If you don't have your holiday marketing strategy locked in yet, you need to get moving. Christmas is now less than 70 days away, and the peak shopping period is even closer - so if you want to make that end of year push, now is definitely the time to begin. 

To help boost your holiday marketing process, Facebook recently published its 2019 Holiday Marketing Guide, which outlines a range of stats and insights to help improve your approach.

You can download Facebook's full guide here, but here's an overview of some of the key elements.

First off, Facebook outlines six key holiday marketing trends of note for 2019, including the rise of Stories, messaging, and other key consumption trends.

The usage of Stories and messaging is a big focus, with Facebook providing a range of tips to help brands maximize their Stories usage for their seasonal promotions:

Definitely, Stories usage is on the rise, and with new tools like Facebook's recently announced Stories templates, there are more ways than ever for brands to incorporate Stories into their broader digital marketing approach.

Additionally, Facebook also has a dedicated set of holiday-themed templates for use across its platforms.

Messaging is another area where Facebook says brands should be looking, with the use of messaging for brand interactions also on the rise:

"More and more customers have begun reaching out via messages. In fact, 20B messages are now being sent every month between people and businesses on Messenger. That’s a tenfold increase in just three years. Furthermore, 65% of holiday shoppers report being more likely to shop with businesses they can message."

Messenger hasn't become the all-purpose business tool that Facebook had hoped when it first launched its Messenger Bots platform, but it does still hold potential to help brands establish direct connection with customers, and those connections formed can be utilized further after the initial event.

Facebook also provides several holiday campaign planning templates, and calendars to map out your approach.

And given that shopping activity is peaking earlier each year, it's worth establishing a dedicated plan - for example, take a look at this chart of shopping activity around Black Friday.

Facebook also provides insights into Instagram usage for holiday shopping, noting that 130 million Instagram users tap on a shopping story every month.

There are some important considerations noted here, some key elements you need to take into account to maximize your holiday campaigns. 

Even if you're confident that you know what your approach will be, it's worth taking a look at the guide and seeing the various insights shared - and considering if and how it might fit with your approach.

You can download the full "Facebook Holiday Marketing Guide 2019" here.