smiling snowmanChristmas is a big time for small businesses but it can be tricky to come up with some good Christmas campaign ideas if you are on a  small business budget. Not everyone has the budget of the big brands to do those huge campaigns with Christmas trucks!

The good news is that there are still plenty of things you can do online to help promote your business products or services for Christmas.

Appeal to the festive mood

Add some Christmas flavour to your social media and websites. People love the sights and sounds and emotions of Christmas.

How about trying these suggestions:

  1. Take some inspiration from Google and dress up your logo for Christmas
  2. Give your website a sprinkling of Christmas with some festive images, icons or a colours
  3. Share some ‘behind the brand’ videos of how you enjoy Christmas, even if it is just you and the dog wearing a piece of tinsel on your heads
  4. Dress your product for Christmas – which can be really quirky if it’s a product normally associated with Summer
  5. Go festive on your social media – you can use curated content that is relevant to your audience or even funny Christmas videos and memes
  6. Create a Christmas gift guide – it could be an image for sharing on social media, a Christmas Pinterest board, a highlight on Instagram, or Christmas landing page on your website

Christmas campaign ideas

Here are few ideas that you can do on varying budgets, even small ones.

  1. Run a competition on social media
    This is a good way was to generate some engagement on your social media and raise brand awareness. Make sure you are offering a prize that your target audience will love and try not to make the competition entry too difficult. You want as many people as possible to enter. You can even pop some Ad spend behind the competition to target new customers.
  2. Advent Calendar on social media
    A fun and easy campaign you can run is a social media advent calendar. This can can be as simple as revealing products or gift ideas each day. You can even tie it in with a giveaway each day. They run really well on Instagram and Facebook. On Instagram it can be as simple as having 2 images – the first one of a number door with a ‘swipe ‘ comment – swiping will then show the second image which can be the product or gift idea.
  3. User generated content 
    Get your customers involved in promoting your products. If you have a signature product, run a photo contest where customers can get creative. This is a pretty simple promo to set up, and you’ll get more brand visibility from it with people sharing content about your products
  4. Create social media only discounts
    To make your social media audience feel a little more special this time of year, go ahead and offer social media exclusive offers. This could be a discount with a promo code which could be used online or in store, offer free shipping or even a small gift with online purchases.
  5. Team up with an influencer
    One of the fastest ways to gain followers and reach for your brand online is to work with influencers. You can work with local or industry micro influencers and keep thoses costs down. You can keep it simple like an easy giveaway of an account take over

Christmas marketing friends

looking at tabletNow don’t forget that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are pretty big days in terms of both retail and e-commerce. These are days that you can tap into with your promotions and bring more attention to your brand.

Why not try some boomerang offers for Black Friday to pull your customers back for Christmas purchases? You could try;  an offer or coupon to be used before Christmas, a free stocking filler on their next pre-Christmas purchase, free postage and free returns.

There are other days on the run up to Christmas that may fit with your brand or you audience. How about Brownie Day on the 8th December or Shopping Reminder Day on the 25th November? Check out an awareness day calendar to see if any work for you

This is also an opportunity to give an unexpected thank you for their purchase – maybe a Christmas chococate tucked away in their order.

Tips for running your Christmas campaign online

Young girl onlineChristmas campaigns don’t have to be overly complicated or complex, and can deliver great benefits to your brand or business. They can also be pretty cost effective.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure your Christmas campaigns are seen:

  • Pin posts to the top of your profile on the networks that allow it
  • Change profile and header images to reflect your Christmas spirit or campaign
  • Use Stories on Instagram and Facebook for good visibilty
  • Create campaign specific hashtags you can track or tag onto a Christmas hashtag
  • Use social ads to increase your reach

Finally…

jolly santasIt’s better to start planning your Christmas campaign as early as possible, but it’s better late than never.

You may be a business that can respond quickly or are local so tap into those last minute Christmas presents.

There is always someone who has left it until the last minute so tap into a local audience or provide something they can print off or email, such as a voucher.

Plumb Digital logoContact Plumb.Digital for advice on your online campaigns. Get in touch for a no obligation chat about how we can help your business.