08 Nov 6 week Christmas promotion planner 2021
Use our quick and easy 6 week Christmas promotion planner 2021 to increase your silly season sales. Christmas has snuck up on many small business owners with the distraction of the pandemic. Especially for those of us in Melbourne who are more recently out of lockdown. If you haven’t had a chance to organise your Christmas promotion don’t panic, but there are only 6 weeks to go! Follow our 6 easy steps to prepare, and use our top 12 Christmas promotion ideas for inspiration.
Many of us have tighter promotional budgets this year. However, you don’t need a lot of money to spread some Christmas cheer, build brand loyalty and encourage some extra customer spend.
When developing your plan, consider the social shifts the pandemic has shaped. These will influence your promotions. Things such as:
- elevated kindness and generosity
- the desire to spend locally and support small businesses
- a keenness to align personal values with the values of a business before spending with them
- increased desire for personalisation
- a quality customer experience
- a focus on self-care and mental wellbeing.
6 steps to create your Christmas promotion plan
- Download our one-page Christmas promotion planner 2021 (below).
- Determine your goals. Are you focused primarily on increasing sales, or is it more about spreading Christmas cheer and prompting customers to remember you?
- Work out what your customers want. This has been another unusual year, and it will impact the festive season. Consider what you learnt from last year. Find out how your customers are feeling and what they need and want. This is critical to determining your promotional activities and messaging. For example, cheerful and hopeful, or sombre and reflective.
- Understand your business’s position. What are you able to deliver? Are there any supply issues, or COVID-related restrictions that impact providing your products or services? What are your budgetary constraints? Do you have staffing capacity?
- Decide what promotional tactics to use and develop your key messages. Check out some of our promotional tactics ideas below. Hone your messages to connect with your customers. Determine your motifs and themes. Consider potential partners. Make sure the messages are ‘on brand’.
- Plot your tasks and timing on the planner to make it happen. Then get started!
12 Christmas promotion ideas
Here are our top 12 low and no-cost Christmas promotion ideas for 2021.
- Add Christmas flair to your marketing collateral. Such as your website/online store, Facebook banner, email signature or shopfront.
- Design and send handwritten Christmas cards or personalised emails to clients/customers.
- Create a Christmas video message and pin it to the top of your Facebook. Add it to your IGTV or YouTube channel.
- Provide customers with a freebie with purchase. Perhaps a sample product, intro session, discount, or festive face mask.
- Offer an exclusive Christmas discount to your loyal customers.
- Run a 12 or 24 days of Christmas campaign. Promote it on Facebook and Insta stories. This could be a series of offers or reminders.
- Bundle products together for hampers or create a special service offering vouchers as employee gifts, targeting employers who can’t host a staff Christmas function. Think about Kris Kringle price points.
- Introduce a New Year offer that must be paid for in December and redeemed in January. Or offer discounts for customers who book January services.
- Offer free shipping in your online store.
- Create a shopping event (or multiple events!). Turn your shop/office into a go-to location. Use local musicians, provide snacks and refreshments, henna tattoos or something else to make it an enjoyable and memorable experience. Have a raffle or giveaways to reward attendees.
- Host or participate in a fundraising event. Giving to others will make you feel good and is great PR.
- Join up with relevant local businesses to promote each other’s products and services. You could share coupons or sales info in the customer shopping bags, or in email marketing. Look out for what your local council or business chamber may be doing for Christmas and piggyback onto their campaigns.
More great info and freebies
To keep up-to-date with all our articles and free workshops and worksheets, sign up to our monthly newsletter (we promise we won’t spam you!). You can also follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.