Holiday Marketing Tips

The onslaught of holiday marketing campaigns will soon begin and your customers will be pulled in many different directions thinking “who will I purchase X from?”, “should I buy X from here where I’ve purchase from before, or for here where it’s cheaper and they’ll include a bonus?” Your competitors are ramping up their holiday marketing campaigns, and there’s a good possibility of your customers seeing those advertisements. So how are you going to ensure that your customers remain loyal to you?

Now is not the time to make your customers feel like you’re just after their money! Instead, thank them for their past loyalty to you by offering them a special discount that’s not available to new customers, or send them a free gift worth ‘X’ when they do their holiday shopping with you. If offering a discount code or coupon, why not include a second one for your customer to pass along to a friend or family member.

Remember that a personal touch goes a long way: send your customers a personalized greeting card telling them how much you appreciate them as a customer, and would like to offer them a free gift during your upcoming holiday sale. Then of course, send them a thank you card after they make their purchase with you. The key is to make your customers feel special.

Donate a portion of each sale to your customers choice of charity: Select several different charities and allow your customer to choose during checkout. Make sure you follow through with the donation, and perhaps even send your customers a greeting card thanking them for their kind donation of ‘X’ which you sent to their charity on their behalf.

Create a Gift Registry Service where customers can add your products to their Wish List. They will make their Wish List known to friends and family who will come shopping at your site! Visit My Gift List to create a free Gift Registry service for your website.

Provide a gift suggestion list on your website: Gifts Under $10, Gifts Under $25 etc. and suggest gift ideas that would be perfect for ‘X’. Offer themed gift packs instead of individual products, or discount your theme packs when compared to purchasing the individual items.

Offer gift wrapping and delivery to gift recipients: This will definately boost the convenience factor, especially when customers need to send their gifts to a friend or relative out of State, Province or even out of Country.

Start contacting media outlets with your holiday story ideas: Newspapers, business journals, radio and TV stations are all hungry for out of the ordinary holiday features. And with the season stretching longer and longer each year, they have lots of space that needs to be filled. Spend some time coming up with a few unusual story angles and start drumming up interest now. When calling editors, be sure to ask when they’ll be planning their holiday stories and what’s the best time to reach them.

Take advantage of your expert status: The holidays are a great time to create tip sheets and top-ten lists in your area of expertise. The media love these because they can be used as-is for stories and fillers, and you can post them on your website and distribute them to customers and visitors as well. Best of all, the subject matter is almost unlimited as long as you give it a holiday twist. Everything from “How 8 Popular Holiday Traditions Got Their Start” to “Six Ways to Give Your Pet a Great Holiday” to “The Top 10 Ways to Keep Kids Occupied During Christmas Vacation” is fair game.

Open houses and other special events will showcase your business without the pressure of a purchase commitment. Team up with a local charity, a children’s choir, or other appropriate group to make your business a holiday event center rather than “just a store”.

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