5 Christmas Digital Marketing Strategy Tips

It has once again come to that time of year where we start thinking about Christmas. Festive lovers are already sure to be bouncing with excitement, whilst others complain it’s getting earlier every year, but the truth is that in the realm of digital marketing you need to start planning early if you want to have the best chance of boosting your sales over the Christmas period.

It’s a tricky time for businesses – even though customers are spending lots around Christmas time (£25 billion was spent on online retail shopping in the UK in 2016), they are also recipients of mass advertising campaigns and promotions from every company. With that in mind, you may be wondering how do you stand out from the competition and let your voice be heard. To help you out, I am going to share with you 5 tips that you can easily implement to boost your Christmas digital marketing strategy.

1. Get festive with your online branding

This is the perfect time to snuggle up and get cosy with your designer, even maybe over mulled wine or dare I say a figgy pudding. You want all of your marketing materials to tie in with the seasonality and use it as a chance to promote the products or services your customers really want. This is the time to update your website (a Christmas banner never hurt anyone), and give your social media profiles a little makeover to make them sparkle. Whether you send out vouchers/emails/newsletters/catalogues to your customers, make sure they’re festive too. In doing so, you will help create a buzz around your brand and aid customer engagement.

2. Do a social media campaign

Now that you and your designer are on the same page, it’s time to get the social media person on board. Leading up to the final stages of the year there are plenty of holidays and festivities you can be jumping on, so it’s a smart idea to start deciding on your promotions and planning your content. During Christmas time, content is cardinal. To make sure you’re in pole position to create captivating content I would suggest setting up a content calendar so you can clearly visualise what you are going to be sharing over social media and promoting over the Christmas period. Maybe you’re a clothing retailer and want to promote festive garments? Or possibly a coffee company wanting to push a limited edition festive blend? Whatever the nature of your business, there is always something you can be promoting and coming up with creative content for.

This point is especially important, as mobile marketing is becoming more and more of a significant channel for both buyers and sellers. At the end of the day, you need to be targeting the mobile market as this is where a large amount of users will be doing their shopping this Christmas. With mobility in mind, make your content shareable, utilise festive hashtags, and create a relevant and optimised landing page for your promotions. Furthermore, video content always goes down well around Christmas time – who doesn’t look forward to the John Lewis advert every year, right?

3. Take advantage of email marketing

Following on from the above points, it’s also imperative to send out your promotions in a newsletter/email, in addition to shouting about them on social media. This Christmas specific email should contain something that will entice your customers to complete your marketing objective – whether this is purchasing seasonal products or to raise awareness of any promotions you may be running. You can get really creative here – why not create an advent calendar style email and every day offer a different promotion or try running a competition to engage your audience. Furthermore, a catchy themed subject line and a few Christmas emojis can add a friendly sentiment and add humour to your campaign.

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Whilst on the subject matter, I would like to reinforce the importance of personalisation. As its Christmas time it’s a nice touch to go out of your way and make others feel special, so why not apply this to your email marketing? Consider adding personalised discounts that are tailored to your customers, as well as addressing customers by their names. Offering a more personal approach will be sure to aid a successful email campaign.

4. Utilise a Christmas PPC campaign

A fast and effective way to appear above your competition online is a successful PPC campaign. As most customers take to online means to do their Christmas shopping, surely it makes sense to be taking advantage of where a significant demographic is shopping.

Firstly, I suggest starting with some keyword research to find the most relevant terms for your business or promotional activity, and then optimse your landing page and content to include these keywords. This will also increase your chances of appearing in Google’s SERPs. Whether you take to social media or Google Ads for your PPC campaign, knowing your target audience is paramount. You need to have clear personas of your target audience and the individuals who will use your products or services. Once you have a clear demographic in place you can target them directly and increase your chances of getting a positive ROI. Of course, you need to set budgets and to make sure your ads are relevant and consistent across your brand. Again don’t forget to optimse your ads for mobile devices!

5. Consider giving rewards

Isn’t the essence of Christmas all about giving, right? A great way to entice your customers is to offer them something for free, because who doesn’t love a freebie. It doesn’t have to be something major, maybe offering a free perosnalised e-card for your most loyal customers, or some free insights, or possibly even free shipping with orders. Anything you can offer to help drum up business is sure to increase the number of sales you can potentially make. Of course, these need to be time-sensitive to push a sense of urgency – so create a countdown to help maximise those sales.

If you are interested in finding out how you can get the most from your Christmas campaign then don’t hesitate to get in touch. We understand that the holiday season is a significant time for our clients, and we have a wealth of experience working with different businesses and different online marketing channels to deliver successful festive strategies for our clients.

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