Online stores ready for Christmas?
Christmas is possibly the most important time for small businesses, it’s when the majority of the year’s hard work is done and when a large chunk of the year’s income is earned.
Planning now can make the difference between plain sailing and stormy seas so let’s have a quick look at the important things to do.
The date to start with is the last order date.
Christmas is on a Wednesday this year so the last delivery day will probably be Monday the 23rd but go for a Thursday 19th or Friday 20th scenario to make sure you give yourself and your team plenty of time to pick, pack and dispatch over the last weekend.
With the final date sorted you can now go to the beginning and start planning your promotions and marketing plan.
With the final date sorted you can now go to the beginning and start planning your promotions and marketing plan.
If this isn’t your first year then you have last year to look back on. What worked? What didn’t? And what did you mean to do but never did?
Most marketing plans are done in blocks of six weeks so establish a storyboard now and stick to it. For example in week one “xmas is coming, get ready ” week three “ Last minute offers” and week five “New year bargains”, you get the idea.
Developing a strong, consistent story is a large part of a marketing campaign so try to be unique and different.
You have to get the consumer to instantly recognise that your advert is yours and want to see the next instalment, maybe put intermittent episodes of your campaign online only, making users want to go to your website to see what’s next.
Developing a strong brand is vital, maybe hiring designers or marketeers is required?
Once you have your dates and idea’s firmly established then its time to mark them in your marketing calendar and start planning your newsletters, Facebook announcements, Twitter roll out dates and blog stories.
You may also need to run a PPC campaign so set budgets and make sure your keywords are relevant and ads are eye catching in order to beat the competition.
Letting all the staff know you have a plan and sharing the outline of it with them will reap rewards. They will feel included in your business which will boost morale over the peak period.
If you are feeling brave then maybe asking for marketing suggestions is the way to go.
Be adventurous and do a mini marketing questionnaire before you go live and you may be surprised.
If you are fearless then kids are always great to get an honest answer from and are the biggest influence on a parent when shopping for gifts so ask them if your storyboard makes sense.( good luck with that one).
Thats it! Keep it flexible, monitor the results and if you need to adapt it then do so.
HigherSites has graphic design, marketing and PPC departments should you require assistance with any part of your campaign.
Please contact us for more information or visit our website.
