Aaaagh! It’s that time of year again and you haven’t done any prep…but you have so many ideas for Black Friday, pre-Christmas, Christmas gift ideas and new year promotions. What are you going to do with them all?
First of all – don’t panic. You can do this. You just have to get started now and stop stressing about it.
You need to design an emergency seasonal marketing plan that’s just for your business. It’s easy once you know how.
- Set aside some time to work on your seasonal marketing plan; a quiet afternoon before the big pre-holiday rush. That probably means RIGHT NOW as we’re already into November. Start with creating a blank chart with November to January across the top. Get another cuppa.
- Divide the page up into sections for each service that you offer. Salons could split each page into skin care and facial treatments, full body treatments, holistic treatments, nails, hair, retail and gift certificates for example. List them all down the left hand side of the page.
- If you’re a retail business you’ll know what sells best at this time of year. Get all of your best gift ideas, treats, gift boxes and two for ones listed down the side of the page.
Create your own marketing calendar
Once you have your page divided into months, and the products and services listed, you can add promotional ideas for them all under the relevant months. You’ve got loads of potential for promo dates coming up – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday (gotta love the US for marketing promotion ideas) so don’t forget those as well as the big holidays. Think creatively, can you come up with more than just a money off or value promo for any of them? Can you;
- Contact local mags, newspapers or radio and offer tips for Christmas?
- Throw an open evening and ask people to save the date?
- Find out if there’s a ‘gift guide’ for a local shopping centre you can take part in?
- What about charities close to your heart – can you get involved with fundraising?
It all helps. Plan to start your promotion early enough to get new and existing clients interested.
Once you know what you’re doing, create email campaigns well in advance. Get in touch with your regulars and offer them pre-booked appointments so that they don’t lose Christmas opportunities.
Give your clients a chance to exclusively pre-order Black Friday gifts, deals and services from you. Make them feel special and let them think they are getting something not everyone else has access to.
Seasonal marketing plan ideas
It’s all about the giving at this time of year, so why not offer your clients a small gift with every purchase of a gift certificate over a certain value – or add a little extra thank-you gift for any of the services you’re trying to promote? Everyone loves to think they are getting more for their money and it works better than a discount or cheap Groupon type deal. The more you push your business on discount sites, the cheaper people think you are so avoid doing this if you can.
A small gift doesn’t cost much to give away; sample sizes of products are often available for free, or cheaply from wholesalers with a purchase.
New Year marketing ideas
Don’t miss out on the chance to get in on the ‘New Year, New You’ trend. One great idea is to design a calendar for the year ahead and give it away as a New Year gift. It’s dead easy to do with free calendar design software like Canva. Add all of your upcoming specials, promotions and seasonal events – you can even add a coupon to every month encouraging people to buy/book with you.
Getting the seasonal message out there
Once you have it all planned, you need to tell people what you’re up to – here’s how.
- Go back to previous clients
They already love what you do, so they will be your best clients. Send out emails, invitations, and newsletters. Write blog posts that you can email links to including lots of juicy details about what you’ve got going on over the festive season.
- Use the techniques you’ve used before
No point experimenting with your marketing at the busiest time of year; stick to what’s worked for you before. If you find you get more luck with offline marketing, and in-shop offers, stick with those. If you do really well with email marketing, you know what to do.
- Use your website well
Add all your up to date Christmas and New Year offers to the website early. Add a few attractive festive touches and get writing seasonal blog posts. Promote everything on social media but don’t oversell – add loads of fun festive memes and pics, tips on how to survive the festive chaos etc.
- Get existing clients working for you!
Word of mouth is the best way EVER to get and keep new clients, so use your clientele well. Could you give out a freebie or discount for any existing clients who refer a friend? Show them how much you value them.
You can do all of these, no matter how busy you are in the run up to Christmas, and really get a rocket under your beauty or small business. These are all easy, DIY tips that will help you (and you can use the techniques all year round too).
Of course, if you really don’t have time, outsource the bits you get stuck with to someone else; if you need blogs, emails or newsletters talk to me and I’ll see how I can help you boost your business this Christmas!