With just over 10 weeks until Christmas – yes, it’s time to dust that tinsel down – you may already be thinking about your business plans for 2018.
On the other hand you may be panicking that 2017 seems to have passed by faster than lightening and you’ve not achieved everything you wanted to in your business. If this is you, then you’re not alone. Christmas is a busy period for some businesses. Around 40 per cent of John Lewis profits are delivered in the 6-week Christmas run-up. However, if your business tends to slow down from now on on, I’ve put together 6 simple and quick marketing ideas that will still have an impact on your sales this side of Santa’s arrival.
1. Make the most of your existing customers
Get in contact with your existing customers. They are warm to your brand. They already know about your products and services and are your best shot at getting in more sales. When was the last time you contacted them? Have you ever contacted them since they bought from you? Perhaps they want to buy more products from you or add an additional service to the one they already had. Are there other things you offer that you think they’d be interested in? If they are really good customers, then encourage them to tell their friends and colleagues about your business. Get them to help promote you.
2. Create a seasonal offering
This doesn’t have to be Christmas related. It could be an offering around Autumn – you’ve also got Divali, Halloween and Bonfire Nightcoming up. Or you could go with a Christmas special – perhaps a product bundle that makes a great present, orif you’ve got a service, can you guarantee something before Christmas?
People like to be sorted before Christmas – perhaps a special boiler check if you’re a plumber, or a pre-Christmas stress-away treatment if you’re a holistic therapist. Think about what your existing customers and new ones may be after. What problem can you solve? How can you delight them? Whatever you choose, this gives you another reason to go out and talk about it.
3. Run a Facebook campaign
Facebook is a quick and easy way to get your brand out there. If you’re already using Facebook to post, why not consider boosting the posts. Depending on your target audience, it can be relatively cheap to boost a post to increase it’s exposure. You can target by interests, locations, age, gender, connections and so on. Why not get people to comment on a post to win a prize. Tailor that prize so that they experience you’re goods or services,. You’ then get the double effect of them telling other people too.
4. Setup some email campaigns
Sending emails to your target audience is a quick and easy way to not only stay connected, but to communicate what you have to offer them and why they should consider you. Email is the third most influential source of information for B2B audiences, behind only colleague recommendations and industry-specific thought leaders.
If you’re new to email, there are plenty of great email packages out there such as Mailchimp, which are also free to use (up to a certain limit). They usually all come with plenty of online support to get you started. Just make sure you’ve got all the right permissions before you email.
Nearly 105 billion emails are sent each day, so it’s important to stand out. Think about subject lines, what’s your message, what will get them to open it.
5. Test out pay-per-click
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. Essentially, it’s a way of buying visits to your site, rather than attempting to “earn” those visits organically. It allows advertisers to bid for ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links when someone searches on a keyword that is related to their business offering.
If you’re new to PPC, Google have some great tools online, including a YouTube channel, which will guide you step by step through their version of PPC – Google Adwords.
Think carefully about what your keywords might be and make sure you have somewhere relevant to direct your traffic to. The great thing about PPC is that it is instantaneous. You can see results straight away and amend your words, budget and ads as appropriate.
6. Find a new place to sell
In particular at Christmas time, there are additional events, fairs, parties and even extended networking groups to promote your business at. Think about your audience and where they might be. Offer free tasters, free sessions, discounts or seasonal product bundles to spread the word.
Hopefully, that’s given you some ideas to boost your marketing and your sales for the rest of the year.
Don’t forget to start your marketing plan for 2018 as well . Get a head start on next year’s plan and relax knowing it’s taken care of.
If you need help planning out your marketing activity, please contact me.