How to Create a Christmas Campaign

When you want to grow your business, a creative Christmas marketing campaign is a great way to do so. The build up to the holidays presents the perfect opportunity to offer your customers something special, whether that be a cracking discount, an exclusive product, or something that’s just a bit of fun!

Of course, there’s no use having an amazing campaign if no one knows about it. So to make sure they do, we’ve compiled a list of useful tips to help you get started on creating your campaign…

1. Choose a Fitting Campaign Idea

When coming up with your campaign idea, try to consider how it will enhance your business. A good marketing campaign can strengthen customer retention, increase sales, raise your profile and boost engagement. It’s important to focus on at least one of these areas, if not all of them.

If you’re stuck for ideas there are a number of routes you could take:

Run a deal

The most obvious and effective of these routes is a good old fashioned deal! As we all know, Christmas can be pricey and shoppers are often on the hunt for a bargain. Running an offer in the height of the Christmas shopping period is bound to lift your sales and entice both new and existing customers your way.

Festive themes are a great way to add a special touch to your deals and show that you’ve put thought in to it. For example, this Christmas campaign from Photobook uses the famous twelve days of Christmas song to celebrate 12 new deals on the run up to Christmas!

Hold a contest

Hosting a competition will have a similar effect, especially if it has a festive theme of sorts. No matter how big or how small the prize, an engaging competition is both fun and shareable, and it’s a sure-fire way to engage with your audience.

The easiest way to host a competition to attract attention from the widest possible audience is by using social media. This example from The Key Safe Company is perfect – it’s something everyone can have a crack at answering and the festive hamper is a desirable gift that could be kept for the family or given away as a Christmas present.

Re-engage

If you’re concerned with one-time customers with inactive accounts, perhaps winning them back could be the basis of your campaign? Reaching out to them with an exclusive deal might put you at the forefront of their mind and remind them of the service you provide. Consider what the most appealing offer might be and extend this to them with a free trial, a voucher code or a discounted deal.

Do it for a good cause

As Christmas is the time for giving, you could focus your campaign on charity. Helping a cause that you or your company believes in will not only benefit the charity itself but it will also make you more personable by giving customers a glimpse into your company ethics. Perhaps you could sell a product, such as Christmas cards, to raise funds for your charity? Or maybe you could set a specific challenge for your customers- something fun (such as a bake-off) that they would want to be involved in? Anything that clients are likely to share will not only help raise awareness for your chosen charity but for your brand too!

Partnering up with a charity is a good marketing idea for any time of the year, but especially so at Christmas! A great example of this was John Lewis and Age UK partnering up for Christmas in 2015 with their Man on the Moon campaign. This highlighted loneliness in elderly people and that ‘no one should have no on at Christmas’.

No matter which angle you choose to pursue, the best thing to do when planning your campaign is to listen to your customers and put yourself in their shoes. What offers do you think they would like to receive? What content might they engage with? What will they share with their friends, family and contacts? Opt for something that you know will inspire them to take action.

2. Take It To The Net

Once you’ve pinned down your idea and set up the campaign, it’s time tell the world! The fastest way of doing this is to take it online. Internet marketing is a power house these days, so using the likes of emails communication, social media and blogging should be your first point of call. The best place to start is via your mailing list. Email marketing has been proven to be the most effective digital marketing method, so sending regular emails to existing clients throughout the duration of your campaign is sure to give it a boost and will help to keep you on your clients’ radar.

Social media can have a huge impact during the Christmas period, as lots of people tend to go online to seek out a Christmas bargain. Asking your followers to share, like or comment on campaign content will help to keep it circulating, and in turn will help to raise brand awareness and steer people onto your site or through your door. However you choose to promote your campaign on social, remember that it’s the perfect platform to have a little fun with! Customers will be more inclined to return at a later date if their experience of your company has been enjoyable.

Bonus tip: If you’re looking to increase your social outreach, it might be worth trialling paid promotion, which allows you to target new audiences based on interests and demographics. As only a small percentage of social posts are actually seen by followers, this will help you to streamline your marketing and ensure that you’re only targeting your promotional content at people who are likely to engage with it.

3. Print Up!

To complement your online promotions and to extend your reach further, you can’t beat tangible marketing materials. Printing the details of your campaign on a poster, flyer or leaflet will make it accessible to a wider audience. An eye-catching design will do well to draw people in and including details such as a web address, contact number, campaign hashtag or social media handle will divert them to a place where they can get more details.

These gorgeous postcards from our customer Daisy Fay are a beautiful example of Christmas print marketing.

In regards to which print products to choose, consider what is the most fitting for both your campaign and your audience. Posters do a great job of showcasing your message. Poster size aside; if you hang a poster in an optimal location (i.e somewhere specific to your target audience), you’re likely to see some traffic. Flyers and leaflets can be used in a number of ways. You can hand them out to the public, send them as mailers, include them in packaging or you could leave them in shops, cafes, restaurants – anywhere that is relevant to your audience. The fantastic thing about flyers, as with any print material, is that they’re palpable. People can pick them up, pop them in their pocket and take them out to refer to over and over again.

Posters, flyers, whatever you decide on; adding print to your campaign will help to keep you in your customers’ minds, and that after all is the most important aspect when creating your Christmas campaign!

So that’s it - you’re all set! Now all that’s left to do is wish you a thriving, happy Christmas season!