15 Best Christmas Marketing Ideas to Double Your Sales + Bonus Tips and Tricks
The days are getting colder and shorter and Halloween is right behind us. Christmas trees are finding their way onto store shelves, just like Christmas marketing emails find their way into your inbox.
Even if you’re not frequenting shopping malls to enjoy the Christmas Carols, you still know Christmas is coming. And so are the crazy holiday marketing ideas and techniques!
However, this is not the time to fret. It’s time for you to hustle! The Outgrow Marketing Santa is here to help with some of the best Christmas marketing ideas.
Some Statistics Around Christmas Marketing
1. Holiday eCommerce sales will climb 15.5% to $235.86 billion in 2022.
2. 85% of shoppers prefer free shipping over fast shipping.
3. Cyber Monday will be the no.1 spending day of the season, rising 12.0% to $12.22 billion.
4. Black Friday will be the second biggest online spending day, rising 9.8% to $9.91 billion.
5. Over 50% of U.S. shoppers surveyed said they would start holiday shopping earlier to avoid an item being out of stock.
6. 58% of consumers say social media will influence their holiday buying decisions.
Best Christmas Marketing Ideas to Boost Your Sales
1. Create a Christmas-themed Email Campaign
Email marketing is crucial to the success of any eCommerce brand, as well as brick-and-mortar retailers. Additionally, it helps small businesses leverage their existing subscribers.
Emails offer ample opportunities for personalization, improving the click-through rate 8x higher. Moreover, A study found that abandoned cart emails receive an open rate of 45%, as well as a click-through rate of 21%. And half of the users who clicked completed a purchase.
So, you’ll have a greater chance of getting users to open your emails since they subscribed to news and updates from your business.
If you haven’t already started sending emails over the Christmas period, now is the time. Take advantage of marketing automation to automate your email-sending process if you plan on targeting or retargeting your audience throughout Christmas!
For example, turn your welcome or abandoned cart series into Christmas season emails. Alternatively, you can also send an email about your flash sale or your updated interactive digital catalog to your list.
2. Host Giveaways/Online Contests
If we’re brainstorming Christmas marketing ideas to generate more leads, we definitely need to be talking about an interesting and highly engaging interactive content type — giveaways.
By tapping into our natural instinct to compete and be rewarded, giveaways can engage your audience for hours. An example of a Christmas-themed giveaway could be a “10 Days of Christmas” prize giveaway. The participant with the highest score on the leaderboard each day will receive an exciting prize from the brand.
Outgrow lets you create wonderful giveaways or contests in just a few minutes. We provide customizable templates and layouts with Christmas-themed giveaways. You can include your company’s logo and other branding elements and build connections with your target audience. This will help you drive greater website traffic and engagement.
3. Create a Christmas Gift Recommendation Quiz
Interactive content like quizzes let users receive a personalized response according to the preferences they indicated. You can create an interesting and engaging Christmas gift-finder quiz using Outgrow’s interactive content platform. Here’s a template that you can customize using Outgrow’s builder.
We also offer plenty of fun themes and pre-made templates to choose from. Users tend to find this type of content very engaging. Moreover, it can become viral as people share their results and encourage others to participate.
Outgrow’s interactive content types can be directly integrated into your marketing channels. They can be embedded on your webpage, you can also share them on social media platforms or promote them via direct URLs. The responses you collect through the content can provide you with valuable data.
4. Leverage the Power of Video Campaigns
Videos have become a highly engaging medium of marketing. Video ad campaigns are the most effective holiday ads for a reason. A video can evoke some of the most powerful emotions, including joy, warmth, compassion, and empathy.
Video campaigns signal the start of the holiday season, warm the heart, and drive some incredible sales. 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support. Hence, you should create video content that helps your holiday marketing campaigns, and has the scope of improving leads. Videos can be a vital part of your Christmas marketing campaign and help enhance your Christmas promotion ideas.
5. Create Hashtags
Christmas is all about presents and jingles, but it’s also a season of frenzy for social media marketers. With consumer spending growing exceedingly during the Christmas season, it makes sense that you too would like to take advantage of the increased sales. Like most things, though, this is easier said than done. But when it comes to reaching customers during the holiday season, hashtag campaigns on social media platforms are one of the most effective, and often underestimated methods.
Hashtags are great for increasing your social media engagement and reach. The more places you showcase your social media posts, the more people you’ll reach, and the better results you’ll generate.
With a hashtag campaign, a specific hashtag decided and created specifically for that campaign will be used, and it will serve as its centerpiece.
For example, Ted Baker’s Christmas campaign aimed to bring Ted Baker’s Christmas in-store activity to life through an innovative digital activation, and hence the Instagram campaign was launched. The campaign focused on finding the missing Ted elves after a night of festivities. It lasted for three weeks, and it had some fantastic incentives for its participants. These included a trip to the northern lights. This obviously encouraged plenty of people to join in on the fun and the opportunity to win.
With their partner agency, Ted Baker created 32 Instagram accounts to create a festive game where customers hunted for prizes and elves. This Christmas-themed hashtag campaign is a stellar example of how you can engage your customers during the holiday season.
