Christmas in July

Have you come across the ‘Christmas in July’ promotions that many businesses put in place to get over the early summer hump? When it comes to Christmas social media marketing, you really can’t start too early!

Planning for a successful holiday campaign can take months and the busiest shopping period of the year is no time to play it by ear.

I’m already hard at work preparing winter holiday social media campaigns for clients. My elves are busy making lists, checking them twice and sprinkling marketing magic dust across beautiful blogs, gift-wrapped promotions and twinkling social media strategies. 

Join me and take a few minutes to go over some of my best Christmas social media marketing tips.  

Dates to keep in mind

Almost half of all customers have finished their Christmas shopping by the end of November. If you wait until December to start your campaign you’ll have already lost half of your potential customers.  

But the holiday season is not limited to the traditional end of December holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Gift giving and buying starts in November and gathers pace during a variety of events.

The 11th of November marks the start of the holiday season with Single’s Day.  It’s a celebration with origins in China as an anti-Valentine’s celebration for single people.  The date is particularly significant as it’s written 11.11 or one-one-one-one.  

If you haven’t come across this yet, pay attention!  This is huge and you won’t want to miss out.

Singles’ Day is currently the busiest shopping day of the year anywhere, either on or offline!  Thanks to Alibaba (the Chinese version of Amazon) and its founder Jack Ma, Singles’ Day has become the biggest shopping day in the world and was worth $25billion in sales, during 2018.  Look at how that compares to the £2.44 billion in sales during Black Friday and the £3.6 billion that Amazon took on hits highest grossing day ever, Prime Day 2018.  Now you can understand why UK and European retailers are sitting up and taking notice of the huge Chinese market every November.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday come right after America’s Thanksgiving holiday, on the last Friday of November and following Monday. Black Friday and Cyber Monday mark the busiest shopping dates in the US and Canada and have now expanded to ‘Black Weekend’ and ‘Cyber Week’.

The beginning of December is marked by Small Business Saturday – a date that most small businesses should take advantage of but generally fail to plan for.

What to do and when

Christmas marketing campaigns should be planned in advance to give you time to work out all the details.

Start promoting your brand early and focus on customer satisfaction throughout the duration of the campaign.

Specific dates vary by business, but some general rules apply to all.

June to August
Set aside time to plan ahead.  Christmas is a busy period for businesses and customers alike. Keep your promotions and messaging simple and impactful.  This 3-month window allows you time to refine your campaign.

September & October
Start your early awareness campaigns. This is the time to get your name out there and continue to build on the work you did earlier in the year to grow your customer base.

Most people prefer to buy their Christmas presents from brands and companies they have successfully purchased from in the past.

Don’t wait until December to make yourself known!

If you haven’t done so already, this is also the time to create mailing lists, email newsletters & offers, grow your social media following and increase your activity online across all your networks.

💡 If you feel overwhelmed with these types of tasks and don’t know where to start, ask for help now!  Reach out for a free discovery call with me to discuss your goals and the type of support you need.

November & December
Christmas social media campaigns should be in full flow now!

Don’t forget that your online presence is your digital window display: change profile images to seasonal ones, publish themed content, and capture the magic of Christmas and the holidays to inspire your customers.

The main focus of these two months should be to provide the best customer experience possible.

85% of customers complain of problems while shopping online during the holiday period.

With a Christmas social media campaign that has been planned well in advance, you can make sure your time is devoted to your customers’ needs.

4 tips to create a successful Christmas social media campaign

1. Christmas is all about relationships. Instead of pushing for sales, create a relationship with your customers so that they become brand loyalists.
2. Make sure that the whole team has input during the planning process, not only those who deal with the digital marketing side of the business.  Include everyone from distribution and back-room to sales and front-of-house – this is a great time for bonding as a team.
3. Holiday campaigns can make or break a small or medium business and Christmas is one of those times you can let loose with your creativity. Experiment with Instagram Reels and Stories, TikTok videos and Pinterest pins but make sure you do your research and know where your ideal customer hangs out online.
4. Unless you are a new business, you probably have some information from previous campaigns and holiday promotions. Refer to this when you are planning this year’s campaign and ensure you keep all collateral and data to improve next year’s offering.

Plan your Christmas social media marketing in advance and, as my favourite Elf would say “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”