From the first Halloween pumpkins appearing in shop windows to the last chorus of Auld Lang Syne, the final few months of the year can feel like one very long sprint for businesses.
There’s Halloween and Bonfire Night to think about, Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner, Christmas parties filling calendars and then the small matter of Christmas itself. Before you know it, the decorations are coming down and everyone’s talking about New Year’s resolutions.
It’s a busy period, but it’s also packed with opportunities. And you don’t need to be a retailer selling Christmas presents to make the most of it. Restaurants have festive bookings to fill, salons have appointments and gift vouchers to promote, tradespeople have customers wanting jobs finished before Christmas and service businesses have a whole new year to help their customers prepare for.
Whatever your business looks like, the trick is making the holiday period work for you rather than trying to do absolutely everything.
Start Planning Earlier Than You Think
We know, nobody particularly wants to think about Christmas while there’s still a chance of getting the barbecue out. But starting early doesn’t mean putting the tree up in September. It means working out what you actually want to achieve before your customers’ calendars and inboxes become packed with everyone else’s plans.
If you’ve been through a festive period before, start by looking backwards. What sold well last year? Which promotions actually worked? When did enquiries begin increasing? Did anything sell out earlier than expected? And, perhaps most importantly, where did things become unnecessarily stressful?
Those answers can shape this year’s plan. You might discover that you needed more stock, should have opened bookings earlier or spent far too much time creating a campaign for an occasion your customers weren’t particularly interested in.
There’s a customer benefit to being prepared early too. Research has found that many UK shoppers have completed their Christmas shopping before December even begins, with organisation and finding the best prices among the reasons people started early. That doesn’t mean every business needs to launch Christmas in October, but it does mean waiting until December to start talking about it could leave you playing catch up.
Choose the Moments That Actually Matter
Once October arrives, there’s barely a week without another date businesses are told they should be doing something for. Halloween rolls into Bonfire Night, then Black Friday and Cyber Monday arrive before Christmas parties, Christmas itself, Boxing Day and New Year.
Trying to create a big campaign for every one of them is a quick way to exhaust your team and probably your customers too.
Instead, think about where your business naturally fits. A restaurant might have plenty to say around Halloween, Christmas parties and New Year’s Eve. A retailer might concentrate more heavily on Black Friday and Christmas gifting, while a tradesperson could focus on getting those last jobs booked before Christmas and starting to fill their January diary.
Once you’ve chosen the occasions that matter, work backwards from them. If you’re planning a Halloween event, when do people realistically need to know about it? If you’re taking Christmas party bookings, when will customers start organising them? If you’ve got a Black Friday offer, when do the website, emails, social content and any flyers and leaflets need to be ready?
A smaller number of well planned campaigns will usually do far more for you than trying to stick a Santa hat on everything from October onwards.
Give People a Reason to Notice You
The closer we get to Christmas, the noisier marketing becomes. Your customers are seeing seasonal emails, social posts, adverts, promotions and shop displays everywhere they look, so simply announcing that Christmas is coming probably isn’t going to stop anyone in their tracks.
Start with the idea rather than the channel. What can you do that’s useful, entertaining or genuinely relevant to your customers?
A restaurant could build a campaign around finding the designated Christmas party organiser. A salon could create a festive survival package. An accountant might turn the countdown to the end of the year into a useful checklist for businesses. Even something as simple as your Halloween campaign having a bit of personality can make it more memorable than another generic pumpkin graphic.
You can then bring that idea to life across the places customers encounter your business. That could mean social and email, but it might also include your shop window, packaging, menus, posters or something a little less expected. Our recent guide to using custom shape print to stand out, for example, looks at how changing the shape of stickers, flyers and signage can turn the print itself into part of the idea.
The important bit is that everything feels connected. Your social post doesn’t need to say exactly the same thing as your poster, but customers should be able to tell they’re part of the same campaign.
Make Life Easy for Your Customers
It’s worth remembering that while the holiday period is busy for businesses, it’s pretty hectic for your customers too.
So take a look at your business through their eyes. Can they easily find your Christmas opening hours? If they want to make a booking, is it obvious how to do it? Are delivery dates clear? Can they quickly see whether something is available? If you’re offering gift vouchers, bundles or festive packages, is it obvious what’s included?
Sometimes simplifying your offer can be just as useful as adding something new. A salon could turn dozens of individual treatments into three straightforward gift packages. A restaurant could put its festive menu, prices, allergen information and booking details together in one place. A retailer might create ready made gift bundles for different budgets rather than leaving customers to piece everything together themselves.
The easier you make the decision, the less work you’re asking an already busy customer to do.
Be Clear About Deadlines
That simplicity becomes even more important as Christmas gets closer.
Nobody wants to discover on 23rd December that the present they’ve ordered isn’t arriving until the 27th. If you have final ordering dates, booking deadlines, collection times or changes to your usual opening hours, make them incredibly easy to find.
Don’t rely on one Instagram post from three weeks ago. Update your website, emails and social channels, and make sure customers visiting you in person can see the information too. A simple printed sign in the window might not be the most exciting piece of your Christmas campaign, but if it stops dozens of people asking the same question, it’s doing a very useful job.
And be realistic with the promises you make. It’s much better to give customers a deadline you’re confident you can meet than create extra pressure for your team by promising something that depends on absolutely everything going perfectly.
Think Beyond the Black Friday Discount
Black Friday has become a huge part of the run up to Christmas, but joining in doesn’t necessarily mean putting 20% OFF across everything you sell.
