It’s almost December and fifty-five percent of shoppers have already started
shopping for Christmas. The Christmas season is the peak of retail sales in most countries. While some shoppers know exactly what they want, many do not – and that spells opportunity. Here are twelve tips to help spice up your Christmas marketing campaign.
Twelve Marketing Tips For Christmas
1- Have a Christmas countdown. It helps get people in the mood and it reminds them how much time they have left to shop. Use your social media accounts to spread the cheer and send subtle reminders that time is running out.
2- Starting on December 12
th, promote 12 last-minute gift ideas, one on each day. You could coordinate this with the countdown mentioned in the previous suggestion. Promote a great gift at a discount on each of the last twelve days. It could be extra inventory or special purchase items. Run this along with an advertising campaign to generate lots of excitement.
3- Think outside the box and expand your marketing to incorporate other aspects of the holiday season. It’s not just about presents. There’s food, decorating, celebrating and the spreading of holiday cheer. People are also very interested in seasonal purchases for their own use.
4- While most of the shopping is related to the Christmas season, your regular shoppers still need to shop for their day to day needs. And who knows, even Scrooge might buy himself something special, though out-of-season, despite himself.
5- Take advantage of the difference in when men and women shop. Women are more likely to shop early while men notoriously wait till the last minute. Tailor your specials to coincide with their shopping habits.
6- There’s a big shopping rush on the last few days by the shoppers who put off their buying until the last minute. Target these late-comers with limited-time offers of short duration to encourage them to buy certain products. Late shoppers often have no idea what it is they want to buy – it’s a great opportunity to help them out.
7- Have an in-store lottery. Raffle-off several valuable gifts to the few lucky shoppers with winning receipt numbers. If you’re competitive in other regards, it could tip the scale in your favor. People love to win prizes.
8- Much of the gift-buying is for kids and they have considerable influence over what it is their parents buy for them. Take advantage of this by offering deep discounts for the kinds of things kids like. You’ll be doing them a favor and your bottom line will like it too.
9- Use
custom die cut stickers in targeted areas of your business to build on the buzz created by your sales flyers. This works especially well in high traffic areas.
10- Rather than offering a discount on repeat purchase items, reward your customers with endowed progress cards. It works like this: if a customer is given a
Buy 10, get 1 free card and two of the stamps are already marked, they’re very likely to make the required purchases to receive the freebie. It’s a sure-fire way to increase sales
and customer loyalty.
11- Give small gifts with a personal touch. Have you ever received a handmade gift?
It felt pretty special, didn’t it? You can show your customers you truly appreciate them by giving them a small gift. Even a
magnetic grocery list that sticks on the fridge comes across as a personal gift if it doesn’t have the name of a business on it. They will always remember where they got it.
12- Always Have Gift Cards Available. Most of us have at least one person that is difficult to shop for, or sometimes the gift we want to buy is sold out. It’s important to have gift cards so you don’t miss out on these sales.
Twelve Marketing Tips For Christmas Wrap-up
The holiday season is an exciting time for marketers due to the enormous sales opportunities. Most of the ideas listed above can be adapted to work for different types of businesses and for different marketing channels. Here’s wishing you much success with these twelve marketing tips for Christmas.