Make sure your business is festive ready

 

Is your business festive ready?

 

Many consumers are shopping early but others are still waiting for the big discounts.  Deciding what activation is right for your brand is more important than ever now.

If you don’t have a ‘festive’ or Q4 plan, consider creating one.  Set an objective(s) so that you can test and measure what works.  It’s not too late to work up even the smallest of campaigns which can be measured for results and learnings.

 

What to consider for any Christmas campaign plan

 

  • Communicate to your database in the build-up to Black Friday and Christmas
  • Offer early bird ordering incentives to your trade and consumers
  • Make sure to have nurture trails in place for check out online, check your email flows and test them
  • Keep your content relevant and honest to your customers
  • Support your trade customers as well as your B2C customers
  • Use your review platforms to increase your brand awareness
  • Pick up the phone and talk to your stockists, don’t just rely on emails
  • Find like-minded and complimentary brands to collaborate with. This can help increase your brand awareness and grow your community
  • Collaborate to offer in-box leaflets and deliveries, enabling you to reach new consumers
  • Look for last minute PR opportunities and ensure you leverage any PR you receive

 

Add festive cheer to your website and social

 

Your website is your shop window so make sure to show seasonal changes. Many bands will wait until post-Halloween to switch up the festive tone of their website.

  • Make it easy to shop for both trade and consumers – always think three clicks or less. This is best practice for Amazon
  • Switch up your email signatures to align to a festive campaign message
  • Share your festive images early with your stockists
  • Share the postal strike dates to encourage early purchases and to avoid disappointment
  • Share your last order date for Christmas on your homepage
  • Look at your SEO and see if there are key niches in which you create traction in
  • Use your social channels to message consistently
  • Monitor stock and push the underperforming stock to drive sales.
  • Ensure your stock levels are linked to your website to manage expectations and create a sense of urgency

 

The festive season offers so much, make your plan, set your objective(s), and go and win this festive season.