Before deciding on an offer, think about what you actually want it to achieve. If you want new customers to try you, an introductory offer could make sense. If you want to increase order value, a bundle might work better. If December is already your busiest month, encouraging even more demand at exactly the same time might not actually be that useful.
Value doesn’t always have to mean a straight discount either. You could include an extra service, bundle complementary products together, offer early access to existing customers or give people something they can redeem in January.
That last option can be particularly useful because it carries some of your seasonal activity into a traditionally quieter period. A café could include a January hot drink voucher with December gift card purchases, for example, while a salon might give festive customers an incentive to book their first appointment of the new year.
Make the Little Details Feel Special
Not every part of your seasonal campaign needs to be a huge promotion. Sometimes it’s the smaller touches customers remember.
If you send physical orders, for example, you’ve already got an opportunity sitting right in front of you. A festive sticker sealing the tissue paper, a thank-you card inside the box or a small printed insert can make your usual packaging feel seasonal without redesigning the whole thing.
You can also make those touches useful. Add a QR code to a thank-you card that takes customers to a January offer, invite them to join your mailing list or link them to something genuinely helpful. Instead of simply writing “Scan Me”, tell them why it’s worth getting their phone out: “Scan to unwrap your January offer” is giving them a much better reason.
Our guide to creative ways businesses can use stickers has more ideas for packaging and QR codes, while our newer guide to giving stickers the spotlight looks at how finishes such as gold foil, silver foil and Spot UV can make those little extras feel even more special.
You don’t have to turn every order into Santa’s grotto. A small detail that feels considered is often enough.
Get Your Team Ready for the Rush
A successful seasonal campaign isn’t much use if the people delivering it have no idea what’s going on.
Before things get busy, make sure everyone understands the plan. If you’re running an offer, staff should know how it works. If Christmas opening hours are changing, everyone should know when. If there’s a final order date, your customer service team shouldn’t have to go hunting for it every time somebody asks.
This is also the time to think about the less exciting operational stuff. Get rotas sorted early, understand when suppliers are closing for Christmas and make sure important processes aren’t sitting entirely inside one person’s head.
It’s worth having a backup plan too. Something probably will go slightly wrong. A delivery could be late, a popular product might sell out, somebody could call in sick or bad weather might disrupt your plans. You don’t need a 48 page Christmas crisis manual, but knowing who does what when something changes can stop a small problem becoming a big one.
Your team can also be one of your best sources of feedback during the season. If customers keep asking the same question, there’s probably some information you could make clearer. If staff keep explaining the same confusing offer, the offer might need simplifying. Fixing those things while the campaign is still live is far more useful than discovering them in January.
Don’t Forget the Customers You Already Have
With so much focus on festive sales, it’s easy to spend the entire period trying to attract people who’ve never bought from you before.
Meanwhile, your existing customers are sitting right there.
Christmas is a natural opportunity to show them a little appreciation. That doesn’t have to mean another discount. Early access to something, a handwritten note, a small freebie or even a genuine thank-you can help strengthen the relationship.
A Christmas card can work particularly well for businesses where customer relationships matter. And for eCommerce brands, packaging gives you another opportunity to continue that relationship after the initial sale.
Not every message in November and December has to shout SALE. Sometimes simply reminding customers that there are real people behind the business is more memorable.
Remember That Christmas Isn’t the Finish Line
After weeks of planning everything around Christmas Day, it can feel like the entire world stops on 25th December.
Your customers probably don’t.
Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and the first few weeks of January can all create their own opportunities. Hospitality businesses move from Christmas meals into New Year celebrations. Gyms and wellbeing businesses suddenly have a very interested audience. Tradespeople and professional services can start filling their January diaries, while retailers may move into Boxing Day and January activity.
Think about how your Christmas activity can naturally lead into that next conversation. A December customer could receive a reason to return in January. Someone buying a gift voucher could be introduced to your mailing list. A business that’s helped customers prepare for Christmas could follow up with advice for starting the new year.
Rather than thinking of Christmas as the end of the campaign, think of it as one stage in a longer customer journey.
Learn From It While You Still Remember It
Then, once the decorations are down and you’ve finally stopped hearing Christmas music everywhere you go, take half an hour to work out what actually happened.
Look beyond the final sales figure. Which products or services performed particularly well? When were your busiest days? Which marketing brought people in? Did customers keep asking the same questions? Did you run out of something far too early or order far too much of something else?
Speak to your team too. They’ll probably remember the little operational headaches that won’t show up in your analytics.
You don’t need to produce an enormous report. Just capture the things you’d want to know if you were planning the same period again tomorrow.
Because next October will arrive much quicker than you think, and “I’m pretty sure Christmas went alright last year” isn’t the most useful marketing strategy.
Make the Holiday Period Work for Your Business
There’s no perfect formula for the months between Halloween and New Year. A high street retailer, restaurant, designer and electrician are all going to approach them differently, and that’s exactly how it should be.
Choose the moments that genuinely matter to your customers, start planning before the rush begins and make buying from you as easy as possible. Give your marketing enough personality to stand out, but don’t get so caught up creating campaigns that you forget about the people and processes needed to deliver them.
Most importantly, you don’t need to do everything.
A handful of well planned ideas, delivered properly, will do far more for your business than trying to squeeze yourself into every seasonal event going.
And if you can make it to New Year with happy customers, a happy team and considerably fewer leftover Santa hats, we’d call that a pretty successful holiday period.
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