Top Christmas marketing tips for your business

In many areas of retail, Christmas shopping accounts for between 40-80% of annual sales.  Now if you own a business that doesn’t operate in the retail arena. Does this mean you don’t have a fantastic opportunity to boost your business this time of the year? with our top Christmas tips, you can!

Well if your Christmas spirit is in short supply, as it clearly is for the writer responsible for a recent trending article The cutesification of everything makes me want to strangle an elf. Or, if you are simply unsure of how you can make the festive season work for your business, then the team in The Formations Company have an early present just for you…

We’ve put together these top Christmas tips on marketing your business. We’ve focussed on the easiest and quickest ways to give your business a touch of festive sparkle, so you can make the most of the run-up to the festive season and into the new year.

Send cards to your customers or clients

Show your customers that you value their loyalty by sending out Christmas cards. This is also a great way to put yourself in their mind when it comes to Christmas shopping. You can use the card to let them know about things like the time frame and mechanics of any Christmas promotions you’re running.

If you want to save time, money and the environment, then why not send out e-cards instead? Companies like Jacquie Lawson offer fantastically animated e-cards. You can save time by sending out to a whole mailing list, or pick out people your more familiar with and send them a personalised message.

Show your generosity

Christmas-time is the season of goodwill, so get into the spirit by doing something good for charity. Not only is this a genuinely enjoyable and satisfying thing to do, but it will also show your customers that you’re a business that has positive values. Plan a fundraising event and invite your customers or even donate a percentage of your holiday sales to a charity. Make sure you keep your customers up to date with how much you raise; it’s a good way of staying in touch with them over the holiday season.

Run special offers and services

Christmas is the period when people are willing to spend, so make sure you attract them to your business by offering them some incentives. These could be special offers like free gifts when they make a purchase at your store, or discounts when they buy multiple products. Include services that make Christmas shopping more convenient for your customers such as gift wrapping and free or next-day delivery. By doing this, you’ll make your business the first place people think of when they start doing their Christmas shopping.

Bring back the 12 days of Christmas

Keep the festive period going for longer by celebrating the original 12 days of Christmas. Historically, the period from December 25th and January 6th was celebrated as being part of Christmas, so use these days to carry on the buzz and interest around your products. One fun idea is to create a virtual advent calendar for the 12 days and offer a reward to customers on each of those days, such as discounts, deals or even a small free gift.

Rebrand your products for Christmas

Snowy weather, sparkling decorations, presents and warm fires – the thought of Christmas conjures up a huge variety of visual associations. These associations can be used as a marketing tactic for businesses as if you use images typically associated with Christmas in your branding, customers and more likely to think of your products when they’re looking for Christmas presents.

Obviously, this tactic isn’t applicable to every product or company. However, in many cases, you can subtly rebrand an item to make it appeal to customers as a potential gift. You could do this by reshooting photographs in a festive setting, rewriting your descriptions, or even by giving your shop or website a Christmas makeover. Once potential customers see your products in a Christmassy context, they’re much more likely to consider them as gifts.

Make sure you have a festive online presence

It’s estimated that 86 percent of customers browse online before making a purchase. So even if this isn’t the platform you use to sell your product, it’s important that you have a good website that will attract customers looking for Christmas present ideas online.

Thoroughly check through your website and make sure that it’s easy to use. The key is to think about the process that a consumer goes through when they look for a product. What are they looking for and is it easy to find? Is there an adequate amount of information available on each product? Is the process of buying it straightforward? These are some of the questions you should ask yourself when evaluating your website. Ultimately, your goal is to make the journey from landing on the website to purchasing a product – whether online or in store – as easy as possible for your customer.

You should also try to give your website a subtle festive makeover in the run-up to Christmas. To make sure customers think of you when they’re looking for Christmas presents. This could be anything from a festive-themed background for your homepage to re-shooting your product images in more Christmassy settings. You should also add details of your Christmas delivery policy and any offers you have on to your website.

Did you enjoy these Christmas tips? We have a new list of Christmas marketing ideas for your small business and many other resources on our blog and help center to help you run a successful business.

Published Thursday, January 3, 2013