Tips on how to create effective Christmas marketing
Business Growth is never by chance, it is the result of forces working together – James Cash Penney
James was right on the money when he said this in relation to growing a business. This quote couldn’t be more true than when we talk about marketing a business. Many businesses try to grow without marketing at all or fail to have consistent marketing strategies.
A great marketing campaign provides communication with customers that is very clear, consistent, and timely.
With the festive season in full swing, how can you create an effective Christmas marketing plan?
Let’s start at the beginning of modern marketing, it is thought to have started during the Industrial Revolution, circa the 18th century. Purchasing goods became easier than making them. Mass production really kicked off and mass media followed. Businesses required ways to inform consumers about the products that they were making. The ultimate goal, persuading customers that your product was superior to a competitor’s product. The 1960s saw a saturation of products, competition, and marketing strategies. From flyers to newspaper articles, posters, TV commercials and radio ads.
Suppliers needed customers to know about their products. Businesses also learned from each other often by copying promotional tactics for the biggest marketing campaign of the year, their Christmas campaign. Bottom line is, if you want your business to grow, you should think about investing in marketing.
Today we are lucky to have the internet available to easily market our businesses online. It can be an exceptionally effective way to quickly connect with a customer looking for your exact business in a matter of seconds.
How can Christmas marketing tips and tricks help your business?
Any messaging or communication you put out that helps to inform your customers of your products and services can help with the growth of your business. Promoting your products and services educates consumers on the benefits of your products or services. Often businesses compete with multiple companies in similar industries. Marketing means your business can stand out and connect with potential consumers instantly.
Consider taking advantage of normal promotional and seasonal strategies, such as Christmas marketing tips. Investing in any form of marketing can lift your business and make you stand out amongst your competitors. A small business loan can fund the Christmas marketing campaign and strategies your business uses. There is a common misconception that you need a lot of money for an effective marketing campaign. This is not necessarily true and we lift the sparkly lid on the tricks of the trade and provide a list of Christmas marketing tips to help you thrive through the silly season.
How to start marketing your business?
When considering how to grow your small business with marketing, begin with a marketing plan. Consider what specials you want to run over the festive season. You could look at:
- Running a percentage discount
- Bundling products together
- A cash back offer
- Purchase at a discount now, use the service later
When you have made a list of the promotions you want to offer. Break them up to run them over different periods of time, such as running one promotion for the first or second week of December and so on. If you run out of ideas you can also google Christmas marketing tips and promotional strategies.
There are so many strategies and tactics available online that really do work. Once you have developed your marketing plan you can share it with your employees. Having a centralised marketing plan will help everyone align with the promotional activities that are coming up.
If you don’t already have a marketer as part of your team, you can task one of your employees with assisting with the marketing activities. Thereby they get some extra skills and you get a budding marketer.
However, hiring a marketing manager to map out and run effective marketing campaigns can help your business grow. Lumi can help fund the expense of an extra staff member on your team as your business benefits from the marketing initiatives. A small business loan could be very useful in funding a professional marketer without impacting your current cash flow.
Christmas marketing tips and campaign ideas:
Now that you have your promotional tactics in place, let’s cover some strategies that you can use to help your business stand out during the festive season and beyond.
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The 12 days of Christmas campaign
This campaign allows you to have a different promotional tactic for every day leading up to Christmas day. A hairdresser could look at offering a free blow-dry on the first day of Christmas with any service. They could then offer two products for the price of one, on the second day of Christmas. On the tenth day of Christmas, they could offer 10% off any service, pay now and book in advance, and so on. This campaign is very versatile and allows you to use the full range of promotional tactics.
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New year, new you
The new year period is a way to extend and capture your customers. Customers are already thinking about new years resolutions, improvements they may want to do to their house for the year, or pre-planning trips for the family. A carpentry company could run a promotional campaign encouraging customers to build or get their back deck’s upgraded to make the most of summer.
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Post customer follow-up
Service extends beyond the sale and front counter. You can provide an excellent service using follow-up marketing collateral. Take for example a plumbing business that services a family by installing and upgrading a toilet. This plumbing business may have used some local area marketing to drop off a letterbox flyer, this then engaged the family to book this particular plumber to do the service. Once the service is finished, the plumber could follow up with a courtesy call to check the family is happy with their new toilet. The plumber could also cement the chance that the family will use them again in the future by dropping off some ‘promotional coupons’. This way the family will be incentivised to use this service in the future for all plumbing needs.
Putting these tips into practice
Christmas marketing tips are only as useful as when you put them into practice. So how can you put your promotional tactics and marketing strategies in place?
Use your existing audience, send out regular emails to your customers. Tap into and use all of your social platforms to communicate any promotions that you are running. Place posters up on the walls of your business advertising featuring the special festive promotions.
Now all of these existing customer tips are great, but what about new customers, we hear you ask. Acquiring new customers can be a challenge for all small businesses. Luckily nowadays we have the ability to connect with any individual quickly using paid digital marketing methods.
The reason Facebook, Instagram, and Google are so effective is because they have large audiences, and they can track user behaviour. This tracking gives a highly detailed and accurate picture of consumers. Meaning when you choose to advertise your business with one of these platforms, you drive targeted ads directly onto their phones or desktop devices. Investing in advertising through these platforms means you can engage new potential customers. A business loan can enable investment in paid digital marketing platforms for example.
The more you invest, the higher chance your business will be viewed by the audience you are targeting. Look at Facebook Blueprint if you have never created any Facebook or Instagram ads before. When creating your Christmas content you may also want to look at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to ensure you follow their regulations.
