Holiday shopping doesn’t start on Black Friday anymore. It starts the first time a customer goes looking, and plenty of them go looking in October: comparing local shops, saving gift ideas, and signing up for early access lists.
By the time November arrives, the businesses those shoppers find are the ones that did the unglamorous work weeks earlier. Their Google profiles are up to date, they have a steady stream of recent reviews, their email lists have grown, and a month of content is already scheduled.
This guide is a holiday marketing plan built around one question: when people start looking, will they find you? October is for building visibility, November is for launching, and December is for staying in front of the people you’ve already reached.
If you’re still sorting out your offer, inventory, and shipping cutoffs, start with our six-week Black Friday prep guide. This article picks up where that one leaves off: getting people to show up.
Key Holiday Marketing Dates for 2026
Put these on your calendar first. Everything else in your plan works backwards from them.
| Date | Day | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving (Canada) | Monday, October 12 | Kicks off the season for Canadian shoppers |
| Halloween | Saturday, October 31 | A low-stakes test run for seasonal content |
| Thanksgiving (US) | Thursday, November 26 | Early deal browsing starts at home |
| Black Friday | Friday, November 27 | The biggest online shopping day of the season |
| Small Business Saturday (US) | Saturday, November 28 | Built for local and independent businesses |
| Cyber Monday | Monday, November 30 | The online follow-up to Black Friday weekend |
| Giving Tuesday | Tuesday, December 1 | A natural moment for cause-based campaigns |
| Hanukkah begins | Friday, December 4 (sundown) | Eight nights of gifting |
| Christmas Day | Friday, December 25 | Your last-shipping-day deadlines land before this |
| Boxing Day | Saturday, December 26 | A major sales day in Canada, Australia, and the UK |
| New Year’s Eve | Thursday, December 31 | Year-end offers and a “thank you” moment |
October: Build Visibility Before Searches Peak
October is for the work that takes weeks to pay off. None of it involves a discount, and all of it makes your November campaigns work harder.
Get Your Google Business Profile Holiday-Ready
For local businesses, your Google Business Profile is often the first thing a holiday shopper sees. It shows up before your website, in Google Search and Google Maps. Here’s what to check now:
- Set your holiday hours. Add special hours for every day you’ll close early, open late, or close completely. Wrong hours on a busy Saturday cost you the sale and earn you a bad review.
- Refresh your photos. Add current shots of your storefront, your team, and the products or services you’ll be featuring this season. Profiles with fresh photos simply look more active.
- Publish a post. Profile posts let you share updates, events, and offers right in your listing. Start with something useful, like new seasonal stock or a holiday event date, and save any sale announcements for November.
- Check your details everywhere. Your business name, address, and phone number should match exactly across your profile, your website, and local business directories.
If your profile needs more than a tune-up, our guide on how to set up and rank your Google Business Profile walks through it step by step, and our local SEO guide covers the rest of your local search presence.
Ask for Reviews Now, Not in December
Holiday shoppers compare options quickly, and recent reviews tip the decision. The catch is timing: reviews from October customers are the ones November shoppers will read. If you wait until December to ask, you miss the window when it matters most.
- Ask within a few days. Send the request while the purchase or appointment is still fresh. Our review request email examples give you wording you can adapt in minutes.
- Make it one tap. Share a direct link to your review page by email or text, or print it as a QR code at your counter.
- Don’t pay for reviews. Offering discounts or gifts in exchange for reviews breaks Google’s policies and can get reviews removed. Ask every customer, not just the happy ones.
- Reply to every review. A calm, specific reply to a negative review often reassures shoppers more than another five-star rating.
Your best reviews shouldn’t live only on Google. Pull a few into short customer testimonials for your homepage, product pages, and holiday emails.
Grow the List You’ll Email in November
Your email list is the one holiday marketing channel you own outright. No algorithm decides who sees your message, and no ad auction sets the price. It’s also the channel most businesses start working on too late. You can’t collect a list in the week you need it.
So spend October growing it:
- Give people a reason to join now. “Sign up for our newsletter” is easy to ignore. “Get early access to our holiday sale” or “Get our holiday gift guide first” gives people a reason to sign up in October.
- Put the form where people already are. Add signup forms to your homepage, your most-visited pages, and your checkout. Offline, add a QR code to receipts, packaging, and your counter.
- Point your social profiles at it. Use your bio link and a pinned post to send followers to your signup page.
- Get clear consent. Tell people what they’re signing up for and keep a record of it. Anti-spam laws like CASL in Canada and CAN-SPAM in the US set rules for commercial email, and clear opt-ins also keep your list healthier.
For more tactics, see our guide to building an email list. Once people sign up, send them something useful before you send them a sale. The Black Friday prep guide covers how to warm up your list before the big sends.
Plan Your Social Calendar (Let Halloween Be the Warm-Up)
Holiday social media goes much more smoothly when you plan it in October and batch-create it, instead of writing a post each morning in December. A simple plan is two or three posts a week through the end of the year, built around a few repeatable themes:
- Behind the scenes: packing orders, prepping for events, your team getting ready.
- Gift guides: “gifts under $50,” “for the person who has everything,” or whatever fits what you sell.
- Customer stories: reviews, photos, and testimonials (with permission).
- Countdowns and reminders: event dates, early access openings, and last-order dates.
