Holiday Sales and Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

When the majority of your annual sales are earned in November and December, there’s no such thing as planning too soon. Here are sales and marketing tips you’ll want to start working on now to help ensure a profitable holiday season for your business by implementing effective holiday marketing strategies.

Holiday campaigns are crucial for driving customer engagement and sales during the holiday season. Early preparation, selecting the right marketing channels, and using content-driven approaches can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your holiday marketing efforts.

The last couple of days before Christmas might be the biggest shopping days of the year after Black Friday through Cyber Monday. But that doesn’t mean you should wait until a few days before Christmas to start marketing your wares to the public. On the contrary, savvy business owners start planning for the holiday rush as early as the summer, and with good reason. According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales (that is, those occurring in November and December) account for 19% of retailers’ annual sales.

Here are some holiday marketing steps you can take now to improve your sales figures down the line:

Determine your discounts and offers

Determining the right discounts and offers is crucial to a successful holiday marketing campaign. Consider offering a single, valuable discount or a series of short-term promotions to attract customers. Digital coupons can also boost customer engagement and retention. When deciding on discounts and offers, keep in mind the following:

Analyze your competition: Research what your competitors are offering during the holiday season to stay competitive.
Know your target audience: Understand what types of discounts and offers will resonate with your target audience.
Consider the timing: Decide when to offer discounts and promotions to maximize impact.
Make it exclusive: Offer exclusive deals to loyal customers or subscribers to make them feel valued.

Prepare your business for increased demand

The holiday season can bring a significant increase in demand, and it’s essential to prepare your business to handle the influx of customers. Consider the following:

Inventory management: Ensure you have enough stock to meet demand and consider offering pre-orders or backorders for popular items.
Staffing: Hire temporary staff or adjust schedules to ensure you have enough staff to handle increased customer traffic.
Shipping and fulfillment: Plan for expedited shipping options and consider partnering with a fulfillment center to ensure timely delivery.

Improve your email marketing campaigns

If you want to improve your sales figures for the holidays, it’s a good idea to boost your improve email marketing efforts now by planning and promoting special holiday deals. Summer and fall are good times to market your services to loyal customers while reminding those you haven’t seen in a while to buy from you again.

In the months leading up to Christmas, you should study your newsletter conversion rates to determine what types of messages generate the best response. Additionally, monitor your social media pages to see what your customers are discussing and determine what the hottest products are going to be for the holiday season. Implementing holiday promotions early can help you capitalize on the extended shopping season.

Focus on customer experience

Providing a positive customer experience is critical during the holiday season. Consider the following:

Personalize interactions: Use customer data to personalize interactions and offer tailored recommendations.
Offer helpful content: Create content that helps customers make informed purchasing decisions, such as gift guides and product reviews.
Streamline checkout: Ensure the checkout process is smooth and efficient to reduce cart abandonment.

Use emotional appeals in your marketing

Emotional appeals can be a powerful way to connect with customers during the holiday season. Consider the following:

Tap into nostalgia: Use nostalgic imagery and messaging to evoke feelings of warmth and nostalgia.
Create a sense of urgency: Use limited-time offers and scarcity to create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to make a purchase.
Highlight the benefits: Emphasize the benefits of your products or services, such as how they can bring joy or make a difference in someone’s life.

Talk to your neighbors

Christmas is a time for people to come together, and that includes local shop owners. In fact, many small businesses collaborate with neighboring shops as part of their holiday marketing efforts to create fun holiday shopping events for the local community. Work with your fellow merchants to plan an event that celebrates the season while encouraging residents to shop locally instead of hitting the department stores.

For example, you could arrange for a tree-lighting ceremony, a visit from Santa, or a street-wide raffle event. And, of course, every store should feature holiday decorations and offer plenty of treats and sweets for the kids to enjoy while their parents shop.

Create a holiday promotions giveaway

Holiday marketing ideas, such as creative and engaging giveaways, are essential to attract customers during the holiday season. Giving away branded gifts prior to the holidays is a great way to prepare for the coming season while reminding customers of upcoming sales.

When choosing your giveaway items, try to brainstorm products that your customers will want to keep in their homes for the long haul. While everyone loves candy, most people will opt to eat this gift or throw it away within a few days. On the other hand, branded magnets, ornaments, coffee mugs, and notepads tend to linger a little longer in the home. Print up a batch of gifts featuring your business name and the dates of important events, like parties or holiday sales, and boost the number of shoppers in your store. You can also give away branded holiday items to shoppers who sign up for your newsletter or purchase goods on your e-commerce site.

Get mobile friendly

It’s no secret that shoppers are increasingly using mobile devices to compare and purchase products online. For this reason, small businesses need to ensure their websites are mobile-friendly before the start of the holiday season.

Along with making sure product and shopping cart pages can be viewed easily on phone screens, owners should consider factors like load speed, button size and placement, and image resolution. New customers are likely to check out your website before visiting your shop, and you want to ensure you make the best possible first impression.

Create seasonal content and promotions

Creating seasonal content and promotions can help keep your marketing efforts fresh and engaging. Consider the following:

Develop a content calendar: Plan and schedule content in advance to ensure consistency and efficiency.
Offer seasonal products: Offer products or services that are relevant to the holiday season, such as holiday-themed merchandise or gift wrapping services.
Run social media contests: Run social media contests or giveaways to engage customers and encourage sharing and tagging.

These sections provide comprehensive and relevant information to help businesses develop a successful holiday marketing strategy.

Work on your website to boost sales

Just as it’s important to ensure your website is mobile-friendly, you should make certain it has the right kind of content to attract holiday shoppers by following essential holiday marketing tips. As the holidays approach, it’s a good idea to add seasonal content such as blogs, photos, and gift guides. For best results, optimize your Christmas content for the search engines by including holiday and gift-giving keywords in the text, title tags, and meta descriptions.

The holiday shopping season is a critical period for businesses to engage with customers and enhance sales through targeted marketing strategies. Having a strong website is especially important in light of the news that more people are shopping online than in brick-and-mortar stores during the holidays.

Look to your team

Even the most thorough holiday sales planning will likely be for naught if you can’t get your team on board. Understanding that November and December are busy sales months, small businesses need to work hard to prep their staff to increase holiday sales.

In addition to making sure their inventories are sufficient, businesses should spend time training their staff and assessing work schedules. If you don’t think your workers will be able to cover the impending rush, you might want to consider hiring seasonal employees.

It’s a good idea to secure your holiday workforce early before the best employees find positions with your competition. Additionally, hiring early gives you more time to train your staff in areas like customer service, inventory management, and order placement.

Training staff and optimizing operations are crucial to boost sales during the holiday season.

With a lot of preparation and a little seasonal goodwill, you can help ensure that this holiday season will be your business’s most profitable to date.

Need more help? See our Holiday Marketing Resources page!

Disclaimer: The content on this page is for informational purposes only, and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.