In the world of retail and hospitality, it’s never too early to think about your plans for the peak Christmas season. In fact, we recommend you start actively planning your Christmas campaigns months in advance (i.e., now!).
Forward planning allows you to think through your strategy and implement it with enough time for it to have maximum impact.
Let’s take a look at what you need to consider as you plan your Christmas marketing campaigns.
Plan your business offering
Before creating and implementing a marketing strategy, you need to be clear on what you’re actually offering to customers during the Christmas peak season.
Most retail businesses see significant increases in sales in the lead up to Christmas, as consumer spending typically rises by nearly 30% in December. To meet this higher demand, start planning ahead to build up a good stock supply (don’t forget to factor the current container crisis into timelines if you’re planning to import products).
You’ll need a bank of high-quality images to use across your marketing and advertising, so factor in time for a photoshoot. You’ll also want to make changes to your website to accommodate new product lines and highlight Christmas offers. If you need to outsource these tasks to other skilled professionals, think about booking their time now before they get snapped up by other businesses.
If you run a hospitality business, you’ll also need to start thinking about what you will offer to customers over the Christmas period. You might want to plan a festive menu, create a new winter cocktail list, or design an exclusive VIP Christmas package for guests.
You’ll need to place orders with food and drink suppliers well in advance, so get in there early to secure the best ingredients. Think about preparing your premises, too. Do you plan to decorate your venue and source and decorate a Christmas tree in-house, or do you need to book a company to do it for you?
Once you have your business plan and customer offering prepared, you can then move on to marketing.
Social Media
It’s a good idea to ramp up your social media marketing in the run-up to Christmas, and preparation for that starts now. Build up a bank of high-quality images and templates ready to create posts suitable for all social media channels.
You need to stand out amongst the noise as your competitors also increase their marketing efforts, so don’t cut corners on your post designs. Eye-catching images of the latest must-have gift or beautiful photographs of your decorated venue will grab your customers’ attention.
Plan your posting strategy for each channel separately. You can use last year’s KPIs to determine which channels give you the best results so you know where to focus your efforts. If you’re not 100% sure you can deliver a strong campaign in-house, consider bringing in a social media marketing expert to keep things on track.
Paid Ad Campaigns
A paid ads campaign will get your products or services in front of your ideal customers as we get towards the Christmas peak season. If you’ve managed a paid campaign before, you’ll have some idea of what works for your business and what doesn’t, and you can apply these lessons to your new strategy.
If you’re new to paid ads, think about which ad channels might work best. Google, Facebook and Instagram ads can give excellent ROI when managed correctly. Don’t rule out advertising opportunities in smaller, niche markets if your product lines appeal to a select audience. You might also decide to invest in local advertising if you have a physical shop or venue.
Nobody wants to waste money on an ad campaign that doesn’t pay off. Make sure you know how to find and record important KPIs to measure the results of your ads, so you can test and refine them as you go.
Email marketing
Email marketing is a great way to boost sales around Christmas. You have direct access to a warm audience without having to compete with everyone else in their social media feed. Reward your loyal subscribers with special offers, like free delivery or VIP access to Christmas packages. If you start thinking about this now, you have enough time to create and execute a killer strategy. (Read more about why email marketing is so important in our recent blog post.)
Think about outsourcing
It might feel a bit early, but now is the perfect time to start thinking ahead to Christmas. The more time you have to set up an effective marketing and sales strategy, the more successful it’ll be. Christmas is already an incredibly busy time for the retail and hospitality industry, so it might make sense to outsource your Christmas marketing campaigns so you can focus on your business.
Here at Zesty Digital, we love working with our clients to create some buzz around their brand in the lead up to Christmas. If you want to discuss how we can help you with your digital marketing, including social media, paid ads, email marketing and website design, contact us.
