Christmas marketing: best ideas for 2023

Christmas marketing represents one of the most critical periods of the year for numerous businesses. This is the ideal moment to establish a bond with customers and increase sales.

Data on Christmas shopping in Italy

Data from a 2022 survey on Christmas consumption conducted by Confcommercio in collaboration with Format Research outline an interesting picture of Italian buying habits in anticipation of the holidays. 75% of Italians plan to give Christmas gifts, among these, food and wine products remain at the top of the list of the most common gifts, followed by toys, books and e-books, clothing, and personal care products.

In this scenario, the internet remains the preferred purchasing channel, while local stores are gaining ground.

Christmas marketing: an opportunity

Christmas marketing is much more than just decorations and seasonal offers. It’s an opportunity to engage the audience in a special way and grow your business. Here are some tips and ideas:

1. Start strategies in advance. It’s important to kickstart Christmas marketing strategies not only in the days immediately preceding the holidays because buyers will start making purchases well before, sometimes as early as mid-October according to a study conducted by Google.

1. Christmas discounts and promotions. Special offers and Christmas discounts are a must. There’s no better time to encourage purchases. There can be different strategies to improve sales during this period: upselling (suggesting customers a better product to increase the overall value of their purchase) and cross-selling (advising customers on complementary or related products or services to what they’re buying, aiming to increase overall sales). It’s crucial to ensure that discounts or promotions are advertised attractively on the website and social media channels.

1. Create themed content. Christmas-themed content is a powerful lever to engage customers during the holiday period. This season is inherently linked to purchases and gifts, so it’s crucial to capture the audience’s attention during this time. Creating informative articles or sharing content on social platforms with gift-giving tips or a guide to the perfect gift with your products or services presents an ideal opportunity to bring customers closer to your brand. This strategy not only encourages them to consider the brand as their destination for Christmas shopping but also involves them in a shopping experience tailored to their needs.

1. Personalized email marketing. Using marketing par courrier électronique to send personalized greetings and special offers to loyal customers is an effective way to keep their interest alive and to create and maintain a loyal relationship with them. If you have a newsletter, creating themed content during December, perhaps slightly increasing the frequency of email sending, could prove very effective.

1. Advent calendar. Developing a digital or physical advent calendar with daily offers or festive content can generate great excitement among customers in the days leading up to Christmas. These increasingly popular advent calendars represent an excellent example of “gamification“, a combination of playful activities (point collections, collections, etc.) and marketing objectives (increasing sales or customer loyalty). These gaming strategies offer a significant advantage, allowing the brand to integrate itself into people’s daily routines, especially in the case of advent calendars, throughout the entire month of December. This translates into a constant strengthening of the relationship between the brand and the customer, with a new point of contact every day.

1. Christmas packaging. Changing the usual packaging to a more festive and Christmassy one will convey attention and care for details and will help the brand be remembered by the customer.

1. Christmas-themed landing page. A Christmas-dedicated landing page on your website simplifies navigation for customers seeking Christmas offers and gifts, showing attention and functionality.

1. Unique “Season’s Greetings”. Sending Christmas wishes to your customers, on social media or in more traditional ways, is common, but trying to do it in a less conventional way can be a good way to stay in the public’s mind and to convey the company’s values with a small gesture.

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