Much like the people who claim they’ve got all their presents bought and wrapped by the end of September, some businesses begin their Christmas marketing strategy in mid-October.
There’s a lot to be said for laying the groundwork for a long and ho-ho-hopefully profitable festive season.
But we get it: you’ve been busy sorting out Halloween, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and Christmas has kinda crept up on you.
Fear not, there is still time to launch your festive marketing strategy. If you’re struggling to come up with Christmas marketing ideas that will enhance your brand, encourage customers and boost your bottom line, we’ve got your back.
Here are our top 10 last minute marketing ideas for Christmas.
1 Make your website look festive
The Christmas holidays are a great opportunity to freshen up your website and entice more visitors to come and buy gifts.
That said, nothing screams ‘Grinch’ more than a website with a measly bit of holly lobbed onto a landing page. As Noddy Holder says so well, “IT’S CHRIIIIIISSSSTTTMAAAAAASSSS”.
Cheers Nodders. But you don’t have to shed your brand identity completely to have a successful Christmas campaign.
You can either opt for a few, carefully positioned traditional graphics to show your target audience you’re getting into the holiday season spirit. Or you can go full-bore winter wonderland, with specifically designed Christmas landing pages and cover photo on your social media profiles.
Keep the customer experience and your brand values front of mind when putting together your holiday marketing and you won’t go far wrong.
2 Email your Christmas marketing campaign
We are big fans of email marketing here at 24 fingers. It’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to reach your trusted audience base and, if done well, can feel like a personalised invitation. Who can resist that?
Pack your festive newsletter with goodies, balancing your range of Christmas-themed products with discount codes for loyal customers and the deadlines by which they need to order their perfect presents.
Email marketing is a great tool for Christmas marketing campaigns. It helps drive sales because it’s a superb alternative for last-minute shoppers looking to find the best deals without trawling the High Street.
Instead, they can do their Christmas shopping from the comfort of their own homes, while slurping their body weight in hot cocoa. Perfect.
3 Say it with shoppable gift guides
No matter how late you are to the Christmas marketing campaign party, having a gift guide is an absolute must.
We love them, and think they are one of the best marketing ideas at any time of the year. They enter a league of their own at Christmas, when so many existing and new customers are looking for the perfect gift.
Even small businesses putting together last minute Christmas marketing campaigns will benefit from a gift guide, and they don’t have to look like your run-of-the-mill catalogue either.
As with your website, you can have lots of fun with the layout and design. Just make sure it is packed with high-quality images, lots of detailed descriptions and – most important of all – shoppable links for a truly smooth user experience.
Use an email blast, blog post or social media channels (more of them in a bit) to advertise it and get those holiday shopping clicks coming your way.
4 Use gift cards to boost your Christmas marketing campaign
Nothing says Christmas quite like the hordes of last minute buyers, frantically searching for something nice for their office’s Secret Santa or a pernickety parent-in-law. Ask Emma about the time she gave a stapler hidden in a jelly. Classic.
Gift cards are the answer to all their prayers and it is why they are the third-most popular last minute gift idea at Christmas.
As with your gift guides, you should pull out all the stops with the design of your festive gift card. Lots of businesses use their company colours to boost brand recognition during the holiday season, while others stick to a traditional Christmas theme.
Whatever you do for your Christmas campaign, try to make it Instagram worthy and who knows – your holiday marketing campaign could go viral. Boooom.
5 Offer free gift wrapping and shipping
This is arguably one of the best Christmas marketing ideas. If you have ever been handed a gift that looked like it had been chewed by next door’s dog or delivered by a certain courier company, you’ll know what we mean.
Gift wrapping takes the pressure off anyone who has spent 20 minutes trying to find the end of the sticky tape, only to drop it on the floor, watch it roll under the sofa and burst into tears. (That may be us. We couldn’t possibly comment.)
Aside from saving on all that stress, free gift wrapping adds value to your business proposition and enhances the consumer experience.
If you also offer free shipping among your Christmas marketing ideas, customers may feel inclined to spend a little more, potentially boosting your holiday revenue.
6 Partner up for more Christmas marketing ideas
Christmas is a time for getting together with loved ones and friends, but it’s also a great excuse to partner up with people or organisations as part of your holiday promotions.
We all know the Christmas season can be harder for some people. Joining forces with a local charity and showcasing their work on social media as part of your and their Christmas marketing campaigns can do wonders for them – and you’ll get a warm fuzzy feeling to boot.
Influencers can also be a gift that keeps on giving for many businesses. Finding someone on Instagram or TikTok who shares your field could lead to cracking Christmas marketing ideas you’d never previously considered.
7 Create holiday videos for social media
Even when people are up to their eyeballs in the Christmas spirit (for us that’s the combination of cheese and Prosecco. We’re from Essex), they can always muster up the energy to check their social media feed.
Use that desire as part of your holiday themed marketing strategy. Keep your target audience glued to their mobile devices by posting entertaining short snippets on social media pages. Tell them what you’re up to and find out how their holidays are going.
Not only will it keep their levels of holiday cheer topped up, but you can also let them know about upcoming flash sales or even hint at what might be on offer in your post-Christmas sales.
8 Personalise your Christmas holiday shopping offerings
Every aspect of your Christmas marketing campaign should try to engage with and attract customers on a personal level as they do their holiday shopping.
Including hand-written notes with purchases is a great way to do this. A simple message on a quality piece of card can have a huge impact on your buyer, who will could then go on to tell their followers on social media.
The positive emotions stirred up by that precious user generated content (UGC) could give your business a boost that lasts long after most Christmas campaigns have ended.
9 Bundle products for the holiday season
Is it just us, or does everyone get themselves a little (or not-so-little) something when looking at gift ideas while Christmas shopping for others?
If we love it when products are bundled together for the festive season, chances are your customers will too. That’s why so many businesses do it as part of their Christmas marketing campaigns.
Bundling products for gift guides shouldn’t be restricted to the holiday season, but at a time when so many customers are looking for gift ideas, it makes sense to prioritise the festive holidays: it’s a perfect way to boost sales.
10 Host a Christmas giveaway or flash sale
The turkey is barely cooling in the fridge before the starting pistol is fired on the Christmas sales. Yet businesses that are paying attention to their customers will be one step ahead, thanks to their Christmas marketing plan.
Holding a holiday themed giveaway or flash sale of items from your gift guide during the festive period is a great idea. As well as potentially giving you more sales, it will engage those consumers looking for an online shopping bargain.
For a successful flash sale, drop the news on social media the day before, then send out an email campaign or text warning customers of a not-to-be-missed promotion.
Make it mobile friendly and enticing, with visible links from all your social media platforms to the relevant landing page.
So there you have it: our top 10 Christmas marketing ideas for last minute campaigns.
Whether you want to put together tinsel-filled email campaigns or craft cracking, festive Instagram stories for the holidays, 24 fingers can help with social media strategy for small businesses. Talk to us and get goodies all year round.
