For a lot of businesses, Christmas is the busiest and most time important event of the year, whether you’re a retail company or not.

It is the time when consumers are out buying and preparing for the festivities. It is also a time when businesses don’t want to be thinking about what they should be doing but actually getting on with it. It can lead to an increase in sales or quiet spell with attention elsewhere.

No matter what the festive period means for your business, it’s important to have a Christmas marketing plan in place. It will allow you to make the most of the opportunities on offer or to help you ride out any potential lean spell it brings.

Read on to find out eCo2 Greetings’ tips for developing an early business plan for Christmas so your business and staff can operate as well as possible…

Why should you prepare for Christmas early?

The main reasons for preparing for Christmas early, as a business, can be boiled down to avoiding potential errors.

However, one reason why your business should plan is based on communication – for staff and customers. It will help customers if they are aware of what you are doing over the Christmas period before your competitors. This is important for many business sectors, not just hospitality and retail.

Learn more about our Christmas eCards for the upcoming season

This is so that you get the upper hand over competitors but also so customers understand if deliveries or meetings may be slower etc. You may be having a Christmas shutdown, for example, so you need to let customers and clients know this.

Also, if you don’t prepare for Christmas early, it means that when the festive period arrives you will be stressed about everything that you have to do. So, having a plan of action will mean your business will have more time to concentrate on other things, like customer service.

Read more: The Best Eco Christmas Markets to Visit This Festive Season

An important part of your plan is to look at the previous year’s results. Firstly, you should try and improve on these to grow your business. At the same time, this will ensure you have enough stock for an increase in sales. This will save you time in December.

So, what can you do?

Marketing

Marketing is a key part of any Christmas business plan – from connecting with customers to understanding their needs and how you can meet them.

Much like Christmas TV specials, most marketing plans for the festive season can be put together well in advance. The best businesses start this process as soon as possible – at the beginning of the new year for some. You should know what customers are looking for over Christmas, how you can meet those needs and which channels drive your sales.

Read more: What to Write in a Business Christmas Card

However, you should also ask yourself:

• When are you going to contact customers with the good news about your product?
• How is your business going to stand out from the crowd at this busy time?
• What resources are available?
• How can you make it simple for your customer to buy your product?

With this information, you should be able to create a statement of intent. Even if you’re a business that expects things to slow down in your sector, you should note that your quiet period begins late November and lasts until late January. That way, you aren’t excessively spending knowing you won’t get many returns.

The first step in creating your marketing plan is to expand your basic statement into a detailed, specific statement for each customer. You should know what they’ll want from you, how you’ll target them and when. Then, you’ll need to set goals on the SMART principle. Specific, measurable, attainable, and time-limited.

Communication & Content

How you speak to your customers throughout Christmas and in the run-up is crucial – newsletters, ecards, social media, games and on your website.

Newsletters

Having an effective email marketing newsletter is immeasurably valuable at Christmas. Use your subscriber list to your advantage and send information about your business and what you will be doing over Christmas. Including an offer in the email doesn’t hurt, either. This will be effective as an offer can drive traffic to your website.

Read more: Best Ways for Businesses to Communicate with Customers

This is also one of the best ways to reach as many customers as possible over Christmas. Social media feeds can be chocked-full with posts making it difficult for organic posts to get viewed without spending money. So, email marketing is an effective way to reach customers without having a huge budget. This can also allow you to inform of simple business updates.

Social Media

Having a social media campaign in the run-up to Christmas is practically a must for most businesses. Create one that people want to see more of will be effective for driving traffic and engagement to your social media and website. A digital campaign means that people could be intrigued and will want to view your content, boosting engagement.

Discover our Christmas games, perfect for breaking the working week in December

This doesn’t have to be complicated. You could have a social advent calendar revealing tips, discounts, facts and more each day. Base it on customer research to ensure it is what people want to see on your social media so they will follow your page and remember your business.

Content

Another effective technique, especially when paired with a newsletter, is having Christmas-theme content throughout the festive period. This can be something as simple as adding a different colour to your posts or an icon on your logo. Alternatively, festive blog posts based on your industry and market expertise is a simple starting point.

Read more: Getting Your Corporate Message Spot On

Use keyword research to answer popular questions based on your customer personas or industry sector. These can then be populated in a blog, shared on social media and linked to in a newsletter. You’re giving your customers what they want by answering these questions while remaining on-trend with Christmas content.

Christmas Greetings

If you have a large client or customer list, keep them in mind and let them know you value your relationship with an ecard.

Choosing to send holiday ecards for business contacts and customers can take some of the worry out of knowing when to send paper cards. Your corporate Christmas ecards get sent out automatically at a specified date and you don’t have to worry about it.

Learn more about our incredible eCards – Premium and for Christmas

Planning throughout the year helps businesses keep in control when Christmas finally kicks in. It can be stressful enough without having to worry about logistics and staffing levels or even who to send that Christmas card to.

Suppliers

Making sure you have enough of your product or service in place at this time of year is crucial for many businesses who depend on Christmas trade for a large part of their yearly profit. For smaller businesses, this can be a simple hurdle to overcome but for large organisations, it can be vital to make sure the latest products in their lines are available.

Staffing Levels

Staff issues are always more important at Christmas time. People may want time off and you often have to make the best of what is on offer. Do you need to take on extra staff? When do you need to book them in or advertise for them? Who is going to be doing what? It pays to have these kinds of issues sorted well before Christmas is upon you.

Read more: How businesses can save themselves & employees money at Christmas

Learn more about festive eCards with eCo2 Greetings and how to reduce your environmental impact.

Learn more about what you can do to protect the environment and reduce your carbon footprint with our eCo2 Greetings blog.

Contact us today to discover how we can help your business.