CHRISTMAS MARKETING

Christmas Marketing has a great advantage:

People is ready to buy.

If there’s an ideal month to boost your sales, that’s December.

Don’t worry if you haven’t done it this year, just make sure you prepare yourself to make the most out of your Christmas Marketing actions next year!

At this time of the year people is more open to receive promotions.

• They are thinking what presents to buy to family and friends, of for secret Santa presents at their office.
• In many cases, income increases the last month of the year.

On this post, we want to give you some ideas on how to prepare your Christmas Marketing campaigns, greet your customers and communicate your offers in Christmas.

PREPARE YOUR CAMPAIGNS DURING ALL YEAR

You might think we are crazy, but we recommend you to start preparing your Christmas Marketing around July (and other experts prove us right). Advertising is much more expensive at Christmas, hence its a good idea to start attracting users in advance. Launch brand awareness campaigns in September and October. This way, you will have an audience of users to whom retargeting when Christmas approaches.

Additionally, Christmas campaigns should be included in your annual digital Marketing plan to ensure when Christmas approaches you have the necessary budget and resources.

To launch a campaign successfully, you need to fit many different pieces, from creativity to technical aspects. Preparing a timeline in advance will help you get everything ready.

#LANDING PAGES

Develop landing pages for specific products and promotions. Landing pages are another aspect in which you need to be proactive and work on them in advance, especially if you are going to position them using SEO.

CHANNEL STRATEGY

All channels should show a unique presentation of the same campaign. Its important to align campaigns and strategies. Remember that all your channels must act in a coordinated manner to meet the company’s global marketing objectives.

Nowadays users receive multiple impacts throughout their customer journey. Therefore, you have to look for a broad vision and take into account the interactions between channels.

# GOOGLE ADS

Create specific Google Ads for Christmas. Yes, they have a high level of competition, but campaigns focused on keywords such as “gifts for xxx” can be very effective.

Conducting a campaign in Google Ads in the previous months and during Christmas increases traffic to your website, increases the visibility of your business and improves your ranking on Search Engines. To create a specific campaign for Christmas you must consider the following factors

• Observe on which days on the week and what time slots there is a greater interest in your products in order to show the ads when there are more users interested and avoiding spending money unnecessarily.
• Segmentation: Define the type of audience you want to reach and adapt the campaign.
• Be creative and develop creative calls to action that differentiate you from the competition.
• Create a landing page that helps convert. An attractive and well organized landing page will help you generate sales.

# SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS

Generating sales is all about finding and connecting with the right customers, use your Social Media networks to get there.

Facebook is one of the main marketing channels you can use to do this. You can combine Facebook ads with content (like blog posts, articles, and videos). Users are more likely to interact with content than promotional product ads and it’s also helpful for reaching new prospects and getting them to know you, especially if you’re selling high-value products or services.

Additionally, Instagram is one of the fastest growing social network and also has a social ads platform integrated with Facebook, so Christmas can be a good time to strengthen your presence on this Social Media platform.

If you have a YouTube Channel, you can create quality videos with specific objectives and share them on your other social media platforms. Read more about video content and tips to optimise your video content on you tube.

You don’t necessarily need to be present on all Social Media networks, but you do need to make the most out of the ones where your potential clients interact. Find these platforms out and prepare an effective strategy. Remember to do it months in advance.

# INCLUDE AMAZON ON YOUR CHANNEL STRATEGY

Amazon’s advertising platform continues to implement news and is a very interesting niche for marketers.

Find out more about Amazon Ads to make the most out of your Marketing Campaign.

# RETARGETING

Take advantage of the information about users that you have been collecting throughout the year.

# EMAIL MARKETING

If you have spent the whole year expanding your database, Christmas is the time to take advantage of it.

Squeeze your Email Marketing keeping in mind that at this time of the year, inboxes are full of promotional emails, so you will have to be creative to stand out. They have to be short, emotional and creative messages.

Email marketing allows you to get leads and sales, so you must include it in your digital marketing strategy in Christmas. Sending emails to your subscribers will not only serve to sell more but also to consolidate your brand in the minds of everyone who receives them.

To start, prepare a Campaign with the promotions that will be available throughout the month. You can also send weekly featured offers, the most purchased products, etc. You can also send your subscribers several tips with possible gifts for their family and friends, it is a way to help them decide by recommending your products!

Additionally, this time of the year is an excellent opportunity to thank your customers for their purchases and their loyalty throughout the year, greet them with a personalised email! Include the name of each prospect in the subject and in the body of the Email so they feel unique. Remember to also contact your suppliers, partners and collaborators wishing you happy holidays, show them how important they are for you.

DISCOUNTS AND PROMOTIONS

In order to sell more in Chrismtas, you need to be more promotional than in on other dates. As we were saying at the beginning of this article, Marketing at Christmas has a great advantage: you know that users are ready to buy. Take advantage of it through more direct campaigns.

Launch offers with exclusive products. There are many types of companies that can get “special Christmas” product lines, so think about how they could fit your brand. Remember: In advance!

Let your leads know about your discounts in advance.

You can also create special gift cards. For example, you can create a gift card of 75 euros that can be exchanged for 100 euros on certain types of products, or only during a few key dates.

ANALYSE YOUR COMPETITORS AND LEARN FROM THEM

Follow your competitors steps closely and investigate what actions they are taking to make yours better.

• Have they organised a special event?
• What promotions do they offer?
• How do they make their offers known?
• ow are they ranking in search engines?
• Do they use paid ads on Social Networks?
• What do you have to offer that they don’t?

It might be a good idea to find channels that your competitors are ignoring. Pinterest, Quora, YouTube, are sites that have millions of users, but sometimes brands ignore. Take advantage of them to launch your Christmas campaigns in a less saturated environment.

BE CREATIVE

These days people is saturated with advertising, so generic Christmas marketing campaigns are no longer convincing.

Think about how you can give your message the creativity that it needs to stand out.

For example, we all expect to receive messages from companies on the same key days, hence the impact of these messages is less and the competition is fierce. We suggest you to surprise your potential clients with a message at a different time, when they don’t expect it. Make sure you segment these messages you send. Christmas is no reason to send the same email to your entire database.

IMPORTANT: Thousands of brands compete every Christmas to get the attention of consumers during this period. If you want to differentiate yourself, focus your communication on the lifestyle of your brand and not just on the products, because if you only tell them about your offers, discounts and promotions, users will not remember you. You are not standing out from the crowd.