CHristmas MArketing Ideas for Your Small Business
If you are like me, it feels like Christmas has snuck up this year. Marketing planning for Christmas has taken a back seat especially after the weeks of lockdown, preparing covid safe return and implementing new covid rules. It’s not too late to quickly plan and prepare your Christmas marketing. Make your Christmas marketing easy, with these Christmas marketing ideas for your business, plus some essential planning ideas you will need to get your business geared up for the New Year.
1. Do you prepare a pre-holiday checklist?
Before you go off on your annual January holidays or even before you shut down for a few public holidays think about all the business and marketing things you need to do. Create a simple checklist to check back against your marketing strategy and plan.
Think about what was due for this quarter or month? Is everything up to date?
PRE-HOLIDAY MARKETING IDEA MUST HAVES:
- If you are taking holidays, post your holiday operation hours, your holiday closing dates, contact details for urgent enquiries etc. Post at least three times over December/January. Update your website, social media and search engines.
- If you are not taking holidays, posting “we are open” is also important.
Customers want to know specifics and want certainty. Customers who are unsure look elsewhere.
How much advance notice you need to give your customers depends on your business. For example, a massage therapist might need to tell their customers weeks in advance depending on how regular their clients repeat book. As a general rule of thumb, give at least twice as long as the time period you are taking off. If you are taking four weeks holiday, then give at least two weeks advance notice.
If you tend to plan and schedule social media content last minute to the point that you rarely post, then consider outsourcing. Organic posting is important for a whole bunch of reasons. And, over the Christmas period it’s vital so that your customers know you are open for business or on holidays
REmind me, WHy should I post organically?
Here’s a few quick reminders why you should post organically
- Builds trust and authenticity
- Regular connection and engagement
- Ongoing, free branding
- If you don’t post, you leave the door open for your competition
2. Decorate your marketing plan!
I don’t mean add some holly to your excel spreadsheet, I mean sprinkle some sparkle into your marketing by adding a few Christmas graphics and decorations. Decorate your website and social media posts, your office/shop or your home office. If you are in a Face-to-face setting, add some Christmas props to your Christmas tree for your customers to take some pics, Tik Toks or reels. Remember to get them to add your branded hashtag and get that user-generated content happening.
3. National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day
Speaking of decorating and props, we are all familiar with cheesy Christmas sweaters. Why not dress up and celebrate the so-called ugly occasion on National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day on Friday, 17th December 2021. In Australia, swap the ugly sweater for a cool t-shirt or pyjamas. Alternatively, don some reindeer antlers or Santa hat for the day.
4. Dwindling Christmas sales?
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become huge buying events in the lead up to Christmas. If you don’t want to see your December sales dwindle, you need to apply new promos to your marketing plan and ensure it fits into your marketing strategy. Ever tried a ‘Belated Black Friday’ sale, one Friday in December, or a ‘Cyber Monday Mark II’? Ensure your social media and marketing plan builds up to these December events.
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5. Loyal Customers
Your loyal customers have supported you through a tough year. Your business may not be able to afford extra Christmassy discounts, especially if your marketing plan has been full of promos throughout the year, however there are always other low-cost ways to say, ‘thank you’. A simple phone or Zoom call with a smile, a traditional Christmas card in the mail. Think about doing some research with your customers while you are chatting at the Christmas party. You could also ask your customers to ‘Leave a review’ with a bonus New Year offer or competition for everyone that does leave a review.
6. Christmas Video
Get the staff together (or customers) and post a behind the scenes Christmas video on your website and social media. Staff could share a fun or unknown fact about themselves. There are plenty of Christmas marketing ideas for video. Staff are a great place to start asking for ideas. Prepare a 12 days of Christmas video countdown with your team with or without a promo offer each day.
7. Christmas products
Show off your Christmas products or services. Collaborate with other local businesses and develop a Christmas buying guide that can be marketed online or offline. Not only is collaboration a great way of helping and supporting local business, it’s also a way of introducing new clients to each other. There are plenty of benefits in collaboration- its all about maintaining customers by offering value added services that will benefit your customers. Christmas is all about value add!
8. Holiday Posts
Plan and schedule some holiday posts to set and forget even though you won’t be in the office. If you haven’t done so, there’s still time. Design your posts to have minimal engagement with your customers during this time. Here’s some simple post ideas:
- Merry Christmas and Happy New Year posts on each relevant day.
- Holiday hours post.
- Back up staff or support staff contact details.
- A list of Q&A’s – answer your top queries and post them on your socials and website too.
- Holiday snaps – showcase those regional Aussie areas that you are planning to visit, the local beach or café, even your backyard pool.
- Food pics – every holiday has those iconic summer lunches and BBQ’s filled with too much food.
9. Doing it tough?
Many people and businesses have faced crushing financial, physical and mental challenges in 2021. 2022 could continue to be a challenge. Consider donating this Christmas to a local charity toy drive or hamper for those who are having a difficult time. Many churches, schools and shops are collection points for these worthy causes, or make your business an easy collection point.
10. Rest and recuperation
It’s getting to that quiet time of the year and well-deserved holidays. Who hasn’t lost their mojo in 2021? It’s time to destress, unwind, take a break and breathe. During the quiet time is also a great time to reevaluate your business and marketing objectives and goals:
- What worked well this year?
- Did we meet our business and marketing objectives?
- Did the business grow?
- Did we enhance our strengths and reduce our weaknesses?
- How did we track against our competition?
- How can we improve?
- Are our target customers still the right fit for our products and services?
- Are we communicating to our customers through the right channels?
- Are we getting a return on our marketing investment?
Successful businesses have short and long-term marketing strategies and plans in place. Last minute planning does not exist in a highly productive, organised business. These businesses have a never- ending list of marketing growth opportunities. What are yours for 2022?
If you are not sure what to do for 2022 or where your business is heading, it is time to work on your marketing strategy and marketing plan. Make 2022 the lucrative success you want it to be. Start planning now!
December Marketing Ideas Checklist
Here’s a summary December Marketing Ideas Checklist
- Prepare a pre-holiday checklist (early December)
- Decorate (Dec 1)
- Ugly Sweater Day (Dec 17th)
- Loyal customer gifts (organise now)
- Christmas sales promos (organise now)
- Christmas videos (organise now)
- Show case Christmas products and collaborations (organise now)
- Schedule Holiday marketing social media posts (plan across December)
- Charity (many accept up donations until Christmas Eve)
- 2021 Planning: December and Jan
WE ARE OPEN: Look Deeper Marketing are open over December and January. December and January are our busiest times of the year because it is when most businesses plan. We have limited availability. Contact us for more detail.
About Leanne Di Fazio
Leanne has over 25 years marketing experience in large corporates and small business in Australia and the United Kingdom. She is passionate about helping small business grow and thrive. Leanne is the founder of Look Deeper Marketing specialising in marketing, strategy and planning for small business. Look Deeper Marketing bring affordable marketing consultancy to small business in Sydney and surrounding areas, with packaged options so you know exactly what to expect. Leanne offers affordable packages for Marketing strategy, social media as well as SWOT and Competitor Analysis. Look Deeper Marketing can help you take a deeper look at your marketing.
