Christmas time is a marketing goldmine, everyone is upping their offerings and consumers are more open to seeing advertisements as they reach the gift-giving season. Equally, businesses are looking into new services that could boost their productivity in time for the new year. So, it’s time to take advantage of the festive season and prepare your Christmas marketing campaigns. Follow our top 10 tips and get business rolling in before the year is out.
1: Market the Modern
There is no point in recycling Christmas content from 2014. It’s 2022, keep things with the times. We’re talking up-to-date photography, hopping on the latest trends and updating all your copy to be current. Ensure you’re advertising your products and services, so they are relevant to current consumers and their current needs.
2: Remove Barriers
Consumers go for convenience. With 100 things on everyone’s December to-do list, you’ll want to make it as easy as possible for people to buy your products/services quickly and efficiently. Remove any obstacles that might get in the way of them completing an order. If your website has slow load times, for example, then a potential customer might give up trying before they get to check out.
3: Be Seen
Ensure your SEO is up to scratch. Search engine optimisation will ensure search engines rank your website well. Therefore, you will appear highly on search results. As everyone ups their game in time for Christmas, it’s important to make sure you’re delivering SEO that will keep your business seen amongst the crowds. Don’t let other companies outshine you on SEO, it could mean you lose out on customers to your competitors.
4: Personalise your Campaigns
It sounds cliché but people love the flattery of personalisation. Target your customers directly with personalised content. Use names within your email campaigns to capture attention, re-target using personal deals such as ‘We’ve noticed you looked at this product, why not have 10% off’, or promote your products with omnichannel experiences by allowing a person to start a buying process on one channel and pick up where they left off on another.
5: Stock Up
If you’re in the business of retail, the most important thing you can do for your business is make sure you’re stocked up. Be prepared for lots of orders and ensure your best-sellers are going to remain available. Don’t put in all the work with your marketing and then run out of products three days into your campaigns.
6: Content for Christmas
We don’t mean to point out the obvious but bring the festivities into your Christmas marketing. Everyone loves the run-up to Christmas, so play on that love and make your product or service the ideal Christmas investment for consumers. Whether you’re B2C and selling the latest, luxury watches, or you’re B2B and selling a SAAS product, bring your product/service to the forefront of the customer’s mind when they think about Christmas this year.
7: Set Goals
Keeping your objectives in mind when preparing your Christmas marketing will ensure you, and your business, are kept on track. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) targets are a good way to decipher what you want and how you’ll get there. For instance, if you want to increase your sales by 2x the previous month to ramp up profits in the run-up to Christmas, you can set this as your goal and measure how your business is delivering on it. Knowing whether your targets are being met or not will help keep your marketing moving in the right direction.
8: Reduce, Retarget, Reap the Benefits
Trust us, everyone loves a good deal around Christmas time. If it makes financial sense too, think about what promotions and offers you could run in the lead-up to Christmas. Everyone is looking to get the best bargain possible, as gift giving can get very expensive as it is. At the same time, if you’re B2B, businesses are coming to the end of their yearly budgets and most likely won’t be able to afford the big service purchases. Make the decision easier for them by offering a deal they can’t pass up on.
9: Avoid Becoming Spam
The temptation to inundate your customers/clients with your Christmas marketing content is real. However, whilst you want to stay in the minds of consumers and be consistent with your marketing, you want to opt for quality over quantity. Make sure your content is relevant and holds a purpose. Sending out an email every day, without saying anything new or of value, can put customers off. Plan the emails you want to send and when you’re going to send them. Ask yourself ‘what is the purpose of this email’ and ‘what objective do we want to achieve through sending it.’
10: Keep it Fun, Keep it Festive, and Keep it on Brand
The most important thing is to keep people’s interest and keep the core of your business at the heart of all your Christmas marketing. Cater to the wants and desires of your customers/clients and bring Christmas cheer to all your festive campaigns.
