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We almost hear the bells- Christmas season is almost upon us! If you haven’t already begun to play ‘All I want for Christmas is You’ on repeat or prepping for the Holiday sales, don’t fret, we’re here to help! The total projected spendings for the holidays come up to $119.99 billion- now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the past, you cannot afford to miss out on the last opportunity of the year.

Hum a carol and follow us as we outline five quick easy Christmas marketing ideas for small businesses!

1. On the First Day of Christmas my True Love Gave to Me

What we mean is…plan a 12 days of Christmas campaign!

If you’re looking for ideas on how to promote 12 days of Christmas, you are in the right place. Start a campaign right on the 15th of December, leading up to with each day unveiling a new and exciting offer: customise your store front to represent the offer of the day!

With 12 days of different offers, a number of opportunities open up: you can offer special discounts on certain products, do lucky draws and giveaways (which allows you to build a solid emailing list), create one on one free sales, free shipping over certain amounts- the possibilities are endless.

While these offers are definitely perfect for hooking customers into purchasing your product and return to your store at a later point, you will have to spread the word and make your store sound enticing. Thus 12 days of Christmas goes hand in hand with email marketing!

Create ad campaigns that inspire people to investigate further: these needn’t even give away what you are selling, just lure them to click…and then, you can capture them.

That brings us to the second awesome holiday marketing tip:

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2. Sleigh the Internet

Create Content that is New and has Viral Potential!

The tricky part: creating content that draws audience to your store and makes them stay long enough to check out your products. The internet is constantly bombarded with wacky, interesting ideas. Standing out is going to be difficult- but fun! Grab a slice of fame and turn it into a strategy for your store.

Some wacky ideas to get into the limelight:

• Put up a video of your family singing carols
• Have Christmas music at the check-out
• Add elf pop-ups
• Create ad campaigns with humorous copy
• Send emails with a brief history of Christmas
• Use gifs!

Basically, try new ideas! You’re doing more than sell a product here. You’re setting a brand culture and inviting people to be part of the community.

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Sure, those holiday sales sound sweet, but you know what would be better? A brand image that stays imprinted in the customers’ minds even after the holiday season is over.

More on building a brand through holiday promotions in the next point!

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3. The Celebration Goes On!

The best Christmas promotions are ones that create long-lasting impact on your audience. Of course, sales will be high during the holiday season. But we want you to be more than one-hit wonders: to have returning, loyal customers, sell the brand lifestyle- don’t just focus on the product and the discounts on it: show them what buying into your brand stands for.

To do this: first have a clear view of who your target market is, and what their primary motivations are. For example, Nike targets high earning, young individuals who want to combine fashion and athletic activity: selling them the exact lifestyle they see themselves living.  Create marketing campaigns and and construct your site such that consumers are able to envision themselves living a better (but believable) version of their life- through your products.

Provide them with more than a shoe or a phone case: be outspoken about the long-term value of partnering with your brand.

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Holiday marketing strategies are simply usual marketing efforts on steroids: For a successful holiday season, you need to give your best!

4. The More the Merrier!

Start an affiliate plan! Whether it is partnering up with more established businesses and having them promote your products—or collaborating with clients through a mutual action plan to ensure aligned goals and shared success.

But the best way to go about it is…YouTube! 68% of shoppers visit YouTube on their smartphones to determine what to buy.

Surprised? Videos are easier to process than text, and influencers online can really do your store a big turn. More than half of the shopping popular pays close attention to the recommendations from people they love. Influencer marketing works if you find people with authority on social media with the audience that fits right into your target.

Typical influencers are people who have gained their audience’s trust beforehand- someone the audience listens to, and responds to, positively.

Can’t find an appropriate influencer? Create your own product videos using pictures, graphics and text easily with apps such as iMovie. For successful holiday marketing campaigns, you need to turn digital marketer, brand manager and content creator all together!

Second, people are twice more likely to buy a product or avail a service if a friend recommends it: so get that referral program up an running- Smile.io or Loyalty Lion are apps on Shopify that can help you quickly set up a system!

Decide on your incentive: usually retailers go with either a discount coupon for the next buy or a cash incentive. If you expect the customers to return, depending on your product- jewelry or clothing are niches where discount coupons would be adequate. However, with furniture or hefty items that are not purchased all that often, cash incentives might be a better idea!

Lastly, make sure news about your referral program reaches your customers: send them a casual, warm email!

5. Cashing in on the Gifts

Give your customers a 5 Day Return-Money Back Guarantee. And if you’re feeling adventurous, have cash on delivery + a money back guarantee. Sure, it’s a bit of a risk: but psychology dictates that once people own an object, they assign greater value to it. Ever wonder why automobile companies allow test drives? Exactly.

Once a customer holds the product in their hands and a sense of ownership floods them, they are very less likely to return the product. This adds to your credibility, at no extra cost. Putting the message across bold will only help customers trust your products- you must be really confident about the product: why would you proclaim a full refund policy otherwise?

Second- try a different game plan than a flat 10% off on all products.

Problem: Products that  are on the high end of the price range.

Solution: An offer with $50 off. The offer stated in dollars would make a better impact that saying 15% off.

Conversely, saying $5 off on a $15 product is a no-go. Rise with the tide, fall with the tide.

Two: Get your glasses on and analyse some data- which is the product that is most popular on your store, based on activity from the past few months? The product that sees maximum abandoned carts? Or the product spend a lot of time viewing, but never purchase?

Step Three of Plan Maximise your Sales is consumer research. Work on different buyer personas and find out which products appeal to which kind of customers and what tactic would work best for them- there could be customers who look for high-end items, with price being no bar. Send them a peek into your exclusive collection. Customers who ONLY buy on sale: target them with huge offer banners! Personalisation is the key.

Apart from the above, don't forget to create landing pages specific to targeted audiences- This is the most perfect time of the year to go all out. Take risks with your holiday campaigns: holiday shopping gets a little crazy, and you can too!

We leave you on this note-

Go for it: Winter it coming, and this one is going to be the best ever!