Are you making one of the most common Christmas marketing mistakes?

It’s no secret that Christmas is one of the busiest times of year for businesses.

But with so much to do, and so little time, it’s easy to make costly errors with your Christmas marketing.

To make sure you don’t slip up, we’ve compiled a list of the most common Christmas marketing errors and how to avoid them.

1) Forgetting about key holiday events.

When the festive period starts, it may seem like everyone is celebrating Christmas and only Christmas.

But, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, and religious festivals such as Hanukkah are all commemorated too, giving you the perfect opportunity to market your business from another angle.

The solution?

Make sure you incorporate smaller holidays and other religious festivals, that your customers may be celebrating, into your holiday marketing strategy.

Here are some key dates for your diary:

- Diwali – 4th November 2021

- Black Friday – 26th November 2021

- Hanukkah – 28th November – 6th December 2021

- Cyber Monday – 29th November 2021

- Small Business Saturday – 4th December 2021

- Boxing Day – 26th December 2021

- New Year’s Eve – 31st December 2021

2) Not starting your holiday marketing early.

Just as Christmas window displays seem to be appearing earlier and earlier each year, your Christmas marketing should be no different!

One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make is not giving their marketing enough time to work its magic.

Starting your marketing campaigns in September/October with top-of-funnel content, before transitioning to content focussed on sales, is a great way to nurture your customer relationships before the festive season really kicks in.

3) Forgetting to incorporate print into your marketing strategy.

Tangible, long-lasting, and cost-effective, print is a brilliant way to connect with your clients.

From sending branded advent calendars, promotional gifts, and Christmas cards to your customers, to printing Christmas flyers, banners and posters for your shop window, there’s plenty of ways to leverage print to your advantage during the festive period, making it a touchpoint you can’t ignore.

With many businesses focusing on only one touchpoint, combining print and digital marketing, is a great way to get your business in front of more potential customers, instead of limiting yourself from the start.

4) Using the same strategy every year.

Your festive social media advent calendar may have been fun the first time, but do people really want to see it for the second, third or even fourth time?

Whilst it’s a great idea to look back at your past campaigns, and draw from their successes, you should always look to improve upon your marketing campaigns every year.

Marketing is an ever-changing industry, with new trends and different ways to reach your market emerging, harnessing the latest developments is a great way to ensure your Christmas marketing campaign is relevant.

If you’re stuck for ideas, we’ve rounded up a list of some of our favourite festive marketing ideas for 2021. Read them, here.

5) Forgetting to thank your current customers.

Christmas is the ideal time to let your customers know that you’re grateful for their business. And, what better way to say thank you than with a bespoke Christmas card or gift?

Branded Christmas cards are a simple, inexpensive way to let your clients know you’re thinking about them.

Top tip: Sending your customised Christmas cards out early is a great way to ensure your brand is on your client’s desks throughout the entire month of December.

6) Not retargeting your previous customers.

Retargeting your previous customers is eight times cheaper than attracting new ones. So forgetting to retarget the leads you’ve been working hard to generate all year is a huge mistake.

A few ways to get your business back in front of your previous customers include:

- Offering exclusive details to your previous customers.

- Retargeting past customers with personalised direct mail postcards.

- Retargeting your website visitors with targeted social media ads.

- Sending Christmas cards or gifts to your current customers to remind them of your business.

- Send your previous customers a printed gift guide – detailing your most Christmas gifts for 2021.

7) Forgetting to track your results.

Crafting a great Christmas marketing campaign is all well and good, but how will you know how effective it was if you don’t track your results?

Setting out a plan with actionable goals, metrics to track, and deadlines to meet will help you measure how well your campaign performed. Providing you with plenty of data to produce an optimal campaign, next year.

Find out more

Christmas can be a busy and stressful time for small business owners and marketers. By planning and preparing your Christmas marketing campaigns early, you can overcome these challenges and ensure your business thrives during the holiday season.

To find out more about how print could help your Christmas gratitude campaigns stand out from the crowd, don’t hesitate to contact us by calling 0116 259 9955 or email orders@soarvalleypress.co.uk.

Or, to see our full range of festive Christmas print, click here.