6. Run Targeted Social Media Ads
Another Christmas marketing trend that has gained popularity in the world of digital interactive content is interactive ads. Attracting potential customers and driving more qualified leads to your website should be your top priority, and this can be achieved by running ads on your users’ favorite products.
Outgrow provides interactive content types which you can use to run ads and Christmas marketing campaigns. With our no-code content tools, you can increase your sales, conversion rate, and ROI.
7. Launch a Christmas Campaign Countdown
Many people are excited about Christmas and want to enjoy it to the fullest, making it one of the most anticipated times of the year. Over the years, many brands have jumped on the ’12 Days of Christmas Trend’. This is because it actually works.
This Christmas marketing campaign focuses on promoting discounted items one day at a time over 12 days. A different product is discounted every day or there is an option to add a free gift.
The Christmas countdown not only mixes things up for your audience but also adds a sense of scarcity to your marketing efforts. Since each item has a discount for 24 hours, shoppers have to act fast to get the deal.
8. Customize Your Packaging
You’ve more than likely spent a lot of time and resources building your design and branding assets. Now it’s time to update all this imagery to complement your Christmas campaign. For example, your logo, banner images, and default social media images.
Anyone who visits your store should know that you’ve got a Christmas campaign on. You can go all out and create intricate designs or keep it simple just by adding a little red and a few cute snowmen. I love sinking my teeth into Canva and all their stunning pre-made design templates!
Furthermore, the use of seasonal product packaging is going to make it easier for your customer to buy your products for gifting while you maintain your branding.
Product packaging is incredibly important, and using it in this way adds a bit of cheer to your customer’s purchase. It makes it easier for them to simply forward on as a gift, without the need to gift wrap it.
Either way, updating your graphics for Christmas shows that your brand is engaged, and active and has something special happening for Christmas.
9. Paint It Red
It’s all about the reds and greens and the cheesy, cheeky decorations with a billion sparkles on Christmas. Interestingly, red is also the most effective color for attracting customers to your offer. So what are you waiting for? Paint your website red. Redecorate social media and your website and spread joy like never before.
This year, take a cue from Bath & Body Works’ Christmas marketing campaign. Their use of colors and decor is extremely appealing while ensuring that their products remain in the spotlight.
Aside from the festive red and green elements on the site, they’ve also used words like ‘merriest’ and ‘Santa Approved’ to make their products stand out. They even used Christmas-themed social media.
10. Leverage User-Generated Content
User-Generated Content is content that your customers create for you. Yep, that’s basically a free promotional tool with immense impact. It gives your potential customers a chance to look at the first-hand experience of your existing ones.
Furthermore, Starbucks is the king of Christmas marketing when it comes to user-generated content! They started Christmas with another stunning campaign that drove huge engagement and sales increases. Check out their #RedCups campaign
11. Offer Free Shipping and Returns
Offer free shipping on everything. Period.
Free shipping has now become the industry norm. You may have a significantly better product than your competition, but if your competitor offers free shipping, the buyer will more likely be swayed toward them.
In order to offer free shipping, you may need to do some math. You’ll more than likely have to increase your prices and cut spending elsewhere. That being said, the words ‘FREE SHIPPING’ can make nearly any potential customer overlook a slightly higher price tag.
Furthermore, free EXPRESS shipping can also be of benefit to you. By offering free express postage, you create a double-edged sales sword.
You’re able to extend Christmas marketing campaigns and push your shipping deadlines closer up to December 24th. This means last-minute buyers will find your products more appealing.
Again, it may be very expensive for you to absorb the cost of free express shipping, but consider increasing your prices. Your products are still a solution for last-minute buyers if they’re willing to pay for them.
12. Offer Customized Discounts, Bundle Offers, and Coupon Codes
Special occasions call for special offers. Use your holiday marketing ideas to create special Christmas and New Year discounts. Moreover, provide them with gifts for every purchase they make. For example, provide a coupon code they can redeem later. As happy customers, they’ll likely buy more from your brand.
Share the discounts and offers on your social media organically, and through ads, if your budget allows. Just seeing the ‘discount’ or the ‘free’ word entices people to at least visit your website. This ultimately increases the chances of conversion.
13. Leverage Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Unless this is your first year in business, you’ll know that Black Friday (BF) and Cyber Monday (CM) go hand in hand with Christmas, too.
According to research carried out by the digital publisher, Future Publishing, 76% of US consumers will be engaged with BFCM this year.
This is a massive opportunity for your brand to get a slice of the buying madness pie. Of course, these days are about offering massive discounts. But as a forward-thinking marketer, you can go above and beyond. But how?
By adding a little more value to each purchase. Value-added selling is nothing new, but it’s a feature that a lot of eCommerce brands overlook.
You can add value by
#1 Offering free postage on all returned items
#2 Adding in a cheap ‘stocking filler’ present for free
#3 Throwing in a discount that’s valid for the next 12 months
With many buyers engaged just as much on BF and CM, it’s a good chance to get your brand name in front of them and grow your email list in the lead-up to Christmas.
