Ask the Experts: How to Boost Your Christmas Marketing with Print

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – or is it? Marketing-wise, the lead up to Christmas can be pretty hectic. You’re faced with that impossible question: how are you going to make your business stand out over Christmas? When everyone’s holding special sales and introducing festive lines, you could get stuck thinking of a winning Christmas promotion idea.

The perfect recipe for your marketing? Mix it up with print! Campaigns that contain both digital and print marketing are shown to receive a 25% higher response rate than those that only use digital.

When it comes to your holiday marketing, it’s important to create a sense of urgency. To help you out, we asked marketing experts for their top tips on boosting Christmas marketing with print. Follow their advice and your business is sure to end up on the nice list.

1. Try a Promotional Giveaway

“Starting in November, give customers a useful promotional giveaway gift with each purchase. It could be a notepad or a stress ball (perfect for the stressful season!), but make sure it’s printed with your business’ name and a special discount code to use on a return visit.

Statistics show that 83% of people who receive a promotional product are more likely to do business with that brand. So, this is the perfect way to boost your image and get customers to return to your shop during the holiday season.” – Shelley Grieshop, PR Director at Totally Promotional

By starting early, you’re reminding customers of your business right before they start their Christmas present shopping. The promotional gift leaves them with a positive impression, so they’re all the more likely to return during the crucial weeks when they’re tackling their Christmas shop.

And with modern technology, promotional print is so affordable and easy to get your hands on. From tote bags and t-shirts to laptop stickers – you can customize and add your branding to pretty much anything.

2. Choose the Right Colour

“Colour plays a very important role in catching the attention of your targeted audience and for marketing different types of product. Taking restaurants as an example, you will notice red is very popular for this type of business, especially at Christmas; it’s an enticing colour.” – Maruxa Murphy, Founder of PerkyPerky

Christmas is a great time of year to play around with colour. But it’s best to keep in mind what you’re trying to sell and whether or not those colours make your product or service attractive. Make sure you still feature one or two of your brand colours so your print communications are instantly recognisable, even at Christmas time.

3. Plan a Direct Mail Campaign

“I ran printed promotion for Christmas campaigns for 13 years at a publisher and one of the campaigns we launched was a Christmas hamper targeted as a gift to business partners.

This was distributed by a company selling premium Italian delicatessen and included the publisher’s message, so it was a very nice cross-sell.

We marketed this by distributing flyers within shared offices, and sold more than 300 hampers, which was amazing revenue for a start-up company.” – Timea Kadar, Managing Director at ContentBonum

The DMA found that direct mail’s response rates are anywhere from 10 to 30 times higher than that of digital mail. One of the reasons why? On average, 27% of mail ‘lives’ in the household for a whole 28 days. That gives consumers plenty of time to take action on that piece of Christmas advertising.

Whether you’re a B2C or B2B company, flyer distribution can really give your business a boost around Christmas due to its longevity. So, let your customers find a great deal amongst their Christmas cards this year.
 

4. Target Customers with Strategic Ad Placement

“It is in your brand’s best interest to get very specific with the placement of your ads in special publications that are aligned with your target audience.

Look at magazines or special sections of the press that are specific to this audience. Typically, these special publications are cheaper and can get you directly in front of your ideal client during the Christmas season.” – Carla Williams Johnson, Media Marketing Consultant at Carli Communications

Magazines and catalogues are big business at this time of the year. And getting your business in a Christmas themed one is sure to get you in front of a lot of eyes. By strategically placing your ad in front of your target customers, you’ll definitely feel the benefit in your Christmas sales.

From choosing colours that draw your customers in to planning a winning direct mail campaign, we hope these expert marketing tips are the inspiration you need to help your business flourish with print this Christmas.

We’d love to see your festive print! Share your pictures over social media by tagging us @instantprinkuk or #instantprintuk for a chance to be featured on our channel.