Coate PR tips to make this Christmas the best yet for your business

Oct 27, 2022

As of posting, Christmas Day is only 59 days away! You may not be feeling festive, or maybe even ready to think about what can be one of the most chaotic times of year, but for many retailers, Christmas marketing campaigns have already been ticking away for a few months.

Did you know the UK spends on average 29% more than a typical month in December? Reference here. Therefore, you should be making the most of this time to generate more sales now!

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail is the age old saying and it’s no truer when it’s about your business or brand’s social media. Especially in a time that should be fully utilised like Christmas through social media influence, marketing and advertising, as the opportunity only comes around once a year!

We have put together some tips for planning your Christmas marketing strategy. It’s not too late to get a plan in place!

Review or plan your Christmas marketing message

In order to plan the right message to get to the right audience, you should consider:

  • the needs of your audience – what might be the right thing to advertise (service or product) that they might need at this time
  • how you differ from competitors – highlight why you are unique!
  • how you deliver value to customers – whether this through your service or product or through interaction on your socials
  • what you want to make customers think, feel, and do

Your marketing plan should encapsulate all of these in a way that drives customers to sales.

Important dates

There’s a lot of other dates in the lead up to Christmas that can help pad out a plan, we’ve listed some below to help you make a start.

  • Black Friday — Friday 25th November 2022
  • Winter Solstice — Wednesday 21st December 2022
  • Christmas Eve — Saturday 24th December 2022
  • Christmas Day —Sunday 25th December 2022
  • Boxing Day — Monday 26th December 2022
  • New Year’s Eve — Saturday 31st December 2022
  • New Year’s Day — Sunday 1st January 2023

And don’t forget to add in your last shipping dates, it’s important to consider any shipping or delivery delays that might be scheduled during that time.

Editorial coverage

Features or editorial pieces in magazines, newspapers and on online platforms are an ideal way to help raise the profile and trust in your brand with a target audience. As magazines and newspapers are targeted to specific demographics and are trusted by those groups of individuals, being featured in their trusted media will help gain credibility for your brand, this in turn can lead to increased sales.

At Coate PR we specialise in getting our clients into Christmas gift guides in the big equine magazines (Horse & Hound, Horse & Rider etc) and you should see a few of them in the coming months! It’s one of the best things we utilise for clients as these magazines reach a huge audience that is specific to their product and better still, editorial coverage is completely free!

Take an in depth look at your target audience

Take some time to go through your brands ideal demographic and target audience, is what you are doing at the moment working to attract them?

If not, what might you need to do in order to change that around? Have a think before you launch your Christmas plan to easily maximise sales.

What should you be advertising at the moment?For example, are you a rug manufacturer/seller? Having images with summer fly rugs, or selling these now won’t target correctly. You should be promoting winter rugs, winter tips, rug features etc.

Theme

Once your key message planning is all done, you can move onto your theme – or how you deliver your message. Our best tip is to keep this simple, avoid getting too bogged down and complicated. There is so much going on at Christmas across social media, so you want to ensure your content is engaging and relative to pull people in.

Offers

Will you be using offers to tempt customers? Which ones you choose need to be in line with your message, for example, slashing prices to 40% off on a boutique brand won’t make sense. But a free gift inclusion when a certain amount is spent would be a better fit and incentive for your customers.

Creating your content

In our opinion, this is the best bit! It’s time to get creative. Ensure your designs and copy best reflect your brand and deliver your message effectively and consistently across your social platforms.

This can take some time so it’s best to start as soon as possible. We would advise having this done by at the very least early November, so if you haven’t started, take this as your sign to get going!

Other fiddly bits

It’s worth considering whether there is anything that needs to be changed on your website or e-newsletters, could they have a festive make over, include your opening times over Christmas and last delivery dates.

 Take homes

  • Keep it simple, if you’re already tight for time, don’t load more onto your plate by over complicating things. Focus on posting out clear messaging to your audience.
  • Be yourself, don’t go over professional and ‘salesy’ if everything you have posted before now is coming from a relaxed personal style.