Quick Ways To Make This Xmas Extra Merry For Your Business
Believe it or not, there are just nine weekends until Christmas! We’re at the pointy end of 2013, and businesses around Australia are bracing themselves for the onslaught of consumers. Last year, Aussie shoppers forked out an average of $1200 per person – that’s an incredible $32 billion, throughout the festive season.
Christmas Marketing Ideas For 2013
There’s a good reason why we whip out the credit cards with merry abandon once the tinsel hits shopping centres – the nature of shopping for others and not to ourselves makes it super easy to justify spending just that little bit more. Coupled this with the fact that Christmas only come once a year, it’s the one time on the calendar where consumers are primed to spend – and it’s the best time of year for any business to maximise their sales.
But if you’re not putting a little strategy into your efforts, you’re…well, being the ‘silly’ in the silly season. Here are some easy marketing ideas any business can use to make their holiday sales just that little bit merrier:
Remember that a Christmas tree is just a regular pine tree with tinsel.
Let’s get one thing straight. Christmas is not just a time for retailers! Any business, goods or services provider can make use of the merry time of year – it’s simply a matter of enlisting some clever marketing ideas & techniques and adding a bit of festive flair to your products. Gift vouchers are one of the best ways to offer your business as a gift, even if it doesn’t fit into the ‘traditional’ gift category.
Don’t be scared to think outside of the box! There are plenty of options – gardeners can offer a summer garden makeover voucher, childcare centres could run a fun kids club for the school holidays, cafes can hold barista and baking classes. A study last year estimated that one in three of us opted for the digital voucher over a physical present last year making gift cards a huge, growing opportunity. The trick is simply to ensure your mailbox marketing campaigns are strategically timed in the months leading up to the big day to promote what you have on offer! How often? We follow the common frequency rule of three.
Christmas is an event; it’s more than just presents.
It might seem like all we do in December is un-wrap piles of lavish gifts, but the festive season is more than just what is under the tree! Once you’ve figured out what role your business plays in the celebrations, tailor your local area marketing campaign to tap into this insight. For example, if you’re a butcher, grocer or fish monger, you could do a mailbox drop of delicious festive recipes, featuring your produce. Auto mechanics or car yards could do a check list of simple car maintenance tips for the long drive to visit relatives. Restaurants can distribute special menus and details of their holiday banquet or catering options. Gyms could send around tips for avoiding the dreaded ‘Christmas spread’ (and perhaps a voucher for a free visit in the New Year to kick start those resolutions!).
If you’re marketing to both sexes the same way at Christmas time, you’re doing it wrong.
Anyone who’s spent any time shopping with a significant other will know that the way men and women tackle shopping for the festive season are completely opposite.
Men are goal oriented. Once they know who they’re shopping for and what they’re buying, they’re unlikely to deviate from this list. Christmas shopping is usually achieved in 45 minutes, two days before Christmas, with minimal fanfare (and a couple of recovery beverages afterwards)! At least one of your Christmas marketing campaigns should tap into this behaviour – try a flyer outlining your last minute delivery service or gift wrapping options. And don’t forget, many men don’t even think about Christmas shopping until the week before, so a flyer distribution campaign targeted at them directly in November isn’t going to be as effective as mid-December.
Women, on the other hand, like to browse. Shopping is a social activity, they like to peruse, look for alternatives, purchase items that aren’t on the list and they’ll usually spread it over a few of weeks. They also like to research their options beforehand, and go back another day to actually buy the gift. Support this by distributing marketing catalogues and brochures early, such as mid to late November, helping them to first see what you offer so they can plan it into their lists, before sending out a reminder in the first weeks of December. And don’t forget clearly include directions to the store as well as your opening hours!
Make emergency gifting easy.
Every Christmas you can pretty much lay a safe bet on the fact that at some stage, you will need an emergency present. Between forgetting someone on the list, a friend unexpectedly rocking up to drinks with a present and family members bringing new partners to dinner, we’re usually doing the emergency dash to a bottle shop. This is why the growing retail trend towards blank vouchers – that allow you to activate and add money to, on demand, is awesome. (Even in the car on the way to the restaurant!)
And there’s no reason why you can’t do the same. Create a beautifully designed voucher, drop it into letterboxes around town with instructions on how to activate the voucher online, and not only have you created a super convenient gift that customers will love you for, but you’ve got a low effort sales stream.
There’s no need to create a high tech portal a la the Big Retailers either, simply set up a Paypal account, and a linked app that will auto-generate a unique code sent to an email address when the payment has been processed.
Pro Tip: Studies show that we suffer from decision fatigue (which explains why we can never pick a spot in an empty car park!), so make things super easy for your customers by having just a few voucher price options to choose from, rather than an open amount.
After more Christmas marketing ideas for your small business? Don’t forget to take a quick look at our other posts to prepare you for the holiday season!
Whether it is flyers advertising your Christmas specials, catalogues promoting your hampers, or blank gift vouchers families could stash up for that emergency Christmas present, LDN can help you deliver it to almost any street in Australia, on any week! Jump onto www.ldn.net.au and grab a quote for flyer design, print and distribution, all in just minutes!
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