Christmas means big business for many companies, but achieving success with your Christmas campaign doesn’t happen by chance. If you run a retail business or one which is seasonal such as winter clothing, then your campaign planning should already be well underway and here’s why.
Magazine, newspaper, website and television advertising space will be booked up long before the ads actually go out, so even if your final design isn’t yet completed, you do need to book your space sooner rather than later to achieve a prime spot.
Many magazines finalise their winter editions in September, so for your business or product to be featured in time for the big Christmas shopping rush you need to make sure that they know about you and what you’re offering.
Now is the time to be having design meetings and creating a solid design strategy for your advertising. Will you have a theme? A character? A slogan? All of this needs to be decided upon so that any filming, photography and marketing materials can be created over the next month. Have a fantastic communications strategy in place that ensure your message is consistent across all mediums and really highlights to prospective customers and clients how important your product will be to them this Christmas.
Depending on what you produce, there are other avenues for you to explore, including promoting your business through relevant bloggers who can review your products or services. Whether your business is relevant to parents, travellers, chefs or techies, there are high-profile bloggers who can get your message to thousands of their readers.
Social media is a very powerful tool, so if you are planning some amazing special offers or have a brand new product launching in time for Christmas, create a teaser campaign to drum up interest or run a giveaway which will get people talking and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. Hashtags work wonders in this modern world, so it’s worth creating a snappy, memorable tag that can feature on your advertising and encourage engagement on social media.
Do you have extra staff on hand to deal with additional orders or enquiries? It may seem like an obvious factor to consider, but underestimate the level of customer interaction you’ll have to deal with and you could end up with some very disgruntled people who will then not want to come back to you for future purchases.
In the busy, often crazy build up to Christmas, don’t forget that immediately after comes January and in January people like sales! Are you planning to run a sale? Now is the time to start thinking about your promotional strategies. This is also relevant before Christmas, when people love to grab a bargain to ease the pressure of Christmas shopping for the whole family.
Whatever you hope to get out of the busy Christmas period, now is the time to be stepping away from the drawing board and putting your marketing plans into action. Every year, new products and services are thrust into the spotlight and you need to be ahead of the game to ensure that yours is one of them.
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