If you run a business, regardless of what products and services you may offer and sell, you will no doubt be well aware of the importance of the holiday season on your bottom line.
If you think, as a customer, that the use of Christmas as a promotional tool starts earlier every year, then you need to spare a thought for just how long any of these promotions have been gestating before it reaches you.
Businesses will always look to generate interest in sales they offer and promotional material, but the key to doing so effectively usually lies in the form of some sort of hook. It’s the organic way of making such promotions seem less forced in nature, and there is great value in consistent dates in the calendar, such as Christmas, when it comes to forming a strategy that works.
Here are some tips we feel may help you make the most of the upcoming festive season.
Start Early
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Whatever the size of your business, you need to be way ahead of the curve when it comes to your Christmas promotion and marketing plans. If you are not planning ahead, you only have yourselves to blame for any shortfall you suffer in terms of revenues and profits.
Sit down with your relevant departments and map out what you can do this year and the costs of such exercises versus the likely revenue generation from these efforts.
Maybe this year, you can put together that online commercial you’ve been discussing for so long. Putting together a professional-looking advert is easier than ever, and the costs associated with doing so are only getting lower.
Get a team to help you with this; if you don’t already have an in-house department, maybe splash out by using some great royalty-free Christmas music to give the promotion an extra festive touch.
Be Creative
An effective Christmas promotional plan is your company’s chance to think outside the box and stand out from the crowd. This is especially true if you operate in a space or niche that is jam-packed with competitors.
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Maybe this means pushing your budget in order to be more visible in the marketplace or bringing in outsourced elements to push even harder.
Use Social Media Effectively
One of the best things about social media marketing is the fact that everything, literally everything, is measurable. That means you can extract key data about anything you do on these channels and, therefore, better plan for the future, and it’s crucial you do so.
You should be sure to treat social media networks such as Facebook as separate entities as they do not behave in the same way, and you need to therefore adjust your planning accordingly.
Try to make your social media holiday promotions ones that stand out by giving them room of their own. For instance, producing season-specific landing pages will be more eye-catching than simply adding a few elements to what you currently have on site.
Using countdown clocks, pop-ups, and effective CRM systems to hammer home the message is also a no-brainer and should be in place long before Christmas comes around the corner.
Follow Through On Promises and Make Sure Your Delivery Chain Works
Make sure that the offers you have are ones you can actually follow through on, as failing to do so can do serious reputational harm. For instance, if your e-commerce platform promises delivery of items within a certain time frame, make sure that isn’t an empty promise.
Similarly, make sure that the offers you make are ones you can stick with and won’t have to backtrack on.
Don’t Overextend Yourself
Christmas might well be a period where you expect to secure a large percentage of your annual revenue and profit, and that may well mean you are able and willing to go the extra mile when it comes to the amounts you are investing in promotional and marketing activities but make sure you don’t overextend yourself in the hope of really making a massive profit (which may or may not materialize).
Treat New Customers and Existing Ones The Same
A common complaint, which straddles many industries and niches, is the fact that companies go all-in on their efforts to bring in new business and sometimes do so at the cost of the customers and clients they already have.
This might mean offering promotions and deals only to new customers, or it might mean you completely ignore your existing customers entirely. This is a surefire way to ruin any brand/customer loyalty you might be looking to retain or build.
For holiday periods, it’s very important to include your current clients in your activities. That might mean ensuring your CRM systems are geared the right way. It might mean making it clear on your online assets that promotional codes and deals are valid for signed-in users.
Whatever you do by way of Christmas promotions, make sure everyone feels included and no one feels left out.
Countdown
In order to maximize the effectiveness of the holiday season, make sure to count things down to make the connection between your company and the festive period as solid as possible. Make any such efforts colorful and exciting, give your customers a reason to stick around, and look to foster the goodwill and added positivity that tends to linger in the air during this period.
