Ready, Steady … Let’s do Christmas!

Have you started planning your social media and e-newsletters for the run up to Christmas? With the festive season fast approaching, now is the time to make sure that you’ve planned well ahead for Christmas and that you’re fully prepared for the busy months to come! With just over 10 weeks until Christmas, here are a few hints and tips to get you started!

E-Newsletters

• Create a template for your Christmas season e-newsletters (if you don’t already have one) to save time and create consistency.
• Consider how frequently you want to send your newsletters and the dates/times that you want it to drop into subscribers inboxes!
• Pre-prepare your newsletters so that literally all you’ll need to do is hit (or schedule) send!
• Include rewards for your subscribers, offering them exclusive ‘first looks’ at new products and a chance to purchase before everyone else, special subscriber only offers or free gifts/delivery! These are your loyal customers and you need to make them feel special! Remember that your top 8% of customers will generate 40% of your sales, so nurture them and make them feel special!

Social Media

If you’ve already created your e-newsletters, then you’ll already have some content to repurpose from there, so you’re off to a good start! If not, don’t worry! Firstly, you’ll need to tune into your customers and think about what they’re looking for. Consider what your ‘Hero’ products are and ensure that these are central to your marketing, they will drive your sales!

As there are quite a few weeks in the run up to Christmas, when you’re making your plan, consider running themes through each week and curating content around these (so that the content will remain fresh and not “samey”). There are a whole host of themes to choose from, but I’ve highlighted a few below. The timing will be crucial on some of these, e.g. if you’re selling Christmas tree decorations, take into consideration that this will need to be well in advance of people putting their trees up… and take into account postage times!

• Christmas Decor – decorating the home, Christmas tree or Christmas table.
• Gifts for Teachers – “Say thank you this Christmas”
• Cards by post – as well as sharing your card collections, also include helpful reminders of last posting dates for Christmas.
• Gifts by post – your products perfectly postable? do you send gifts wrapped and directly to the recipients?
• Wrapping and Accessories – from selling gift wrap to offering a gift wrapping service, there’s lots to include here.
• Stocking fillers – perfect nearer the time, lower priced and often more impulsive purchases!
• Price points – Gifts under £10, Gifts under £15, Gifts under £25 etc. It’s vital that you include a range of these as buyers often look at price points when purchasing a gift for a particular person!

So now that you’ve got some themes to run through your posts, what’s next on the check list?! Create posts that show a little personality and a sprinkle of festive fun! Here are just a selection of ideas!

• Countdown posts such as ‘X days until Christmas’, ‘X Saturdays until Christmas’, ‘X shopping days until Christmas’!
• Advent Calendar windows for December featuring a different product, service, aspect of your business every day – WARNING you’ll really have to commit to this one! If you’re posting everyday you may wish to schedule these posts in advance to ensure that they go out on the right date and help with time management when you’re snowed under with orders!
• Christmas competitions, special offers and giveaways! Share your latest and encourage Followers to subscribe to your newsletter for the latest news!
• Share lifestyle posts such as top tips for preparing for Christmas, whether it be demonstrating gift wrapping techniques, recommended recipes or sharing Christmas traditions; ensure that these link into your products
• Quizzes and polls – these are a fun way to find out more about your customers and getting them to engage with you.

Finally… make it as simple as possible to buy. With so much to do on the run up to Christmas, customers are often looking for the simplest and quickest ways to purchase when it comes to Christmas shopping, particularly online! Make sure there are no glitches in your website and send customers to it with as few steps as possible. Include links and tags to your products in your social posts and check that your links to shop in your Instagram bio are in priority order and up-to-date!