Christmas is a very profitable time of year for our clients. Online stores see a dramatic increase in sales and our clients with offline stores also enjoy more foot traffic and sales.

Plan your Christmas promotions

Many clients offer pre-Christmas sales and free add-ons to entice customers.  Planning to have enough stock available is of course incredibly important. Some clients also like to have enough products so that they have offerings for their Boxing Day Sale.

Many shoppers will begin their Christmas shopping months before.  If you can get these early shoppers signed up to your mailing list, you can promote your sales throughout the holiday period via newsletter.

If your business is in the service industry, there’s no reason why you can’t offer a Christmas promotion. It just requires some thought.

If you’re a business coach, you might like to offer a free phone consultation to brainstorm business opportunities during the holiday season.

Be clear about when your Christmas promotions will begin and end

If you add information to your website with special offers, ensure that your dates are clear on the special and that it is consistent. Customers will express their displeasure if they find inconsistencies between what is offered in a promotion and what they receive.  Customer displeasure can be difficult to measure, particularly if the method of expression is simply to shop elsewhere, which is often the case.

 Work backwards to determine your timeline and logistics

Determining your promotions

• What has been popular during the year?
• What has brought in the most revenue?

Once your promotions are determined

• Create the wording
• Decide the promotion period dates
• Order or create your website graphics
• Order the products or supplies
• Create your marketing plan with dates and times for your promotions
• What channels will you use and when?

Other considerations

• Last posting date for Christmas delivery
• Christmas wrapping
• Christmas message to clients and/or Christmas gifts

Update your website

• Ensure your product pages are SEO friendly and can be found in search
• Make sure your product titles will resonate with potential customers and the description provides enough information, while being to the point and using keywords
• Check that your product pages look great and that the photos really show your products in the best light
• Introduce a “Christmas Gifts” category to your store whether online, offline or both
• Check that your website is mobile friendly. A lot of potential customers will be shopping while they are commuting
• Give your site a festive feel, add some mistletoe to your logo and baubles to your banner

Lastly and most importantly, take the time to ensure that you enjoy your Christmas. With the right plans in place, your Christmas promotions can create joy in your life too, not just in the lives of your clients and customers.