3 Christmas Marketing Must-Do's – For Every Business
November 11, 2014 9:41 am
BIG Marketing ≠ Smart Marketing
Christmas is looming upon us once again and so begins the Advertising Warfare that has Marketers over-worked, over-caffeinated, and over-thinking the big and bold, in-your-face campaigns they hope will make their business stand out this year.
Maximum exposure for your business’s products is certainly key to driving sales over the coming months, but unfortunately 90% of retailers don’t have enormous advertising budgets to rival the likes of Coca-Cola’s “Holidays are coming” or John Lewis`s “Penguin Friend” Christmas adverts designed to make everybody feel like warm fluffy Christmas marshmallows.
The most common mistake made by businesses over the holiday period is disregarding the simpler marketing strategies in an attempt to outdo rivals` over-the-top marketing campaigns. Sure, these big, expensive adverts are great for building brand awareness, but they don’t necessarily convince consumers to fill their Christmas stockings with the brand’s products.
At Christmas, promoting the products you sell is a lot more important than promoting the brand. So this year, ditch the expensive newspaper, radio and television adverts in favor of simple, targeted, cost effective campaigns.
Ideas are Key 
What most flustered customers really need this time of year are ideas. So firstly, round up your staff for a brainstorming session and whip together gift recommendations, best-selling products, packages, offers, hampers, for him, for her and anything else you think would make a great gift.
Marketing Your Ideas
1. Create a Gift Guide
Gift guides are a great way to both showcase your store’s offerings and give loyal customers a helping hand. Guides can be tailored to suit stressed spouses, panicking parents or an even broader scope of gift-givers in search of the idyllic present.
There are plenty of ways to categorise your gift guide depending on what products you wish to promote, e.g. price, gender, stocking-fillers, electronics, gadgets, household, clothing and the list goes on. Be creative but specific. Headings such as “20 Gifts under €20”, “Tech Gifts under €50” are short, to the point and catch the eye.
2. Target Customers Directly
Christmas based mobile marketing campaigns are simple and extremely effective in targeting your customers directly. As a low-cost marketing solution with a 98% open rate, text messages ensure your Christmas offers will be read by your customer database, meaning you`re one step ahead of businesses using costly, immeasurable strategies such as flyers, newspaper advertisements and other traditional media. Below is just some of the essential information you can communicate to your customers over Christmas with bulk messaging.
• Christmas offers/promotions
• Gift guide announcement
• Christmas Sales
• Christmas opening hours
• New stock
• Gift cards
• Winter Clearance
• Christmas party offers
Mobile marketing is also ideal for distributing coupon codes and tracking conversion rates so you can analyse which campaigns work best.
If you have yet to build your store`s customer database before Christmas, you can gather numbers quickly by setting up a Text to Win campaign and put something up for grabs.
With good prize and no entry cost, you`ll have your database of loyal customers built in no time.
3. Create a sense of Urgency
The days leading up to Christmas is when your store can take advantage of the last minute shopping crusade. It`s at this point customers are beginning to panic as shelves and clothes racks are getting noticeably sparse with no more deliveries until the New Year.
Now is your opportunity to create a little urgency and make your store the last stop for shoppers. Using call-to-actions such as “1 Day Sale”, “Free Express Delivery Today Only” or “Last in Stock” are sure to drive sales on the build up to Christmas.
Get ahead by planning your Christmas marketing campaigns today, after all, “Tis the Season to be Jolly Spend Money!”
Categorised in: Marketing for Business, Mobile Marketing