Christmas is coming and as with everything in 2020, it’s going to be considerably different from the usual holiday season. But that doesn’t mean you can’t market your services – it just means you need to tweak what you do to be sensitive to the current environment.
Here are some tips for planning and organising your Christmas 2020 marketing.
Start your campaign early
With all the restrictions and best practices in place, this is a year when people are likely to start Christmas early. If you’re in the B2C area, this means your marketing can start earlier. It’s worth emphasising that your marketing is relevant for this year, not just recycled from past holiday seasons.
A few examples of this could be:
- Printing banners that show opening times in November and December and illustrate that you are COVID-secure under new regulations
- Use flyers to tell customers when you’re open and any measures you have in place to protect them when they visit
- Have a pop up on your website that tells customers about the latest shipping date for Christmas, taking into account potential delays due to changes to posting schedules with the virus
- Use real-life stories in your marketing and show that you’re supporting local businesses. Now more than ever consumers are identifying with community-based businesses rather than faceless corporations.
Use your website to showcase your products
If you sell physical products, then you might find that even after restrictions are lifted, footfall doesn’t bounce all the way back. This is liable to be the case through the Christmas period too.
That’s where your website can help. Even if you don’t currently have an online shop, you can create something basic. Or have a ‘webroom’ in place of a showroom to showcase what you offer.
Combine email with print marketing
Email marketing is a popular way to reach people and with many customers at home, you would think this would be an easy way to tell them about your products. But this can work the other way – we are being inundated with emails!
Therefore, a good Christmas approach is a combination of email and print marketing to get people’s attention in different ways. You can use flyers to tell people about your products but also mention those COVID-secure measures. And use email to follow up with them or offer special discounts.
Understand customer’s emotions
Christmas marketing is often focused on the emotions of the holidays – but this year, it needs to be filtered because of the pandemic. Yes, there is the joy of the season, the enjoyment of good food and family. But there’s also sadness and frustration with the restrictions in place, and fear about the virus will impact the holidays.
Therefore, choose your marketing wording and images carefully. Pictures of big family gatherings could be replaced with a simple four-person family around the table. Parties after work has closed for the holidays could be replaced with quiet drinks with three or four work colleagues.
Marketing for 2020
There’s no doubt that marketing your business, products or services is important in the lead up to Christmas for most businesses. The key for this year is to make sure you’re sensitive to the year we’ve had and the situation we face at Christmas to ensure you connect with your audience, rather than put them off.