The snow has fallen and the temperatures have dipped. The familiar seasonal songs follow you everywhere you go—yes, it’s Christmas time again!
As you may have noticed, each year Christmas seems to start a little earlier. There’s a reason for that—Christmas is the most consumer-driven holiday of the year. In fact, the average Canadian spends more than $1,500 during the holiday season. Albertans have tended to be some of the biggest spenders in recent years. Even in 2015, when Alberta was hit hard with the beginning of our province’s recession, spending in the fourth quarter increased 4.1% compared with the fourth quarter of 2013.
So how do you, as a small business, get in on this revenue? Regardless of whether you’re a B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer) operation, there are a number of ways to make the most of the holiday season and reel in those sales! Here are four tips I’m gifting you for the season:
1. Be Creative
Depending on your product or service, there are many unique ways to promote your company during the Christmas season. To get some ideas of effective and creative marketing campaigns, check out what your competitors are doing and check out some ideas online to get your thoughts kick-started. Here are a couple of places to start:
While these examples may have much larger budgets than your company, keep in mind simple is better. Regardless of your campaign, be sure to keep it consistent both offline and online. Make sure it’s on your website, in your social media, in your newsletter if you have one, as well as in some kind of print form and promote it in person during the holiday season.
2. Hold Seasonal Sales or Promotions
Both B2B and B2C small businesses can do Christmas sales or promotions to help lure potential customers in. For example, any business can offer a discount on their products or services during Black Friday leading up to December, throughout the month of December, or have Boxing Week sales. Again, just ensure these sales are consistent both offline and online.
Pro Tip: This is a great time to build up your database to connect with and sell to all year round. It’s also valuable information to help you optimize your campaigns on an ongoing basis. For more information on why you should have a customer database, check out this handy article.
One of the most effective ways to build your database is to send out a newsletter providing a discount code if they subscribe during a certain timeframe. Just be sure to follow the CASL guidelines on sending emails.
3. Create Engaging Content
Christmas is a great time to create emotional content to attract attention and convey your company’s Unique Sales Proposition (USP). You don’t have to give away thousands of dollars in the process like content leaders WestJet, but you can still tell your story. Whether it’s an informative series of Christmas-themed blogs/vlogs, graphics or videos, focus on creative ways to promote your business and share your company values.
4. Share Your Content
If you’ve taken the time to plan and create great content to attract attention, be sure to share it! Social media is a great way to share your content for free. For as low as $2 per day, you can advertise your content on key platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. For more information on advertising on these platforms, just visit their ad centres.
Connect with our guest author at MKT Communications!
