'Tis The Season to be Selling : Top 10 Christmas Marketing Tips

10th September 2013 :: Author: Andrew Cope, Managing Director, Evergreen

With the summer over and the children now back at school the next big event most people will be focusing on is Christmas. With only 105 days to Christmas, if you haven't planned your marketing strategy yet for the Yuletide season then now is the time to do so.

We're here to help with our top 10 marketing tips for festive success:

1) Get Ahead of the Game: Offline and Online

Most monthly glossy magazines are put to bed two months prior to their issue date, coming on sale one month before. To be included in a magazine's December issue, you need to have submitted your advertising or editorial information by September at the latest.

Search engines also need stoking up ahead of time. Any content that you publish on your website, blog post or video in September will only turn up in search results in November or December. So make sure any seasonal keywords are added to your website or blogs now!

2) Learn from Christmas Past

The best business intelligence you will have about what will happen this year is what happened last year. Take a good look at your web analytics for this time last year - What keywords were being used in searches to reach your site? Did these searches lead to purchases? Which promotional offers worked the best on the website and through emails? Which product lines performed better/worse than others? What were your top sellers? What did your competitors do last year and how did that impact on your business?

Look carefully at the data you have in your CRM. (If you don't already have a CRM then this is something that you should set as a business priority). Do some people respond better to content driven emails such as gift guides or do they respond better to offer driven campaigns? Use the data you have in your CRM to look at your customer behaviour so that you can personalise your emails with dynamic content that is sent to the right people at the optimum time.

3) Don't Forget the Basics

To succeed in business, you’ve got to know your target market inside out. Your Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) can help you identify your customer demographics so that you can go out and market effectively to other like-minded people. Who will be most likely people to buy your product or service in the lead up to Christmas? Identify that market and create your marketing campaign accordingly. However, marketing for Christmas brings an added complication – as Donald Rumsfeld put it, 'There are the knowns and the unknowns'. Customers who do not normally buy from you at other times of year may be interested in purchasing at Christmastime for family or friends. So consider running two different campaigns – one for existing customers, where you can use tried and tested forms of marketing communication and one for a whole new audience who may only ever buy from you at this festive time of year but if you make a good impression, may buy again from you this time next year, remember you for future 'gift' purchases or recommend you to others.

4) Reward Loyalty

We all know that it costs a lot more to attract a new customer that it does to keep an existing one so don't ignore those customers that are loyal to your brand. Reward your previous customers - email them with a tempting Christmas offer. Eg. Send an email offering a £10 gift voucher if they spend £50 online or include an exclusive online discount code that they can use at the checkout. This will not only make your customers feel valued but can also encourage them to make a repeat purchase. A similar reward promotion can be sent out to your social media followers. If your sales normally peak in December but dive in January, consider sending customers a voucher in December that can be redeemed in January. Or how about creating a calendar for the New Year and send it to all your loyal customers - this will ensure your name is on your customer’s desks or on their wall all year round.

5) Added Value and Convenience

Consider including free post and packaging or a free gift wrapping service with a personalised note for any purchases over a certain value. If margins allow, offer 3 items for the price of 2 or include a small free seasonal gift. Click and collect services grew by 40% during the festive period in 2012, so offer this if your business model allows.

6) Utilise the Power of Social Media

Ask existing customers who use Facebook or Pinterest to start creating wish lists of products they would like to receive as gifts for Christmas or ask them to offer gift ideas and suggestions. Recommendations from customer reviews are an increasing factor in persuading customers to purchase a product or service. You can even include some client recommendations in your emails to reinforce your offers and to encourage further customer engagement. Don't forget to include a link back to an online feedback page, where new reviews can be left. Tweeting and posting gift ideas and suggestions on Facebook and Google+ will help in forming a positive brand image, driving more web traffic to your site.

7) Create a Sense of Urgency

As Christmas Day looms ever closer, customers will automatically be shopping with an increased sense of urgency. Set deadlines on any offers or promotions to secure a sale. Use phrases like '3 days left' or 'order now to guarantee delivery by 24 Dec'. This lets customers know that if they don't act immediately they risk disappointment. You could even have a an offer expiration countdown clock or calendar on your website. You may have a product that is only available at this time of year. If so, email your customers and let them know that this product is now available but will only be available for a limited time. However, be true to your word and don't extend any promotion beyond the specified date as you don't want to risk losing customer trust.

8) Festive Partnerships

Team up with a non-competing business to offer a festive promotional package. Eg. 'Cheers', an off licence running a promotion on the most popular wine choices for Christmas and New Year and teams up with 'Fresh Choices' that specialises in home deliveries of fruit, veg, meat etc. Promotional flyers can be included in company delivery boxes/shops and details sent in joint promotional emails to their independent customer lists. eg. 'Fresh Choice' promotes 'Buy one of our Turkeys and save £10 off a case of Sauvignon Blanc at Cheers.' and 'Cheers' promotes 'Buy a case of Sauvignon Blanc and save £10 when you spend £50 or more at Fresh Choice'. Each company supplies the other one with a voucher to send to the appropriate customers when fulfilling their order. Not only does this introduce more choice to the consumer but introduces your product to a new market and can lead to long term profitable partnerships.

9) Optimise your Website for Mobiles & Tablets

Tablets were one of the top Christmas gifts for 2012 and are increasingly the device of choice for online shopper with reports from Adobe showing that tablet users spend twice as much as smart phone users when purchasing through their device. To take advantage of this, you need to ensure that your website is both mobile and tablet friendly and that your shopping cart process is easy and straightforward.

10) Scheduling your Festive Campaign

Mondays are the most popular day to shop online attracting 12% more visits than any other day of the week. However, pay attention to how much seasonal content you’re planning to post when planning your marketing schedule. Ease your customers into the Christmas spirit gently. eg. In September post 10% festive content, in October, post 20%, in November, 30% and 50% in December. Don't forget to keep 'Cyber Monday' (26th November) in mind when planning your schedule as this is deemed as one of the busiest online shopping days of the year.

According to data providers Experian, UK Internet users made 2.8 billion visits to retail websites and spent 372 million hours shopping in 2012 with Boxing Day seeing 113 million visits, setting a new British retail record! So, don't miss out! Get your Christmas marketing campaign in action now!