Christmas is by far the biggest time for celebration in the UK. If your business doesn’t prepare for it properly, you will miss out on a huge amount of potential profit and opportunity to strengthen your relationships with customers and business associates.

Here are our top tips that you can follow to make sure everything is in place in time for the festive madness.

How to Prepare Your Business for Christmas

With December quickly approaching, here are four things you should organise as soon as possible:

• Optimise Your Website
• Arrange Vouchers/Gift Cards
• Have a social media plan in place
• Organise promotional merchandise

Website Updates

You’ll be amazed at how much of an impact small festive updates to your website can have on your conversion rates. Christmas is an incredible selling tool, whether reminding your potential customers that Christmas is on its way or prioritising different products that are likely to sell well.

One option is to add a countdown clock to your website. This adds a sense of urgency, encouraging potential customers to commit rather than delay. We recently implemented a countdown clock for one of our clients who found it had an immediate effect on their conversion rate for Christmas day bookings. 

Another thing you want to do is rearrange the products or services that you offer. Consider what happens on the high street as Christmas approaches; everything is shifted around putting gifts and other key products front and centre. Why should your online shop be any different?

Our team of designers and developers are on-hand to give your site a festive update, making sure that everything is optimised for the upcoming season.

Click here to read more about our web services.  

Gift Vouchers

Vouchers are another fantastic option that almost market themselves during the gift-buying season. For a start, they are a perfect compromise for those who don’t have the confidence to pick something specific for whoever they are buying for.

Secondly, and let’s face it we have all been there, vouchers are an invaluable option for those of us who have left shopping to the last minute. Vouchers can be collected, printed off, or even sent electronically instantaneously. If you have left a present to the last minute, you can always fall back on a voucher.

There are countless options in regards to how to provide them from online digital providers to handwriting out your own paper tokens, or even plastic gift cards.

Whatever route you decide to go down, you need to keep in mind that to really make an impact, there should be some element of quality and design. This is something that our designers and print management team can take care of. Just give us a few details, and we’ll make sure all you have to do is sit back and wait for your gift vouchers to arrive in time for the December rush.

To read more about our print management service, click here.

Social Media Campaigns

One of the most consistently compelling and sure-fire ways of using the festive buzz to improve your social media game is to carry out an ongoing promotional campaign. This sort of promotion can work not just to increase your sales, but to cement a permanent increase in your social audience and online presence.

One option is to do an advent calendar style promotional campaign, but this is a significant commitment and can be especially difficult for smaller businesses. Another more accessible option is to carry out a ’12 days of Christmas’ promotion.

 These extended promotions encourage anyone exposed to your first few posts to stick around for the deals coming down the line. If they managed to pick up something like a 20% discount on a product they find valuable, then they are likely going to follow what you are offering over the coming days. And what’s the best way to do that? To like or follow your page.

With this in mind, you need to map out the promotion tactfully. You don’t want to leave all of your best deals to the end, or else people won’t bother to follow you. Similarly, you don’t want to bring out all of the big guns too early or else people will lose interest. It’s all about balance.

However, you shouldn’t just expect people to be instantly receptive and for the promotion to be an immediate success. You should also promote the campaign through things like paid ads and encourage your social media users to interact with your page through clever captions and even competitions.

This might all seem a bit overwhelming, but there is plenty of time for us to get a solid plan in place before Christmas. Let Strive Digital take care of your social media, so you can enjoy all of the benefits while focusing on what you do best; running your business!

Click here to find out more about our social media management service.

Promotional Merchandise

Christmas is a time for catching up with family and friends. However, it shouldn’t stop there; it’s a fantastic opportunity to cement relationships with business connections. Small token gifts can go a long way and make sure that you are on the mind of a client or supplier that might have fallen under the radar over the previous months.

One option is to send out a branded Christmas card – a reminder that you value whatever relationship you and the recipient have. However, some promotional merchandise can take this one step further and serve as a more permanent reminder of your brand.

From mugs and pens to gadgets and confectionary, the possibilities are endless, and there are options for all budgets. With Maverick Merchandise, we can offer quick turnaround times as well as low minimum quantities to make sure we are as flexible as possible.

Get in Touch

The opportunities for Christmas marketing are endless, and companies of all sizes are finding them increasingly profitable. This is why what used to be a celebration that started in December seems to begin building up steam from early October!

No matter what service or product your business or organisation provides, there is always scope to take advantage of Christmas in one way or another. Santa’s little helpers might be too busy to help you out at this time of year, but Red media is only a phone call away.