The countdown to Christmas is officially on, and many small businesses should start thinking about their marketing campaigns to help them boost sales over the festive period.
Typically the start of the festive season begins with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is quickly followed by the whole of December. There are no end of campaigns that take place at this time of the year, so we have decided to share our 10 favourite Christmas marketing ideas with you for a little inspiration to help boost your sales.
Set your goals!
The very first thing you need to sort when planning your Christmas marketing plan is to set out your aims and goals. Having a SMART goal is the best way to make sure your ideas and plans are targeted and get you where you want to be for New Year.
Update Imagery
One of the most simple ideas is to update your banners and other images on both your website and social channels. Adding a touch of festive cheer is a great way to attract more customers to shop with you for their Christmas presents.
Not only can you update the static images on your website and social profiles, but your social posts can really perform well with a touch of festive cheer!
Utilise Your Email Database
Email marketing is such a valuable marketing tool at the best of times, but if used correctly it can be vital to your Christmas sales.
Before you start sending out emails, we recommend that you segment your data to make sure you get the best results from each email you send. These segments are:
Lapsed customers
Loyal customers
New business leads
If you are a little stuck on inspiration, here are a few ideas for emails to send to your database:
New customer welcome emails
Feature email of products
Christmas Offer emails
Christmas gift buying inspiration emails
Review email after holiday sale (customer happiness)
Related products to the purchased product emails
Advent Calendar
A tried, tested and firm favorite Christmas marketing campaign has got to be an advent calendar. These can be done in a few different ways, but are all very effective at increasing sales, visibility, social followers and your database over the festive period.
One of our favourite formats is a 24 day countdown with offers, discounts and prizes for your customers.
Share Holiday Themed Updates
Content marketing has a general rule that 80% of social posts or blogs should provide value to your customers' lives and only around 20% should be sales focused. It is very common for this rule to bend slightly over the Christmas period - but we recommend trying hard not to only post self promotion and still try to provide useful content too.
The Gift Guide
Gift guides are a really great idea to give customers some present inspiration, all while highlighting your products and promotions.
We would recommend creating your gift guide as a landing page with links to the products that feature, then you can promote this landing page via social media, emails or even paid ads.
Gift guides translate really well on all platforms, increasing your visibility, traffic and overall give a boost in sales.
Multi Business Giveaways
Who doesn’t love a giveaway? And teaming up with some fellow small businesses not only increases the prize bundle, but it also increases the eyes that see your products.
Giveaways are a really nice yet simple method of increasing social follows, site visits or email sign ups.
Countdowns
Adding a countdown to your site introduces the element of urgency to make a purchase. According to a survey conducted by Whichtestwon, adding a countdown timer, on the average, increased a business’ revenue by as much as 9%.
Countdowns work really well on many different pages on your website and also within emails. At Christmas it works very well to add a countdown to the last day an order can be placed to get delivery before Christmas.
Recommended Products
A lot of orders over Christmas will likely be gifts for people and chances are pretty high that they have more than one person to buy for.
Adding a “People also bought” or a “You may also like” section on the footer of a product page or on the checkout page is a really helpful tool. This idea will help to increase average order value and highlight products that people may not have otherwise seen.
Gift Cards
Gift cards are the perfect gift to buy when you don’t know what to buy someone. It is a good idea to have a giftcard all year round, but really really good to promote them over the Christmas period. A banner or image on the homepage directing people to them works really well.
Not only does a gift card cover many bases for an indecisive shopper, they are ideal for the last minute shopper. They can also be promoted once the last date for a physical delivery has passed via all channels as they can be delivered virtually via email.
Don’t forget after-Christmas sales & promotions
Once you have implemented one or all of the ideas above, it is really important to remember to continue your marketing activity during that weird time between Christmas and New Year. This time period is a great time to continue to boost your sales.
This is the time when people are not at work, but relaxing with their families and spending a lot of time on their phones. A post Christmas sale is a really good way to get the final sales before the new year.
These are just a few of the great marketing ideas that can help to boost your sales over Christmas, there are so many others out there. Timing and organisation really is key at this time of year. If you would like some support in planning and executing your plans for a Christmas campaign, get in touch to see how we can help your small business.
About the Author
Fi is a freelance digital marketing consultant with over 10 years worth of experience. A mum to a boy and a girl, Fi started consulting after having her first child and during the first lockdown in the UK. She is currently helping small businesses with a range of digital services including social media, email and copywriting.
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