Christmas marketing ideas for small businesses
Christmas is an excellent opportunity for increased sales. It is important that businesses have the products and the infrastructure to cope with increases in demand. Christmas is typically the largest economic stimulus for many nations, as sales increase considerably in almost all areas of retail. Businesses across the country prepare for the all-important period in the retail calendar. Given below are holiday marketing ideas that would be helpful for small businesses to implement in order to avoid seasonal troubles .
1) Christmas email – Emails are the most easily-customizable tool for the holiday season. The mail does not have to contain sale-oriented content. Simple good wishes during the festive season can be a nice gesture.Different graphic forms and layouts can be used to fit festive emails. The main idea is to maintain a relationship with customers and recipients, and to elevate the image of a business in their eyes. For instance, Parts Town took a less traditional and more cheeky angle for their Christmas email. Their email included a reminder that Santa was not the only busy person on the big day.
2) Dress up social media channels in a holiday style – To make sure that a business exudes festive vibes, it is important to give its websites and social media channels a makeover for the holiday season. It is as important to decorate online platforms as it is to decorate brick-and-mortar stores. However, the seasonal updates should not be introduced too soon. A holiday banner can be created featuring a gift guide and special products. Businesses can also use animation like snowball effects on their websites to get web visitors in a festive mood. It is not necessary to limit designs to the festive colors of red and green. Other colors can be used too, as long as they are in harmony with brand colors.
3) Offer incentives – To encourage customers to buy, there are several ways to use incentives. A gift-card promotion can increase revenue over the holidays. They are attractive to shoppers who are not sure of what to get for their loved ones. It is wise to advertise gift cards, whether they are physical or digital, and to promote them through a web store or on social media platforms. Other types of incentives could be free shipping, coupon codes, free wrapping, a discount, or anything else that customers would be happy to receive.
4) Organize social media holiday contests – Contests are a cost-effective way to attract new customers and generate hype around offers during the holiday season. There are numerous ways to design a contest. For instance, businesses could organize a photo caption contest or ‘tag a friend to win’ contest. The rules of these contents should be simple and clear for customers. For instance, The British Hamper company organized a simple Christmas contest. In order to enter, the participants had to comment on the holiday post of the business. The post received considerably more engagement than their typical social media updates.
5) Join forces with other small businesses – It would be wise to work with other small businesses during the holiday season, espcially with businesses whose products and services are complementary. For instance, fashion boutiques and dry-cleaners can work together.The aim for the complementary businesses would be to offer bundled deals which effectively promote each other and encourage customers to support both.
