The holidays are waiting just around the corner ready to jump you with holiday sales and Christmas promotions like an inverse mugging; how do brands stand out with so much commercial noise? It comes down to how you decide to market your business.
Stay true to your brand, don’t just do a holiday promotion that doesn’t even relate to what your company stands for. Christmas shouldn’t be an excuse to do something just because everyone else is doing it, it’s a chance to create unique marketing that aligns with your business’ values. So put on that itchy, ugly Christmas sweater, sit down, grab yourself a mug of eggnog, warm up a cinnamon bun, and let’s get into it.
Plan Out Your Results
Like every good marketing campaign it helps tremendously to know what results you’re looking to attain. Is this Christmas season a chance for you to grow a social media follower count? Maybe you just want a few extra sales on one of your more expensive product lines? Define what those are or you’ll get to the end of your Christmas campaign sorting through lumps of coal in your metaphorical business stocking.
Inventory management and “stocking” up should not be under-prioritized either. This is the Christmas holidays we’re talking about after all, people go crazy trying to get Christmas presents. Not necessarily as insane as Black Friday, but people still foam at the mouth trying to get gifts for family members they couldn’t possibly go without. Look into your previous year’s data to find out sales patterns emerge. Don’t forget, you can always sell more products, but to do that you need more products to sell.
Clever or Unique Ads
Image Credit: Dollar Shave Club
Christmas designs have had the same imagery year over year so much so it can be challenging to come up with something new. However, by putting in the work you can make a memorable Christmas campaign and even potentially something people positively associate with your brand. For example, Dollar Shave Club created ads that highlighted who their product wasn’t good for. Their brand is known to be a little irreverent which was highlighted in a hilarious way with their tongue-in-cheek ads.
Obviously though, your advertisements should include some element of the holidays. There’s plenty of ideas to play with when it comes to Christmas in particular. A few classic ones are new takes on Santa, Christmas trees, delivering presents, reindeer, snow and winter weather, and opening gifts just to name a couple.
The holidays can be a time people are more sensitive about what they’re celebrating, so be cautious if you’re going the irreverent or playful route. While outrage is a strong motivator for people to talk about your brand, it can also have damaging consequences. No one wants to be the brand that’s considered the “Grinch” of the holidays.
Fun Packaging
Zero people will likely be writing home about a box . . . I take that back, the internet loves unboxing videos for some reason. In any case, Christmas is a great opportunity to create some unique packaging of your own. It’s also a great opportunity to work this into your ads.
Specialty packaging is typically “limited edition” and thus more collectible as well. This can be a subtle psychological trick to encourage people to take a second glance at your products. Depending on the type of packaging you choose and how it’s designed, it could even be an additional selling feature if people can get more use out of it than just packaging material.
Holiday Theming and Colours
Another great way to create an original Christmas marketing campaign is through theming. That may sound like a lot of work (which it can be), but it can also be as little work as committing to a holiday colour scheme. You could go with the classic red and green, but plenty of brands have played around with a variety of colours. Silver and gold, blue and white, or a completely new set. You do want to evoke warm, rich colours though to really get that “warm fireplace” feel, and associate your imagery with the holidays.
Promotions, Promotions and Contests Everywhere!
This is the biggest buying period of the year for most people, so while it might be tempting to create discounts to get an edge on your competitors, you could also be stabbing yourself in the foot with a metaphorical icicle. Instead, take to social media—this is the perfect time of year to reward social media followers and encourage those not yet following your posting to start doing so. Discount codes, coupons, or gift cards for your merchandise or services are all popular choices.
If you wanted to tie it into a Christmas campaign you could even offer a larger discount by creating a social media contest and having the discount as one of the prizes. Contests are also a great way to showcase your products or brand and get more followers. However, they can also be a delicate balance when crafting them to get the social media rewards you want. You need to offer enough for people to want to engage with the contest, but not spend too much so that it’s difficult to justify the time and money you put in if you don’t get the results you hoped for.
Whatever you decide on for your marketing, don’t leave planning your Christmas campaign to the last minute. Not only can they be a lot of work to set up and plan for, the last thing you need is to have another source of stress during the holidays. Keep your holiday promotion on-brand, make it original, and you’re sure to be well on your way to a successful marketing campaign this winter season.
