With the holidays in full swing, businesses throughout Connecticut and across the country are all vying for a piece of that Christmas spending.
Standing out among the billions of other businesses means putting the right marketing tactics to work.
But where aggressive marketing might work during other parts of the year, Christmas is different. During the holidays, you want your marketing to make customers feel happy and cheerful.
If you want to take advantage of the holiday season, check out these 5 Christmas marketing ideas you need to try.
1. The Christmas Countdown
Helping your clients count down to Christmas is a great way to get them excited about the holiday. And doing so each day is a great way to get them excited about your company as well.
Your marketing Christmas countdown should give clients a reason to check back with your company each day. A few holiday promotion ideas include discounts, special promotional products or promotional prices on products, or even a giveaway.
How early you choose to start your countdown should depend on what you’re giving away. But there are other factors to consider as well.
For instance, if you only have a few products to discount, you may want to still start your countdown early and space out the discounts. In the last 5 or so days before Christmas, your clients may be too busy to start paying attention to a countdown.
Starting your countdown too early can be a mistake as well. Unless you’ll be giving away lots of discounts, if you start too early, you could lose your clients’ interest.
While many major corporations start their Christmas marketing before Halloween, smaller businesses benefit from waiting it out.
2. Encouraging a Break from Holiday Stress
All great marketing ideas share a common goal; making your client feel as though they are important to you. One easy way to do this is by showing that you care about more than landing a sale. You need to let your clients know that you care about their well-being.
This is easy to do around the holidays. With holiday shopping, traffic, and travel heavy on their minds, your clients are likely feeling tired and stressed, even with the excitement of the holidays upon them.
Encouraging your clients to break free from the stress of the holidays is a great way to show that you care.
Find a way to relate your products or services to self-care. Maybe your products help people relax and unwind. Or they encourage them to get outdoors rather than spending more time at busy shopping malls.
Whatever the case, disguising your holiday advertising by focusing on how your products and services help clients beat the holiday stress is a fun, cheerful way to mix up your marketing this time of year.
3. Let Your Company Spirit Show
If yours is a small business or one that has a strong connection to your community, there are some great holiday marketing ideas that can help you put that connection to use.
One great idea is to let your company’s holiday spirit show.
Customers like to know that real people are behind their favorite brands. Show them the people behind their favorite products by posting pictures of your company on social media.
Snap pics of your employees in Christmas sweaters or enjoying some Connecticut winter activities. Show off your company’s holiday decorations.
You can also put the Pareto Principle to work. This principle says that you should share other content 80 percent of the time and your own just 20 percent. Share Christmas-themed photos and content from other sources to give your customers a cheerful boost.
This is a simple marketing idea that won’t require much extra work on your part, but can be a great way to inspire some cheer among your customers!
4. Choose Holiday Packaging
It’s often the little details that help a company stand out during the holiday rush.
When your customers are receiving dozens of packages or more each week, one simple way to make sure that your products leave an impression is to customize your holiday packaging.
Pretty packaging or even Christmas-themed inserts will put a smile on your customer’s faces when they open them. This is great for helping customers associate your products with a happy feeling.
The next time they see your products for sale online or in-person, they’ll remember those feelings.
5. Give Customers Last-Minute Help
The United States Christmas season brings in more than 3.19 trillion in retail spending.
While your holiday marketing plan should always focus on cashing in on some of that holiday spending, the last week before Christmas is particularly key.
That’s because the final few days before Christmas are a time when consumers are looking for easy, fast purchases.
If customers are still shopping, its because they aren’t sure what to get. Now, they need help finding last minute gifts. If your business can provide those, its time to step up.
Starting about a week before Christmas, start featuring products or services that you think would make great last-minute gifts. You might even offer discounts, fast shipping, or expedited shipping to help ensure the gifts get there in time for the holiday.
Your clients will be relieved when they find the perfect gifts and finally finish their holiday shopping. And you’ll land a few last minute sales to help increase your holiday profits.
If you didn’t have time to put other holiday marketing tactics to work or they didn’t bring the business boost you were expecting, this can also be a great way to turn things around at the last minute.
Putting These Christmas Marketing Ideas to Use
Now that you know a few smart Christmas marketing ideas, it’s time to put them to use.
But if you don’t have web marketing experience, even the cutest Christmas marketing ideas will fall flat.
We can help with that. Check out our services today to see how we can help you make the most of your marketing efforts during the holidays and through the rest of the year!
