*Written and published on December 8, 2013*
Yes, it’s that time of the year again! The pinnacle of commerce in general, not to mention the sales for eCommerce. It’s Christmas! Well…not technically, but it’s in the air. Early birds are starting to write their lists and check off names. You have to plan ahead, if you haven’t already done so, and wish everyone a very happy buying on your website. Here are some tips as to how to start planning such a big event so it doesn’t feel like an overload for the last few days:
Plan, plan, plan
You should have started planning at least a month and a half in advance. Set the Christmas mood in your shop bit by bit, and start drawing the outlines of what will be your deals for this Christmas Season. Let the customers get a sneak-peek around the end of October. If they know you will be having a special discount in advance, they'll remember this further on, when they are searching for their gifts online.
Create a calendar
Get all the critical dates down in black and white. Establish deadlines. The first thing to think about is when your last order date should be, about one or two days before the big day. And prepare your team for the extra hard work they are going to have the prior weekend.
Take a look back
Go back to last year’s data and review the results. Set aside the things that worked for you and that can be used again. Send an email to the clients that purchased products from your website last year, and inform them of this year’s amazing new deals.
Begin brainstorming
Create your masterplan. What was that idea you had back in June? What did the competition do? Did something inspire you last year? What works better for your kind of business? If you ran out of time last year to do something you wanted to do, now is the moment to get into action. This plan must support your brand, and get you where you want to be, sales-wise. It should be flexible and allow you to meet your objectives.
It´s all about the story
Create a strong story and go with it for a number of weeks beforehand. Something like six weeks is good enough. For example, if you have a “Christmas Sale” theme, mark the days when it will just be starting, the moment it will be at it’s largest (maybe the week before Christmas) and the aftermath, with an “All must go” clearance ad. Marketing plans are born, they live, and they just fade away, losing momentum.
Stock up on the stocking fillers, the Christmas cards, launch an “Early order weekend” where people can buy the same products for a bit less and relieve your workload for the last days.
The strongest marketing plans are those that are built on good stories. Stories are the subjects and themes that hold together a set of activities over a number of weeks and marketing channels. Aim to have four to six stories, depending on the size of your shop. They don’t all need to be particularly creative, just serve their purpose as a structure to your Christmas marketing plan.
Fine-tuning
Once you have the stories, insert them into your marketing calendar, and then start thinking about the activities you would like to have: challenges, social media events, videos, blog content, newsletters… Then you can focus on the smaller details, such as specific social media slogans, posts on your blog, catchy phrases for hashtags...
Let everyone know
Inform your team about the plan. Make sure everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do as well as the timeframe. Remember timing is everything during the Holiday season. There is nothing worse than winning the business deal and having the frustration of not being able to fulfill the service promised, with the ensuing refunds and unhappy customers. Christmas season brings a whole breed of new customers to your site, customers you're not used to dealing with, that have a range of service expectations and product specifications. Don’t let this catch you off guard and aim to please the biggest number of people possible.
Act according to results
And of course, a good marketing plan always has to be flexible. If you are noticing that Twitter isn’t working for you, but you feel like your store would make better business on Luvocracy, then give it a try. Monitor the results carefully to assess is something is working or is just a waste of time, and then change it if necessary.
Have you already started planning your Christmas strategy? Can you give something away?
