ePresence built a five-phase seasonal campaign that started earlier than in any previous year and coordinated every channel around a single set of messages and dates.
1. Campaign planning and website preparation (October). Seasonal products were added to the store, promotional messaging was developed and a homepage ticker was introduced. The rationale was to build awareness before demand arrived, and to have the website fully ready rather than catching up once orders started.
2. Website merchandising and promotional updates (late October to November). Ongoing merchandising kept seasonal offers highly visible on-site, so traffic arriving from any channel landed on a store actively selling Christmas rather than requiring customers to go looking for it.
3. Email marketing (November to December). A structured email programme encouraged early ordering, promoted seasonal products, provided genuinely useful preparation advice and reinforced the key ordering and collection dates. Email carried the early-ordering message because it reaches an audience that has already bought before.
4. Meta advertising (November to December). Paid social drove qualified traffic and sustained visibility throughout the buying period, rather than concentrating budget into a short burst, complementing the email programme instead of duplicating it.
5. Ongoing optimisation (December). Promotions were refreshed through the month to maintain momentum and keep the campaign relevant as customer intent shifted from browsing to ordering to final collection dates.
The critical decision was treating these five phases as one campaign rather than five workstreams. Every channel carried the same offers, the same key dates and the same urgency, at the same time.
