There is less than 12 weeks until Christmas, which means you need to start planning your holiday marketing campaigns. If you start strategizing early, you will have a solid plan in place that will build your brand awareness and increase sales by December 1.
Fun fact: Holiday shoppers start buying presents as early as October, which means your marketing campaign should be prepared and finalized by the end of September to make the most of the Christmas season.
Three things to focus on during the holiday season:
- How to make your brand stand out during Christmas
- How to use email marketing
- 3 Christmas marketing campaign ideas
Stand Out:
Stand out during the holiday season by adding Christmas flair to your branding! Is there a way to make your logo and branding more Christmassy by adding a Santa hat, Christmas lights or snow flakes? These added features capture the holiday spirit and will make your customers notice the effort. You can also incorporate the holiday feel to your social media accounts.
Although it does cost some money to re-brand for a holiday theme, it can be re-used year after year.
Another thing you can do to get into the holiday spirit is update your website to cater to the festive season! This not only helps gets customers in the mood, but it humanizes your brand. If you offer products, consider building a section on your website called gift guides or gift ideas, highlighting special products that sell well during the Christmas season.
Another fun way to stand out is changing your packaging to suit the holiday theme. By adding snowmen or snowflakes to the item makes it extra special. Custom packaging will help create a memorable unboxing experience.
Use Email Marketing:
Email marketing during the holiday season is essential to increase sales and build brand awareness. As usual, I am talking about frequency! Create a focused campaign to promote items and sales, and to share important information such as extended hours. Important tip: Use a catchy email subject line to capture attention, such as “Yule Adore our Wrapping Tips”.
3 Holiday Promotion Ideas:
1/ Holiday promotions are key to boosting sales and awareness during this season. Although it’s a bit overdone, the 12 Days of Christmas campaign does very well, receiving a lot of attention. The limited time offers create a strong sense of urgency that helps sell products. Of course, you can use advent themes that have a similar effect.
2/ Consider a Buy One/Give One campaign. The holidays get people into the generous mindset, and the ‘gift of giving’ campaign helps incentivize your customers to make a purchase. This also helps build awareness and increase donations for a charity. This is a great way to give back to the community.
3/ Incentive Purchase – Persuade your customer to buy a product by offering a gift with the purchase. It could be as easy as “if you buy a $50 gift card, we will give you an extra $10!”, or it could be giving a holiday ornament with a sale over $30. It just takes a little offering for someone to justify a purchase.
The festive season is the perfect time to promote your business and drive sales and awareness. Most of the ideas I listed above can be easily adapted for all types of businesses and industries, and can be used across all marketing channels.
Christmas is around the corner, so start planning your holiday promotion and building your strategy soon! If you need help, I would love to sit with you over a drink and talk about what kind of marketing would best suit your business.
