As the festive time of year rolls around once again, small business owners are hopeful that they’ll be in for some boosted sales around the Christmas period.
2022 has been an incredibly tough year for small business owners, but many will now be starting to get their hopes up that they could bounce back over the festive period.
Whether or not physical retail stores will be allowed to open their doors to the public this Christmas time is currently a mystery, although we’d guess Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be looking to cash in on an economic boom this December.
Christmas in 2022 is sure to be different, but we want to take the time to tell you just how your small business can market its way to getting the very best out of it.
Christmas Marketing Ideas for Small Businesses
The holiday season is fast approaching and 2022 is coming to an end for most business owners. With many large corporations pulling out all the stops for their Christmas campaigns, planning your own may seem like a daunting or overwhelming process for any small business.
The stats speak for themselves
Year after year customers are spending more and more over the Christmas period all over the world, including right here in the UK. However, this spending increase is largely down to the continuous rise of online shopping popularity.
Since 2011 we’ve clearly been seeing this trend and even back in 2015 14.1% of Christmas-based retail sales were made online. This means that eCommerce is the way to go if you’re the owner of a small or independent business at Christmas.
eCommerce for the small business owner
eCommerce, for those of you that are unaware, can also be known as electronic commerce or internet commerce and basically refers to the selling of goods or services using the internet, as well as the transfer of money and data to execute these transactions.
As the owner of a retail business, you need to heavily consider what eCommerce platform you’ll be putting your products up for offer through. It is a key factor for any website or online business that actively sells products to customers and consumers, so getting this right is essential.
It is also worth noting that 43% of all eCommerce sales were made on a mobile device in 2019, compared to only 26% in 2015, so ensuring that your website is properly optimised for mobile use is becoming increasingly important as time goes on.
Consider a pop-up stall or shop at Christmas
This point may not eligible this year as we continue to battle on against the ongoing effects of the Coronavirus pandemic, but it would normally work great for a company that wants to get itself out there and witness a valuable increase in sales.
By choosing to use a Christmas pop-up stall or shopping experience on a busy high street, you’ll be able to get your online business into the minds of a whole different consumer market to the one you’re used to dealing with. This can be a great move for smaller businesses around the time of year that people are shopping around for gifts for a few different reasons.
People typically spend more cash around the festive period, as children write Christmas lists to Santa and parents go shopping for the items they want.
Online businesses can update their websites
An extremely simple way of marketing your business around December 25th is to update your company website’s front page or home page, by making it Christmas-themed. You can update the colour schemes you’ve been using to the traditional Christmas colours in the build-up to the holidays. This is a simple touch that will likely get your audience engaged, particularly people that visit your business regularly, who will notice any updates and appreciate them more than others may.
Digital marketing should be of the utmost importance to you when looking out for new ways to create extra attention around your own business ideas.
Change up your product packaging
We all know how important custom packaging is for small business brands. It is often the very thing that identifies them to an audience and differentiates them from their competitors.
Packaging is the only thing that reaches 100% of your customers and is the first step in creating a memorable gift experience, which is essential around this time of year. Unique Christmas packaging for your products over Christmas adds a touch of luxury and class and, if coupled with a Christmas edition product, can really help create a sense of ‘exclusivity’ around your product.
Social media accounts at Christmas
The social media pages attached to your business should be wisely utilised around holiday seasons, such as the Christmas period itself. By creating posts that link to Christmas, you’re likely to see more engagement from new users in December, because Christmas will always be a trending topic on the internet every time it rolls around. You see, Christmas marketing shouldn’t only take place in stores or websites, but rather through the entirety of a business’ core when they’re trying to maximise sales and levels of consumer engagement around it. Marketing ideas can come in all shapes and sizes, but if you want to truly muster up that Christmas cheer within your company, don’t forget to put the word out there, via your socials.
Social media is one of the best ways to capture potential customers of the future, so just as long as you’re posting about things that will engage with their personal interests, such as Christmas throughout December, you’re doing the right thing for your business.
Around this time of the year you should focus your efforts on Instagram posts, or other social media websites that can create interactions between the business and its consumers. You could have polls and other kinds of voting activities on Twitter, interactive stories on Instagram and heavily-utilised comments sections under Facebook posts. Social media accounts are free so if you own a small business, make sure it has them and get them posting actively in order to connect further with your audience.
Read more: Marketing ideas for St. Patricks day
In summary
As yet another Christmas period fast approaches us all and Santa Claus prepares his reindeer for another journey around the globe, there’s a sense of hope for small businesses and their respective owners at long last this year. Things certainly haven’t been easy, but with a little bit of cheer and a few Christmas lights to brighten the place up, your business could start making more money in no time.
Merry Christmas to all of the small business owners around the UK. May a boost of sales and a growth in audience go your way this year.
Lee Jones is a seasoned Business Finance Specialist with over two decades of invaluable experience in the financial sector. With a keen eye for market trends and a passion for helping businesses thrive, Lee has become a trusted advisor to countless organizations seeking to navigate the complexities of finance.