Is your business ready for Christmas?
Are you one of those people who leaves your gift-buying until Christmas Eve? That can be an… exciting way to play! But when it comes to preparing your business for Christmas, you really can’t afford to leave it to the last minute.
Here are our 5 top tips to get your business ready for Christmas:
1) Start planning in advance
Christmas seems to get earlier every year. Everyone says so. “What? They’re putting their Christmas advert out in September now?” Well, you don’t need to go that far. But you do want to plan to beat the rush.
For your customers and potential customers, December is going to be packed to the gills with special Christmas offers. Flying in by email. By leaflet. By billboards, they walk past.
So start getting your Christmas advertising out there early. Otherwise, you’ll need to fight a dozen other brands for your customers’ eye and headspace. If you’re a franchisee, you’ll need to make sure your overall franchise owner is on the ball with this.
2) Start telling your customers when you’re going to be open
Most businesses open a little later on some days over the festive period. Many will also have some extra days closed so their staff can have some holidays too.
You really can’t signal this availability to your customers too early. From their point of view, there’s not much worse than expecting to be able to buy from you at the last moment (remember Christmas Eve shopping crowd) – only to be met with a closed sign.
On the upside, showing off all the extra time you’re going to be open wins you points. Get some professional signs or posters made up to place around your premises. Make sure to add details to your website, Google My Business listing and anywhere your hours can be found online too.
3) Start testing your special offers
Seasonal special offers are something of a given around Christmas time. They’ll vary depending on your industry, of course. If you’re in the property industry or, say, offering franchise opportunities, this may be less of an offer and more of a change in your marketing angle. That’s because, obviously buying a franchise, new business or home isn’t necessarily at the forefront of peoples’ minds right now. (Though, that said, there’s probably some marketing space for you to exploit regarding reduced buying competition!)
Some of the most common Christmas special offers include:
– Buy something, get a little something free
– Special Christmas packages
– Set Christmas deal bundles
Once you’ve created some good-value deals, check them out to see how much traction they get.
4) Start spreading the word
Have your offers gotten a good response? It’s time to spread the word. Make sure it’s all cohesive – so that your message and prices are the same wherever your potential customers see them. Get some advertising out there across all your usual highest-return marketing channels:
- Leaflets and flyers
- Posters
- Your website
- Email marketing
- Billboards
5) Start – don’t stop
Christmas might technically be the end of the festive season. But there’s still Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve, New Years Day and the early part of January (where consumers expect – some would say ‘demand’) sales and ways of fulfilling New Year’s resolutions and the like.
So there’s no need for you to stop pushing your sales and Christmas offers. You can keep giving your customers more nudges to engage with your business well into January.
Don’t forget MBE are here to help with all your marketing, printing and shipping this Christmas season. Plus we also have some special Christmas offers of our own for you! Our aim is to make your business easier this silly season.