As we gear up for a busy few weeks of office Christmas parties, end of year catch-ups and social obligations, the normal order of things tends to go out the window and it can be easy for productivity to take a dive.
Depending on your industry, you might be receiving or sending a flurry of invoices or attempting to tie up long term projects before the end of the year.
It can be a notoriously tricky time to get things done, as many businesses begin to wind up for the year in time for a holiday break.
Whether the Christmas period is traditionally a busier or quieter time in your industry, it’s absolutely worth taking a proactive approach to marketing in order to drive more engagement and avoid leaving sales and revenue on the table this season.
Many businesses procrastinate when it comes to developing and implementing a holiday marketing strategy. If the season is typically a big sales driver for you, no doubt you’ve already been engaging your customers.
If not, there’s no better time than now to reach out to your customers and clients. Many shoppers leave Christmas spending to the last minute, so promoting some enticing deals over the next couple of weeks could capture a good share of this additional business.
Most industries can count on seeing a fairly dramatic change in consumer behaviour, purchasing patterns and response to digital advertising during the lead up to the Christmas holiday period.
While retail and traditional e-commerce businesses might do some of their best sales for the year over the coming weeks, other industries see a flattening in advertising ROI until January when their customers have returned from leave and business reverts to usual.
It’s a great idea to use longitudinal data from previous years to help set your ad bids and budgets properly to ensure the best results and return on your ad spend. If the holiday season is a busy time for your business, now’s the time to bump up your budgets and bids, whereas if it’s the opposite, cutting down on spend until the New Year could allow you to make the most of your budget.
With just a few weeks of 2021 remaining, now would be a good time to review all of your ad copy. While you may want to consider running some short term holiday specific ads, it’s a good idea to consider the messaging that you want to run for the New Year.
Take the opportunity now to remove any references to the year just passed, so that you don’t accidentally end up in the position of running outdated ads into the New Year.
It’s been a challenging year for many, so now would be a great time to reach out to previous customers to say thanks.
In order to bring about return business, it’s important to stay top of mind. Sending out a seasonal thank you message can be a great way to bring your brand back into focus for these potential return customers and motivate them to continue doing business with you.
A good deal can be hard to pass up, and with plenty of competition at this time of year, offering customers a great value deal or giveaway can be a compelling marketing strategy indeed.
While consumers are largely focused on purchasing gifts at this time of year, offering a percentage off their total sale, of a free voucher or gift for customers that spend over a certain amount can encourage them to do more of their spending with you.
Many of your clients and customers will be working odd schedules over the coming weeks, so reaching out via email with any holiday messaging or special offers is a great way to get the message in front of them.
Consumers are out to get the best deals around in the lead-up to Christmas, so it’s absolutely worth curating emails that highlight special promotions, sales or offers.
Consider making some non-sales related Christmas themed social media posts to engage with your followers. Interacting with consumers at this time of year builds a stronger connection and can build bridges for communication with shoppers year-round.
Replying to follower’s comments with personalised responses helps send a positive message about your brand to other followers and potential customers.
If your business is shutting down at all for a break over the holiday period, be sure to communicate in advance with your clients of customers so that they’re aware of when you’ll be unavailable.
You can set up ‘out of office’ replies on company email addresses that include the dates you will be closed and re-opening.
If you’re working on projects with clients and need to receive deliverables by a certain date, be sure to communicate this well in advance to avoid any confusion or last minute stress.
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