
• Link to seasonal or holiday-related blog posts.

I agree, all of this in one month sounds like a lot of work. But just like with holiday shopping, if you act ahead of time and put the proper planning in place, you can get it all done in time to kick back and eat some snickerdoodles.