01. Add festive cheer to your branding
Creating the right atmosphere for this time of the year can be a lot of fun. From the ground up in-store, on your website, in your communications (like your email signature), even your product mix – let your brand personality shine. A simple sandwich board or window decal can be effective for any business. In retail? Consider providing a gift wrapping service.
You can’t over-communicate at this time of year, so make sure you let everyone know ahead of time what your holiday opening hours are, as well as any other key dates they may need to know about in the lead up til Christmas, in-store, online, and turn on your email autoresponders. Then, if you’ve updated your branding and website with Christmas notices or shut-down dates be sure to remove them as soon as they are no longer needed.
02. Print it out
Gregory Ciotti says that ‘Marketing is enthusiasm transferred to the customer’. What better way to show-off your brand than engaging the senses of your customers through a beautifully designed holiday catalogue, checklist or gift guide. Hands-on, tactile print pieces filled with stories, lifestyle images, and room layouts are proven to be an excellent way to express a brand’s personality.
On that note, according to research conducted for the United States Postal Service, recipients of direct mail catalogues are more likely to make a purchase than shoppers who do not receive direct mail. What’s more, they typically buy more items and spend 28% more. This applies even if your business operates solely online; the study also found a 163% lift in revenues for websites supported by catalogues as opposed to those that were not.
03. Collaborate with other local businesses
Two heads are better than one, right? Collaborating with other local businesses is one way to connect with and gain exposure to a targeted, interested audience even if they’ve never heard of you! We love it when local businesses join forces because when done well, brand collaborations can be worth more than the sum of their parts from a customer’s perspective. The holiday season is the perfect time too. Think: stand-alone hair salons and nail salons, health and wellness centers with the local whole food or organic cafes and restaurants, and even fashion boutiques and dry-cleaners. The Collective Hub has written a great post on how to collaborate, read it here.
04. Send your holiday greetings
Conjure up the magic and excitement of Christmas with beautiful greeting cards for your customers, suppliers and staff. When it comes to sending Christmas Cards personalisation is key. Completely customise the design or use a template – this year funds raised from our Charity Christmas cards go towards the Heart Foundation, Children’s Cancer Institute, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation! In retail? Make sure gift cards are available. Selling the type of thing people love to buy as gifts? Why not design your own branded Christmas cards for your customers to buy to complete the package all in the one place.