Don’t wait till its December to start planning your marketing campaigns for the holiday season. Use these 12 proven Christmas marketing tips for small businesses to promote your brand.

According to shopify.com, most retailers generate up to 40% of their total revenue in the last quarter of the year alone.

It’s no wonder, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas shopping is important dates on forward-thinking retailers’ calendars.

During these dates, customers are primed for shopping. They are willing to spend cash on items they need.

However, you will have to figure out a way to make them shop at your store instead of shopping at your competitor’s.

So what are the best ways to attract people to your business during the holiday shopping season?

You may also want to read: How to prepare your online store for the holiday season.

Here, we have listed 12 Christmas marketing tips for small businesses.

Hang the bells, light the bulbs, and spread the Christmas spirit

By adding a couple of bright, Christmas-y decorations to your storefront like a beautiful banner that screams “Merry Christmas” and different colored pulsating lights, you can catch the attention of people passing by.

Aside from attracting leg-traffic to your store, the decorations are also an effective way of telling people you love Christmas.

And, if you are not aware yet, people are more likely to purchase from someone that shares the same beliefs as them.

However, while you’re decorating, strive to strike a balance between the decors and your merchandise. You don’t want to overdo things.

A few Christmas lights, a banner with a jolly message, and some Christmas music will do just fine.

Extend the Christmas makeover to your website

Just as you’re likely to decorate your brick-and-mortar stores for the Christmas season, your online store also needs to wear a Christmas look too.

Be sure to maintain a consistent shopping experience across all customer touchpoints. Strive to recreate the same Christmas feelings someone would have felt if they walked into your offline store on your eCommerce website.

A Christmas-themed banner cleverly placed on your website, a smiling Santa, some snowflakes and or pictures of a Christmas tree will go a long way to bring that festive spirit to your online store.

Remember, your goal is to elicit a feeling of a shared-value with anyone that lands on your website.

Send festive emails

Get personal and cosy with your customers through email marketing. For every dollar spent on email marketing, you are sure to get back as much as 40 dollars.

Leverage the power of email marketing to nurture your relationships with your customers. Provide personalized offers and always give value to your subscribers.

Keep in mind though, that a database of over 1 million subscribers who have never received a mail from you would be useless.

The best way to do email marketing would be to stagger your emails and send them in batches: before Christmas, during Christmas, and after Christmas.

Learn how to grow your email list fast: Grow your email list fast

Before Christmas

This period is usually the second week of November.

Use this time to gently hint at the coming Christmas holiday and present a few products you think they might be interested in.

During Christmas

This is usually the Christmas week, and since you’ve been sending emails about some of your best products.

You can use this period to offer discounts and bonuses to your customers and encourage them to purchase the products they might have shown interest in.

After Christmas

Although Christmas might be over, the mood is still slightly in the air.

This is the best time to give even more bonuses and remind them of purchases they never made because of the Christmas rush.

Remember, we talked about building a relationship with your subscribers? Be sure to send a thank you message, or gift card to all your customers to show your appreciation.

Join a charity or sponsor an event

Joining a local charity or sponsoring a local event can be an excellent way to create brand awareness.

These events usually announce and display the names and logos of their sponsors for recognition.

A lot of big companies like Glo, Indomie, Jumia, and MTN often use this method to publicize their brand every year.

And a lot of small businesses have begun to capitalize on this channel of advertisement as well.

So, look around to see if there are upcoming events in your community you can sponsor to stay of your customers’ minds as the festive season approaches.

Leverage the power of bloggers

Bloggers are some of the most influential people on the internet.

Their vast followers and influence give them the ability to instantly channel a flood of customers to any business within minutes.

You can reach out to a few bloggers in your city to write a Christmas product review for your business.

But before you go online to begin your search, you should know what to look for in a blogger before hiring one.

• A large readership
• A large social media following
• Regular blog posting
• An audience that lives in the same city as your business.
• Content that is relevant to your business/niche.
• Professionalism

Keep in mind that not all bloggers will be willing to work with you. But the ones that do will be a great asset to your brand.

Display gift baskets

Most people find it hard to decide on what gift to buy for their loved ones on Christmas day.

You could package a few of your best products in a gift basket, and display it outside your store.

Doing this shows your customers that you’ve taken the time to solve their gifting problems.

It is also a perfect way to pair a few of your products together and sell them in bulk.

You will also like this: Unique Corporate Gift Ideas Your Clients will Love

Give Christmas discounts

Most small business owners hate the idea of offering discounts on their products for fear of cutting into their margins.

However, when done right, offering discounts on select products could be a masterful stroke to generate huge Christmas sales.

The idea behind giving a discount is to give the customer a gentle nudge to make a purchase when they would have never made one.

A good example is Jumia’s Black Friday. Thousands of unnecessary items are bought during black Friday just because the price seemed too good to be true.

Besides, it’s Christmas, a lot of your competitors are going to be giving out discounts, you should do the same too.

Send greeting cards

Since it’s the festive period, you’ll probably be sending seasons greetings to your family and friends on a greeting card.

We recommend you do the same with your most loyal customers. You can go the extra mile to customize your logo with a few Christmas decorations and print it on the cover of the card.

The gesture is a beautiful way to show your customers that you appreciate their continuous support and patronage.

Offer Christmas giveaways

While doing your Christmas marketing campaign, you can warm the hearts of your old and new customers by giving them a Christmas gift.

Just like discounts, giving Christmas gifts won’t hurt your brand. Instead, it’ll boost your image and strengthen your customer’s loyalty.

An excellent example of this is Mat-ice; during the early years of Mat-ice, they had a habit of giving out free notebooks to parents for their children every Christmas.

This gesture increased the reputation of Mat-ice and gave it a friendly family feel.

Create videos

Videos have been a fantastic way for businesses to reach out to people that are too busy to read a promotional email or ad.

A big example of this is Coca-Cola. Everyone often looks forward to the heartwarming videos they make, that help spread the Christmas spirit.

Even if you’re not as big as Coca-Cola, you can use the same method to create awareness and drive traffic to your business.

You could meet local animators or reach out to YouTube comedians to make a short Christmas comedy skit with your brand in it.

Offer free shipping

If you have an online store or a business that delivers purchases to its customers, you can offer free shipping services during the Christmas period.

The question isn’t how much it would cost to offer free shipping, but how much it would cost you not to offer free shipping.

According to shippypro.com “61% of customers abandon the online shopping cart at the checkpoint if free shipping is not included. If you don’t offer it, you’re losing 61% of potential orders”.

One of the best ways to offer free shipping without losing money would be to add the shipping cost to the cost of the product.

It’s amazing how most people don’t mind paying ₦50,000 for an item but have problems with paying ₦3,000 to receive it.

Finally, Use social media

Even if you can’t offer a lot of discounts during the Christmas season. You can take to Twitter or Instagram and spread the Christmas spirit.

Big brands like Glo and GT Bank use this method often. They take a festive Christmas picture with a jolly message and send it to their followers.

If your business doesn’t have a social media account, we recommend you get one and start building an online presence.