14 tips to prepare for your Christmas campaigns

How to perform properly and increase your turnover in the strongest season for online trade

As important as it is for online commerce, Black Friday is just the beginning of Christmas shopping. For some retailers, the holiday shopping rush makes up 30% of their entire annual turnover. Although the data is for the US, we can also relate it to our reality, where neither traffic jams just before the holidays nor full malls and queues at couriers are rare phenomena.

What should you keep in mind to prepare for your Christmas campaigns? We'll tell you in our festive guide for small and medium-sized businesses. 🎄

Set goals

Boring. Yes, but no. We won't stop saying it - every successful campaign starts with the goals you want to achieve with it. They should be:

• easily measurable,
• clearly defined,
• specific,
• achievable,
• time-bound.

For example, one such goal for your Christmas campaign could be "I want to increase online order turnover by 30% from 01.12 to 22.12 compared to the same period last year". This sentence fits the above criteria and it can be easily checked if the target has been met by subtracting the relevant turnover figures for both periods.

And how to achieve it? Keep reading.

Plan campaigns to communicate on time

Before the holiday shopping starts, you need to know what you're going to do so you can start all the activities on time . Some of the ideas we'll give you below require preparation of online content and website features, so plan your team's activities accordingly.

Best to spell everything out in a festive marketing strategy where you attend:

• the targets;
• Budget;
• the channels you will use;
• ideas for campaigns you will organise;
• ideas for content you will create and publish;
• specific factors at work at this time of year
• analysis of results. :)

Allocate budget wisely

Expect most Christmas orders by 22.12 and remember that people leave these things to the last minute , so you will have the most work at the end of the period .

Allocate your budget wisely, bearing in mind that competition is fierce in this period, which will affect the price per result you will have to pay. Setting a maximum bid is a good idea to secure your position in Facebook's ad-heavy Christmas newsfeed.

Once the festive fever has passed and Christmas itself has arrived, it's a good idea to reduce your advertising budget until the end of the year because orders drop sharply at this time.

Gift guides or product grouping

"What to get for person X" is the question that torments most people in the pre-holiday period. Depending on what you offer in terms of products or services, one or more gift guides are a good idea. 🎁

This way, in addition to making it easier for your customers to choose, you'll give them ideas they may not have thought of themselves . Choose products suitable for gifting and group them by themes (for her, for him, etc.)

These gift guides can be pulled into a separate landing page with a link in your site navigation. The other less than ideal, but still workable, option are filters in the product list from which to select individual gift categories.

Option to order with packaging and inscribed card

Offer the option of ordering a pre-wrapped gift, and in the order notes field the customer can write a message for the card. It would be more work for you, but then again, many people don't have any time and such an option would draw them to your site.

Christmas boxes - sets of popular products suitable for gift giving

Christmas packages, boxes, kits or whatever you want to call them may seem trivial, but they are actually great suggestions that can accomplish several goals:

• Bring to the fore products whose sales you want to boost.
• Save your customers money by offering all items inside at a slightly reduced price, but be sure to communicate this.
• To facilitate customers in the choice of gifts. To this end, provide beautiful and stylish packaging.

Discounts and gifts

💡Try to get ahead of your competitors with irresistible offers for the holidays to boost traffic to your site. You can offer different things to your new customers and your existing ones. Some good ideas are:

• free shipping;
• percentage discount;
• gift for orders over a certain value or for all orders.

The truth is that nothing attracts customers more than the opportunity to save money, whether it's Christmas or not.

Thematic content on your social networks and blog

Here it is good to start early. Depending on what you're offering, you may want to focus on holiday-themed content close to your products.

Some ideas suitable for businesses in different fields are:

• holiday recipes;
• New Year's resolutions;
• gift ideas - custom, more unusual or DIY;
• focus on specific products from your catalogue;
• holiday giveaway;
• festive quiz;
• Christmas activity ideas for the whole family.

Lead generation with thematic content

Use some of the above ideas to create free Christmas content to use in a lead generation campaign to collect email addresses of potential customers.

Plan to launch no later than early December so you have time to collect email addresses and then send them a few promotional holiday campaigns to get them closer to ordering.

You can also target the same audience on social networks by creating a custom audience. Be sure to use all available channels - with good planning they can complement each other and amplify the reach of your message.

Bet on holiday email campaigns

Change your usual email campaign design and create a few specifically for your Christmas activities. In them, communicate your themed content and festive product offers. For each campaign, choose a mix of promotional and entertainment content to keep your subscribers interested. 🎁

Plan a Christmas campaign with a cause

Christmas is a special time when we reach out to our loved ones and families and share with them the comfort of homemade food, gifts and love. So it is at this time that we most often think of those who are deprived of these things.

Donating a portion of the proceeds from your Christmas campaign to charity is a common practice that, in addition to building a good image for your brand, really helps those in need. Last but not least, it also makes your customers feel good knowing that they are doing good through their order.

You can partner with selected influencers in your industry to spread the word about your campaign, and you'll reach their audience.

Christmas landing page

Bring all your Christmas offers together in one themed landing page with a beautiful festive design and clear calls to action.

Our 25 ideas to optimize your landing pages will be helpful to you to create leads, designs and messages that convert.

Clear communication about the order timeframe

When promoting your offerings, be sure to clearly communicate what the order deadline is so products reach customers in time for the holidays.

If you have a physical location, announce what the holiday hours will be . These are elementary things, but they improve the customer experience.

Take care of the organisation of work

Take into account the couriers' working hours

During the holidays they are off - plan your last orders accordingly so that no shipments arrive on time.

Motivate employees

🎀 Inmany companies, especially smaller ones that deal with e-commerce, the holiday season is extremely busy. Show your employees that you appreciate their efforts.

Check availability

In order not to be disappointed, do not let any of the advertised products run out. This is especially important if you're running a large-scale, big-budget campaign from which you expect lots of orders.

With our tips, you can easily conquer the holiday shopping fever and organize successful Christmas campaigns. Take care of the customer experience first, because Christmas is only a few days away, but the shopping occasions don't end there.
When you need help with your marketing strategy, it's always a good idea to contact professionals. Request a consultation with ADvantage digital agency now.