Updated 12 September 2022.
Christmas is coming!
Yeap, it's already September! That means Christmas is around the corner. This year especially, businesses need to be ready now for the Christmas rush.
Pinterest has outlined that brands who participated in more ‘micro moments’ in the lead-up and around the Christmas period saw up to a 4x higher conversion rate compared to those who only focused on Christmas. This means that your business needs to plan our Q4 and into Q1 now. You can read more on their holiday hub.
What your business can do to be ready
1. Plan, plan, plan
I've said it before, and I will repeat it. Planning is a crucial element of your marketing cycle. Plan out what else is happening around the Christmas holiday period. Will your business be closing at all over Christmas? What other events are happening that you need to workaround? What do your competitors usually do and how are you going to combat it?
You should also consider what content you will need to have created now, before the Christmas rush happens.
Content to consider:
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Blog articles
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Social media posts
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Emails
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E-books
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End of year videos
2. Turn to history
Review your previous year's marketing plans and results for the Christmas period. What worked well, and what didn't work well? You should also look at your competitor's campaigns and highlight what was good and bad.
Review your website analytics, social media insights, sales for the Christmas period in previous years and any other data that you have. Try and identify trends and take note of the things that worked previously.
3. Decide on your promotions
Many industries rely on price promotions over the Christmas period. 2022 is going to be no different, especially considering the current economic climate for a lot of Australians. Take some time now to review what products you will have available for consumers, and which ones you can afford to drop prices on.
If you can't afford to drop prices much for your products or services, consider additional add-ons you can include as a value add for customers. For online retailers, this might consist of free shipping, gift-wrapping or future discounts.
4. Update your marketing collateral
Make sure your marketing collateral has its Christmas outfit ready to go. Update your packaging, get your website ready, re-format your flyers and get your signage ready.
5. Local trends
Look at your local community, is there a push to 'buy local, support local' this year? What else is happening in your local area? Are there special networks established to advertise your Christmas offerings?
