Whether you are one of the very few organised people with all their Christmas shopping done by the 1st September, or (like the majority of us) leave it till Christmas Eve, scrabbling around in department stores or vigorously buying up the whole of Amazon, as a business you need to predict shopping habits for the whole of the Christmas period and plan your campaigns accordingly.
No doubt businesses across the UK have been planning their Christmas campaigns since the end of summer, and why we hear you ask – with spending patterns over Christmas increasing on average by 60% (Retail Research) it’s a time of year your business should not be missing out on.
With this in mind we’ve got 5 quick tips for next year’s Christmas marketing – although it’s never too late to start!
Strategy
Do not underestimate the benefits of planning early and creating campaigns which engage your customers. Giving your business enough time to plan effective and engaging campaigns by offering value for money and an essence of fun should lead to an increase in sales leading up to and over the Christmas period.
Festivity
It is Christmas after all! Giving your customers some festive cheer with great offers or discounts will encourage spending. However, even though it’s Christmas keep an eye your margin when cutting those prices!
Creativity
Allow your Christmas marketing to be creative, you may not be competing with the giant retailers such as John Lewis or Sainsbury’s, but creating an intriguing campaign will get your customers talking about you.
Integrated
Relating back to one of our blog post on multi-channel marketing, we cannot stress enough how important it is to take an integrated and multi-channel approach with your Christmas marketing campaigns.
Data
Spending time segmenting and targeting your Christmas campaigns to the right person at the right time will pay its dividends for the time you invest. Send messages which will relate with your customers, either with the products they buy or have shown an interest in, by using your CRM system to see their previous shopping habits.