Six Christmas marketing tips for your business

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Christmas is a time for many retailers and small-business owners to boost their turnover and profits. But as technology evolves, it’s important to create and execute a strong Christmas strategy (across multiple channels) that communicates how your business can solve your customer’s (or desired customer’s) buying problem as easily and efficiently as possible.

Here are six marketing areas to consider as you ramp up for Christmas.

  1. Christmas buying starts earlier
    As US sales’ periods like Black Friday & Cyber Monday infiltrate our countries spending habits (spending in Australia was up 28 per cent in 2018 during this weekend), it’s important to position your store (whether online or bricks & mortar) and capitalise on this period.
  2. Solve your customer’s problem
    Remember that Christmas shoppers are looking to purchase gifts easily. Make the shopping experience a seamless one and you are already solving multiple problems for the customer.
    Before you commence any of your campaigns, consider what problem your business can solve for your dream customer. Is it fast delivery? Last-minute delivery? What age group is your gift idea suitable for? Does it meet a price point?
  3. Analyse last year
    Research is always important before any strategy or campaign. Look at your results from last year, and identify what worked and what didn’t. Understand where your traffic was directed from and when it was at its peak during the Christmas sales period. Identify when customers started their Christmas shopping. If there were abandoned carts, how much was lost in potential sales? Such data will give you a strong understanding of how your shoppers think and purchase. It will also allow you to further refine your marketing strategy and increase your conversion rate further.
  4. Think outside the gift box
    Create a strong Christmas campaign that highlights your brand and stands out. Christmas will see an increase in marketing noise and you want to ensure your campaign doesn’t get lost amongst all the rest, particularly in your industry.
  5. Keep Christmas consistent
    Branding is crucial at this point of year. You want your audience to identify your business and relate it to the campaign they saw. Ensure your Christmas branding is across all of your marketing material from your website, social media (posts as well as cover photos etc.), electronic direct mail, in-store point-of-sale and (if applicable) packaging. Make sure to incorporate a special Christmas hashtag for your brand, so that you can easily find and share customer’s gifts after they are opened on Christmas day.
  6. Email effectively
    Personalise your emails for that extra special touch and make the customer feel like you appreciate their business. Use email segmentation to your advantage to ensure the right emails get in front of the right customer. Create eye-catching and timely subject lines to really capture your audiences’ attention during a time when marketing messages is at an all-time high. Consider daily deal emails to drive traffic to certain products you would like to push and offer one-day-only specials to create a sense of urgency in your customer to buy what you are selling. It’s also important to create a strong follow-up email procedure for basket abandonments with reminder emails with perhaps a further discount or offer to entice them to make the sale as quickly as possible.

By taking these steps you will be ensuring your products are under the tree, in the stocking, or on the table come Christmas Day and your business will have a very Merry Christmas in 2019.

Demelza Leonard, digital marketing and social media expert