I cannot believe I am writing about a blog post about that C word – Christmas!
Every year it sneaks up way too quickly then all of a sudden we are celebrating Christmas parties with our teams and writing a list for Santa.

So, given this has been the craziest year full of the unexpected, make it the year to plan your Christmas strategy right now! You don’t have to have a retail product to do Christmas campaigns.

Every year I see basic mistakes being made by businesses that cost them lost sales and opportunities. I have lost track of the number of times I have responded to a Facebook ad to get more details only to get crickets in response.

Hang on, you’ve just spent a small fortune on ads to get me to buy your product then you ignore my sales enquiry? What The Facebook! Talk about wasting money…

The first question to consider is WHEN do you start?
This depends on a number of factors including:
• What is the lead time to buy your product/service?
• How much time do you need for production or content creation?
• Will you need orders by a certain time in order to fulfil?
• When (if it does) does your business shut down?

Where to start with your Christmas marketing campaigns?

Before Christmas planning

• Get in early to create your Christmas content and campaigns
• Focus on your owned not rented channels – your owned channels are the ones you fully control and include your website, blogs and database. You rent your social media channels so consider how you include them in your overall strategy.
• Segment your database – do not blast your entire database with the same content. Break it into smaller relevant segments so you can share highly relevant content with him. That is what will convert higher. Make it relevant and they are much more likely to open it
• Schedule your content using a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer – just because you are on holidays doesn’t mean your social media channels need to be. Use these free tools to give yourself consistent marketing while you are lazing on the beach
• Plan your marketing campaigns across all channels – take a wholistic approach and consider what traditional and digital channels you need to include
• Make the content seasonal and highly relevant. Provide value by offering seasonal advice based on your industry. Here are some examples:
o Insurance agents – could talk about how to keep your house safe with all the lights around.
o Staffing companies or human resources – give tips for the holiday Christmas party and how to stay out of trouble at the office
o Real estate agents – can share home decorating tips
o Dog groomers – give tips about how to keep little Fido safe during the holiday season
• Plan it now!!! Don’t leave it until mid-December and do half a job

During your break
• Work out who is going to respond to client enquiries during the holiday period – this is a period when people are relaxing, buying and planning for the year ahead. Don’t miss sales opportunities by not responding to DM’s on social
• If you are running social media or other ads, RESPOND to your Direct messages and sales enquiries in a timely manner (and for the record, 3 weeks later when you are back from holidays is NOT OK)

After your holiday
• Client enquiries should be responded to quickly – make it a priority
• Review your campaigns and look at the metrics so you can analyse the results
• Consider what you can change to make it even more successful next year

Other Considerations

• Use Christmas hashtags
• Use relevant keywords to help get found
• Use humour in your marketing to stand out
• Use special offers that generate sales for January
• Share your love of your clients, staff and suppliers

Christmas is the best time of the year for brands and consumers. Consider how you can leverage this festive season to boost their sales by planning effective Christmas marketing campaigns.