Halloween makes a good warm-up. It’s lighter and lower-stakes than the big shopping days, so it’s a good time to try new formats, like a poll, a short video, or a photo contest, and see what your audience responds to before November. Our Halloween social media post ideas will get you started.
Tighten the Trust Signals Shoppers Check First
When a shopper finds a business they haven’t bought from before, they look for reasons to trust it, usually in a few seconds. Holiday traffic brings more first-time visitors than any other time of year, so it’s worth checking the basics:
- A professional email address. A message from orders@yourbusiness.com looks far more trustworthy than one from a free webmail account, and it’s less likely to be mistaken for a scam in a crowded inbox. Here’s how to send a professional email that looks the part.
- Visible reviews and testimonials near the places people decide to buy.
- Clear contact details and policies: a phone number or chat option, plus easy-to-find shipping and return terms.
- The padlock: make sure every page loads over HTTPS.
Our checklist of trust signals every website needs goes deeper if you want to review your whole site.
Pick a Campaign URL People Can Remember
If you’ll promote your holiday campaign offline, on flyers, window signs, radio, or packaging, a long URL like yourbusiness.com/collections/holiday-2026 won’t stick. A short, memorable campaign domain will.
The simple approach is to register a campaign domain and redirect it to the holiday page on your main website. People get an easy address to type, and your main site keeps all the search visibility and trust you’ve built. Our guide to choosing a domain extension can help you pick one that fits.
November: Launch in Sequence
With the groundwork done, November is about showing up in the right places in the right order.
- Early November: announce what’s coming. Tell your list and your followers when your holiday promotion starts, and remind new subscribers what they signed up for. Update your Google Business Profile with a post about upcoming events or seasonal products.
- Mid-November: open early access. Let subscribers and past customers in first. It rewards the people who joined in October and gives you sales before inboxes get crowded. Our breakdown of when to send Black Friday emails maps out the send times for the big week.
- Small Business Saturday (November 28): lean local. Small Business Saturday rewards the businesses shoppers already know. Post it on your Google profile, invite your list, and share what makes you local: your team, your neighbourhood, your makers.
- Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday: close the weekend. Remind shoppers who didn’t buy on Friday, then give Giving Tuesday a real cause behind it, like a donation per order to a local charity or a drive at your location.
Throughout the month, reuse what’s working. A review that gets shared on social can go into your next email, and a post that performs well can become your pinned post.
December: Stay Visible Through the Last Shipping Day
A lot of businesses go quiet after Cyber Monday. Don’t. December shoppers are running out of time, and they buy from whoever makes it easy.
- Lead with deadlines. Publish your last order date for delivery before the holidays and repeat it in emails, social posts, and your Google profile.
- Give late shoppers an option. Gift cards, digital products, local pickup, and booking vouchers are all things someone can buy on December 23 and still give on the 25th.
- Keep your hours accurate. Update your Google Business Profile for Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Eve.
- Don’t forget Boxing Day. If you sell in Canada, Australia, or the UK, December 26 is its own shopping event.
- Thank your new customers and ask for reviews. December buyers can write the reviews that carry you into the new year.
January: Keep What Worked
Before you pack away the season, take 30 minutes to write down what happened. Next year’s plan starts here.
- Which channels drove visits and sales? Check your analytics for traffic sources, and your email platform for the campaigns that converted.
- Which social posts got the most engagement, and which formats should you keep using?
- How many new subscribers and reviews did you collect? Welcome your new subscribers into your regular newsletter so they stay on your list after the holidays.
- Reset your Google Business Profile hours and take down expired holiday posts.
Your Holiday Marketing Plan at a Glance
| Month | Focus | Key tasks |
|---|---|---|
| October | Build visibility | Holiday hours and photos on your Google profile; start review requests; grow your email list; plan and batch-create social posts; check trust signals; set up a campaign URL |
| November | Launch in sequence | Announce early; open early access; Black Friday and Small Business Saturday; Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday |
| December | Stay visible | Last-order dates everywhere; gift cards and pickup; accurate holiday hours; Boxing Day; thank-you emails and review requests |
| January | Keep what worked | Review channel results; welcome new subscribers; reset hours; save next year’s notes |
Make Your Business Easy to Find, and Easy to Trust
The tools behind this plan are simple, and we can help with all of them:
- Business Email and Microsoft 365 [link]: send campaigns and customer replies from an address on your own domain.
- Website Builder [link]: put together a holiday landing page from a template in an afternoon.
- Do It For Me (DIFM) [link]: short on time this season? Our design team can build it for you.
- Domains [link]: register a short, memorable campaign domain and point it wherever you need it.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should a small business start holiday marketing?
Start your visibility work in October: update your Google Business Profile, ask for reviews, and grow your email list. Those tasks take weeks to pay off, so they need to be underway before shoppers start comparing options in November.
What’s the most effective holiday marketing channel for a small business?
For most small businesses, it’s the combination of an email list you own and, for local businesses, an up-to-date Google Business Profile. Email reaches people who already know you, and your profile reaches people searching nearby.
How can I market my small business locally for the holidays?
Keep your Google Business Profile hours, photos, and posts current. Collect recent reviews, make sure your details match across directories, and plan something specific for Small Business Saturday.
Do I need a separate website for a holiday campaign?
No. Keep your holiday page on your main website so it benefits from the visibility you’ve already built. If you want an easy address for print or signage, register a short campaign domain and redirect it to that page.
