For many businesses, Christmas represents a great opportunity for some creative marketing, however, like with any good PR campaign, planning is key and ensuring you have launched it early enough.
Arguably the most consumer driven time of the year (especially from a B2C – ‘business to customer’ perspective), there are plenty of opportunities for companies to market their products, however, standing out from the crowd can make all the difference.
Particularly in industries such as retail and potentially hospitality, some businesses identify Christmas as the period that will either ‘make or break’ their year, though putting that amount of pressure on yourself, especially as a small business owner can be very stressful.
While there are numerous of marketing tactics that can be used, often aligning with the time of the year and event can have a significant impact; especially for those who are fans of Christmas.
When businesses, or marketers in particular tap into the emotions of a customer in the right way, they can sell them almost anything and the ‘feel good’ feeling that a lot of people associate with Christmas can act as a powerful factor for businesses to take advantage.
Let’s take a look at some of the clever ways that businesses can make the most of the festive period and ultimately drive their sales.
Hire a Santa Claus
Businesses perhaps don’t realise the positive effect that having a Santa Claus on their premises can have on sales figures. This could especially be true for any hospitality venue (providing there is enough space), with Santa acting as a great draw for people with young children.
A cafe for example can make money out of ‘mum and dad’ or grandparents with hot drinks and mince pies, while their children see Santa and if there is a queue, this provides ample opportunity to market more products to them, whether with pictures or actual displays (cake stand).
The money that a venue might spend on hiring a Santa Claus could earn the business a significant return on investment, based on the amount of customers that it gets through its doors.
Freebies
Who doesn’t love free stuff?! This kind of thing is easy to do in the hospitality industry, especially if you orientate it around Christmas. Cafes for example, could have a day where they give out a free mince pie to every customer who buys a hot/cold drink as a way of driving more footfall over the following weeks.
Play Christmas music (quite loud)
While some people might be sick of hearing it (usually staff!) by mid-December, the psychological effect that playing upbeat Christmas music can have on consumerism is considerably positive.
This is especially true for pubs and bars as it generally puts people in a good mood; it also makes the venue sound busy, which as a result creates a positive atmosphere which, around the festive period a lot of people appreciate. It is also true that many associate Christmas with drinking alcohol, so most pubs and bars will generally witness an uplift in sales anyway, however, playing Christmas music is not only a sensible tactic; it’s costs nothing extra!
Creative Marketing (Advent Calendar)
Especially if done online, this presents a business with a great way to boost social media followers and engagement. This though, can eat considerably into a marketing budget, so essentially may only be viable for larger more established companies.
What it will ultimately do though is raise awareness and drive engagement and, depending on the kind of business, would involve some kind of daily (token) giveaway to the first ‘x’ people who took a call to action on the business in question’s website. If advertised via social media (whether paid or organic), this will likely drive more people through the marketing funnel, though ultimately raise awareness.
It could be that as the days run down, the prizes increase and the amount of winners decrease until Christmas Eve, where every entry throughout that month is entered into a ‘Grand Prize’ draw.
Ultimately, running competitions and offers is a great way to draw attention over Christmas and, generally it is those companies who have the best ideas and who can get them out there effectively who gain over their competition.
With over 100,000 actively interested customers, Snizl is a platform where businesses can easily and efficiently create the competition that they want and quickly get it in front of a relevant and engaged audience. Why not take advantage with a 30 day, non-obligatory free trial today and make it a Happy Christmas for your business!