Whatever your personal views of the festive season are, Christmas is less than seven weeks away - and businesses need to begin planning now if they haven't already got a seasonal strategy in place. Most businesses can enjoy a significant upturn in sales during the holiday season, but competition is high, folks. Without a carefully conceived and executed strategy, you run the risk of missing out on those vital sales. Bear in mind that £41 billion was spent in British stores last Christmas, according to the ONS.
Too many good businesses fail to pay sufficient attention to event-based marketing and view Christmas as just another period in the business calendar. So, what do you need to do to make the most of those festive sales?
Start preparing your Christmas marketing plan. Now.
We know, we know - but ignore the planning and time management stage at your peril. Ideally, you need to start this in summer, but a couple of months are generally the minimum for a strong campaign, depending on what you're hoping to achieve.
A good method is to work backwards as you think about the ideas and approaches that you will use to create impact and engagement with your customers. Factor in lead times, and bear in mind the latest realistic date for sales and fulfilment for your product, recognising that it may be before Christmas week itself.
The holiday season is a perfect fit for creativity and innovation. Smaller businesses actually have the advantage here, as they have fewer restrictions. However, some big brands also get it right every year. John Lewis is the obvious example, creating its instant-classic TV advert every Christmas:
John Lewis' 2016 Christmas advert
For smaller businesses with smaller budgets, the use of digital and quirky ideas can be a fast track to a seasonal campaign. For example:
Promotional gifts are the perfect way to make clients feel appreciated during the festive season. Check out our range of Christmas themed, personalisable merchandise here.
Once you have your creative ideas and festive marketing plan in place, make sure you devote sufficient resources to seeing them realised. Assign a manager to project–manage the Christmas marketing campaign, with a cross-functional team that includes representatives from marketing, sales and customer services. Give it internal importance and communicate your key festive messages and campaign milestones to staff, so that they are all on board and committed to generating a business push before Santa comes!
When you have planned your campaign ideas and allocated resources, make sure you also have KPIs and objectives in place, so that you can measure ROI for your activity. This will also provide important benchmark data for the following year and help you to identify the activities that brought the most return and those which can be left aside or revisited in a new way for any future campaign.
With this plan in place, you can look forward to a busy and profitable Christmas period!
If you'd like to discuss how Fluid can help you and your brand with merchandise campaigns, don't hesitate to get in touch. Just pop some details in the form below, we'll be in touch shortly!