Christmas spells a huge opportunity for businesses. Aussies collectively spend an estimated $25 billion during the festive season, making it a key time of year for sales in many industries.
The countdown to Christmas is well underway, which means it’s time to brush off your marketing handbook and get your strategy sorted for the holidays.
Wondering where to start? Follow these 12 Christmas marketing tips.
1. Schedule your social media posts
If you’re planning time off over Christmas, plan out your social media posts ahead of time so you can keep up engagement over those important holiday periods. Many social media platforms enable you to schedule posts to be automatically published on a date and time of your choosing – so you can have all your Christmas social media activity taken care of in advance.
Social media scheduling apps like White Pages Connect also allow you to manage and schedule posts on multiple platforms from a single dashboard. This is especially useful if you plan to run a Christmas marketing campaign across multiple social channels.
2. Get into the festive spirit with your branding
Spreading the Christmas cheer is a great way to humanise your business, and adding a touch of festive goodness to your brand will show that you’re approachable. Get into the spirit of the season by adding a Santa hat, bauble or Christmas lights to your logo – and even consider introducing Christmas-themed design elements to your social media posts or website.
3. Make your marketing content relevant and valuable
Think about ways you can demonstrate value to your audience with seasonal content that ties back to your business’ products or services in some way. For example, if you’re an accountant, this might mean sharing a guide to creating a gift budget. If you’re a personal trainer, it could be a free diet and exercise planner for Christmas. As long as your content is relevant and useful to your audience, the rest is up to your imagination.
4. Plan your customer service approach
Have a plan in place for when a customer wants to contact you while you’re closed over the holidays. This could be an automated email response or holiday voicemail, or you could leave a contact number for emergencies. Most importantly, though, remember to clearly communicate to customers when and how you’ll be available over the Christmas period.
5. Update your opening hours
Remember to update your opening hours for the Christmas-New Year break anywhere they’re listed, including your Google My Business listing, White Pages listing, your website and social media pages.
6. Automate your marketing emails
Automating emails will make your life as easy as possible over the Christmas period. Most email marketing platforms allow you to design and schedule emails to be sent out at specific times, so you can automatically let your customers know about seasonal sales or special deals. You can also set up emails to be sent any time a subscriber takes a specific action, such as adding an item to their cart or making an enquiry on your website.
7. Give back with a Christmas competition
Drive engagement and grow your brand goodwill by running a competition on social media offering to make one person’s Christmas wish come true. This might be a free makeover, bathroom renovation, backyard clean-up – anything that relates to your business’ products or services. Remember you can also use the competition form to grow your customer database.
8. Introduce seasonal offers or deals
Everyone loves a bargain, and Christmas is one of the biggest sales periods of the year – so it pays to make sure you have a plan in place well ahead of time. Bundling products or marking down surplus stock can be a great way of boosting sales with minimal effort, especially when customers are looking to buy gifts.
9. Donate to charity
Cause-related marketing is one of the most effective ways to build a more positive perception of your brand. With Christmas being the season of giving, it’s an excellent opportunity to show your charitable side by making a donation to a charity, or even offering to match donations from your followers on social media.
10. Give a little gift to your customers
Keep your business at the front of customers’ minds with a little gift like a candy cane, personalised card or stocking filler with every purchase. You could include a gift for every customer up until Christmas Day or reward people who spend a certain amount – it all depends on what works for your business.
11. Get your delivery method sorted
If your business delivers goods, make sure to have a Christmas delivery plan in place ahead of time as you’ll most likely be receiving more orders than normal and delivery services will be busier. It’s also helpful to give customers a guaranteed date they can place an order by to receive their goods before Christmas.
12. Make a post-Christmas and New Year’s plan
If you’re fortunate enough to attract new customers over the Christmas period, make sure you have a plan for how you’ll re-engage them after the silly season is over. This might mean offering discount codes, sharing useful content via social media or sending personalised, relevant emails. The aim here is to turn seasonal buyers into loyal long-term customers.
Save time and get organised for Christmas with White Pages Connect – your single point of control for managing your business info and posts across social media, search engines, apps and maps.
