5 Christmas Marketing Ideas To get You Ready For The Season
I mean who doesn't love Christmas? A time of celebration, relaxation and joy. But as business owners in order to get all of that, we need to ensure we have what we need in place. Not only is Christmas an opportunity to gain more sales, it's also a season that is VERY busy.
So if you are thinking of winding down over Christmas then hopefully these 5 Christmas marketing ideas will help you to achieve this. You can use this as a guided list to your marketing strategy, checking in to ensure you don't burn out or have unhappy customers.
1. Plan Ahead For Christmas
I mean when do you start your Christmas shopping? According to Yesmail Interactive, 38.1% of people start their Christmas shopping before November, meaning 69.8% of people are starting their Christmas shopping before the 1st December.
This means in the 3 month run up to Christmas nearly 70% of shoppers are in the Christmas buying mood.
This is why it's so important to think about your Christmas marketing and plan ahead. You need to be thinking about the services or products you sell, how you could maybe bundle these up into packaged gifts, how your messaging may need to change to talk more on who it's best suited for and so forth.
As the stats say as of September you want to start nudging your Christmas materials into your marketing. Here are a few ways you could:
1. Start thinking About SEO
Have a look at your product descriptions and landing pages and think how you can tweak the content. For example you could start making content about the perfect gift for her or the best secret santa present. By tweaking your messaging and adding in those important keywords you could increase the chances of people finding, meaning you'll be making you more sales.
2. Images
Remember your shop front is the internet so spice up your website and socials by adding in a few Christmas props to start nudging people in the direction to be thinking about Christmas. The key point here is if the shops are doing it, you most probably should be also. I know when I go to the shops I see a mix of Halloween and Christmas and my mind definitely sways towards Christmas.
3. Dates For Your Christmas Diary
And then the most important part to your Christmas marketing is DATES! Make sure you have your key dates in place like when the last order is, if your return policy has changed over the period, when you will be closed and so forth. It's important to communicate them well with the customers so they know how to factor this into their own shopping. Again when it comes to communicating dates this can be done across your website, on your social media channels and even in your email marketing.
2. Give Your Website A Festive Make Over
Now we have briefly touched on this Christmas marketing idea in terms of images but it's super important to not only make your shop front (website) an image overhaul but also to think about the flow and strategy of your website.
A successful marketing strategy is crucial to your general business success. It helps you see how your products or services fit into your target market and communicate that to your potential customers. It requires thoughtful planning and intentional execution.
It’s no different when it comes to Christmas sales. With the right strategy, you can leverage this time of the year to engage customers, boost sales and keep business growing into the new year.
So don't only think about changing the images on your website but also think about how you could mix up your call to action buttons. Maybe you have products or services that would better sell at Christmas? Think about these and make them a priority on your website, ensuring they always stand out.
3. Make It Relevant To Your Customers
Noone wants to just see “pink candle” Cinnamon cake” or “website audit” . That's boring. Jazz up your content and make it click worthy. Using the examples above turn your normal “pink candle content” into “sprinkle a sparkle for her this Christmas” make your product worthy of a gift and tell your audience who its best for. Just by making that switch we know this candle is going to light up a room and bring joy to a woman, whether it is a mum, daughter, girlfriend or wife.
Using an example for the service based on “website audit” you could turn this into something festive like “shine a star on your website” and then talk about how having the audit will help them uplift their website to be better.
The key point is to really speak directly to your customer and answer their Xmas shopping problems. Don't just say your product is a good gift. Say who it is a good gift for.
4. You Don't Need A Promotional Offer In Your Christmas Marketing
I get it, everyone is doing a black friday sale, two for one, January sale, end of season sale and EVERYTHING in between. But don't feel pressured into events like this. If you know the value of what you sell and how it can truly help your customers then it's ok to keep at full price. Instead remind your audience of the importance of shopping small and how your offer truly will help them or a loved one this Christmas.
5. Prepare Your Christmas Marketing With An Audit
And that leads us to our last and final Christmas marketing ideas. Audits…Now when you have many more orders then normal you have the pressure of ensuring things go right. So my recommendation to you is to do an audit. I suggest doing an audit on all your marketing in terms of how customer journeys flow from your social media to your website or your email newsletter to your website but most importantly audit and test your website.
As you make changes or add new products to your website, test your purchase journey and ensure the add to cart works, the buy now button works, you receive a confirmation email and so forth. Whatever your buying journey may be, ensure its setup for smooth sailing ready for when the traffic increases.
I hope you have found these 5 Christmas marketing ideas useful to help you on your business journey and as always if you are ever in need of a little support my one to one marketing strategy is here to help.
