Christmas Promotions  – The how, the what and the when!

The festive season is on the doorstep and with many customers now turning their minds to planning Christmas, as a brand you need to make sure you grab your fair share of the market. And that means creating a Christmas promotion campaign that attracts the interest of customers.

At Envisage Promotions, everything we do is marketing and promotion, and we put our heads together and came up with these great ideas…

The HOW of Christmas Promotions

The festive season is for many retailers, the time of year when they make the bulk of their profit. And so it makes sense to maximise every sale in the run-up to the big day.

However, assuming that people will buy because ‘it is Christmas’ is not maximising anything and so a festive promotion strategy is essential.

It doesn’t have to be a weighty document but it should clearly spell out;

* Goals – what you want to achieve
* Objectives – how you will achieve these goals. They need to be measurable.
* Main activities – which promotions will you use?
* The schedule – the plan should be a crescendo, starting small and ending on a high
* Review – did it work? Your objectives are your measuring sticks.

The WHAT- Three promotional ideas for the coming festive season

I. Surveys and feedback in exchange for promo vouchers
Who doesn’t love money off or a chance to save some cash at the till? For you as a brand, this can be an important tool in getting information and feedback from your customers about what they do and don’t want for you, your products and services.
By trading money off for their opinions, you can engage with customers on a variety of topics. Even better is when you have professional promotional staff targeting your customer demographic.

II. Go exclusive
The number of closed websites that offer exclusive member-only discounts are increasing. A 2017 study found that 85% of consumers showed an improved willingness to buy when they were provided with exclusive offer and promotions.
Many of these sites are free but consumers have to register with them. You can emulate this in your high street stores by encouraging customers to sign up to e-newsletters or to take up a loyalty card or membership.
This way, you have a ready audience for promotions beyond the festive season. Why not hire promotional staff for a ‘sign up event’?

III. Make more of social media
All too often, smaller businesses will have in-store promotions and separate social media promotions. Whilst this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, dove-tailing the two can improve results.

The thing with social media, however, is understanding where your customers are at. Younger customers tend to be hanging out in Snap Chat and Instagram, whilst the 30+ somethings tend to be found on Facebook although the influence of Instagram is growing, and businesses and professionals can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.

From competitions to timed money off codes, strengthen your social media presence in the run-up to Christmas.

The WHEN of Christmas Promotions

Start your promotional activities after Halloween or as close to the end of October as you dare. Consumers may complain about tinsel in shops too early but sneaking a few festive goodies into your retail space starts consumers thinking about buying their gifts in good time.

Tell us, what are your plans this Christmas? Do you need help with promotional or temporary sales staff? Let us know! We love all the weird and wonderful ideas people have and we are always here to help.