14. Holiday-themed Podcasts/Webinars
Your customers are already in the holiday mood. Now, what they want from you is content that aligns with their thought process. So, organize podcasts and webinars to talk about the holiday season. Anything that tributes to your services as well as the customer’s mindset are perfect.
Have a look (listen) at this Christmas shopping-based episode called “How to Boost Your Marketing for the Upcoming Online Xmas Shopping Season” on our “Marketer of the Month” podcast. Podcasts like this boost the holiday feel and attract people to your website.
15. Influencer Marketing
One of the most creative Christmas campaign ideas is to collaborate with Instagram influencers who complement your brand. These influencers can promote your deals and products via Instagram Stories, and share a discount code with the viewers. Influencers offer a nice change from all the salesy posts and can make your promotions more appealing.
In 2019, Calvin Klein organized a party in New York and invited Instagram influencers and celebrities to join the event. All the influencers were wearing CK’s clothes. That helped increase the brand awareness manifold. Their pictures were then shared by influencers and Calvin Klein’s official page. CK has always partnered with influencers to reach their target audience, and this was just another successful attempt at Christmas promotion ideas.
Some Bonus Tips and Tricks
Oh, but that’s not all. Now that we have brought you this far, we’ll attempt to get you through the finish line. Here are some bonus tips that you can add to your holiday marketing campaign to tackle that holiday rush!
1. Send a Positive Message
As you must have noticed in the infographic, Johnson & Johnson spread holiday cheer by partnering with charities and special causes. They launched a photo ad inviting viewers to “Donate a Photo” for charity. Taking initiatives like these will help you gain more attention for all the good reasons.
Take Coca-Cola’s Sharing Can Initiative for instance. In Europe, they offered people a chance to personalize their Coke bottles. Such marketing campaigns get you in the limelight immediately and help attract more customers. And most importantly, with such campaigns, you can spread a positive message that you care about your customers more than anything else.
2. Solve Customer Pain Points
Do extensive research on your target audience and analyze it. Target the problems that your customers are facing. And what can be a better holiday gift than providing a solution or two to someone’s problems? Fulfill their wants, if not their needs.
Gather information from their responses and personalize your services in order to recognize their pain points through interactive content. Look at this survey for example. You use it to learn more about your customers’ preferences and their thoughts about you. Moreover, you can use their responses to improve the customer experience as well as your future campaigns.
3. Cash Those Keywords
A lot of marketers forget to cover this aspect. It’s important to start ranking for the holiday keywords. People search a lot during the holidays — gift ideas, clothes, smartphones, and whatnot! And since they’re aware that promotions and offers are available everywhere during this time of the year, that’s what they eye. So, it’s best to target relevant holiday keywords and step up your SEO game.
You can go broad with your keyword targeting. Try various versions of the same keywords, and think of what your target audience would search for.
4. Stock up on Your Best-Selling Products
Before you get too engrossed with selling more this Christmas season, do what you can to avoid a disaster.
You know your inventory, you know what sells the most. Keep extra stock of popular products, ready to be dispatched. Also keep a higher volume of smaller, cheaper products that may be used as stocking fillers, ready to go.
Good inventory management means that you’ll avoid disappointing customers. You really don’t want to send an email along the lines of ‘sorry, but we don’t actually have what you ordered’.
That’s not how you delight a customer!
5. Don’t Miss Out on the Post-Christmas Sales
There is a blurry period between Christmas and when people go back to work in the new year. There is no better time than now to continue pumping out your sales. The holiday season is usually a time for people to relax with their families — and scroll through their phones.
Offer a ‘Santa didn’t get me what I wanted’ flash sale and heavily discount any products that you’d like to move quickly. This is a smart way to remove some stagnant products and make room for upcoming ones in the new year.
6. Collect Feedback for Your Future Campaigns
Customer feedback has become one of the primary drivers of long-term growth. Nowadays, organizations seize every opportunity to communicate with or learn about their customers.
And all for good reason. According to Harvard Business Review, customers who were asked for feedback were more profitable and less likely to churn.
Simply put, you cannot succeed without listening to your customers!
How do you know if what you are doing is right or wrong? How do you know how your customers are reacting? The answer is — Customer Feedback Surveys.
Customer feedback is the guiding light for your company. After your Christmas campaign is over, you can create and personalize customer surveys based on your requirements. Not only does it help you improve your product, but it impacts every aspect of your business as well. Be it marketing, sales, or customer service, customer feedback helps you understand what your customers like and dislike. Being close to your customers will set you on a growth trajectory that you haven’t experienced before.
Outgrow provides professional templates and layouts that help you create surveys in minutes. So, start creating your own survey!
Conclusion
And that was all our tips and strategies to boost your Christmas marketing this year! We hope that you find these strategies useful.
As you can see, it doesn’t take much to create something that goes above and beyond for Christmas. These concepts require very little investment in time and money but can lead to some pretty impressive results — if you plan accordingly.
What are some of the most effective marketing ideas that you’ve implemented over Christmas? Let us know in the comments!
So, what do you say? Are you ready to create interactive content to boost customer engagement this Christmas?
Hurry! Sign up for Outgrow’s 7-day free trial and start creating interactive content.
