How to Plan You Christmas Marketing Campaign!

Mewsli’s Christmas 

Marketing Tips 

If you haven’t yet started to plan your 

Christmas campaign you really need to 

get started. 

Christmas is a time for giving, and it is 

also a wonderful opportunity to show 

your customers how much you value 

their business. 

However, many businesses are so 

caught up in ‘making Christmas sales’ 

that they fail to notice the less obvious, 

but really powerful opportunities the 

season of goodwill brings with it.

Before you read on, this article is NOT 

about buying cheap, cutting prices or 

offering deals – all this does is attract 

one-off customers who will move on to 

shop with your competitors before you 

can say “Ho Ho Ho!” 

No, I’m offering you some tried and 

tested ideas which will help your 

immediate sales, build loyalty and 

engender trust. 

©Mewsli is part of ©Teather and Morrison Online 

www.teatherandmorrisononline.com

1. Decide what you want 

to achieve 

As with all marketing campaigns, it’s 

really important to know what you want 

to achieve by the end of the season. 

Are you looking to increase sales? Raise 

awareness? Boost subscriptions? Or 

something else… 

You should also think about how you will 

measure the success of your campaign 

before, during and afterwards.

This is also an ideal time to decide 

It may seem a bit of a waste of time to do 

this before you start, but it really will 

pay dividends if you can take a few 

hours at the start. 

Decide on how much you realistically 

expect to sell, what promotions and 

advertising you need to put into place 

and how much of everything you need 

to order. 

Often in the yuletide season, businesses 

offer discounts, hold special events or 

give away freebies – but do these 

actually bring extra paying customers 

into your sales funnel? 

By setting up a simple measurement 

system you can actually see what is 

working and either do more of it or do 

something else! 



2. What’s Your 

Christmas Story? 

Christmas is a time when we all revisit 

childhood notions of how Christmas 

‘should’ be. 

We know deep in our hearts that it’s 

unlikely to snow here in the UK, that 

Santa may have to be ‘helped’ by mum 

and dad and that the same old 1970’s 

songs will be played over and over and 

over again to encourage us to spend, 

spend, spend. 

But even in this cynical age, we still get a 

huge emotional hug from seeing lovely 

stories played out for us.

Who among was not enchanted by 

John Lewis’s Little Boy and his Penguin 

waiting for the big day last year? 

So what is going to be your theme this 

year? 

It doesn't have to be lavish or expensive, 

but it does need to chime with the 

season and be relevant to your 

business. 

Invest in a seasonal theme to place 

wherever you can – on the web, social 

media, emails and print. 

It needn’t cost much and can really 

impact on your audience. 



3. Give your customers 

what they really want! 

At this time of year, people are shopping 

for others. 

Whether this is buying an actual gift for 

the person in question, or whether it’s 

for seasonal bling to create a festive 

impression, the bottom line is that they 

need and want to impress someone(s) 

other than themselves. 

So the trick here is to switch your 

marketing tactics to be as helpful as 

possible to help them make the right 

decision.

Tell your customer that your ‘wots-ama-flip’ 

is an ideal present for granny, 

and tell them WHY. 

Let them know that you have gifts for 

‘the man who has everything’, offer 

teenager-centric bundles… You can see 

where I’m going here… 

In short – make it 

really easy for them 

to choose you to 

solve their gift 

buying problems! 



4. Don’t offer deals – 

offer gift vouchers! 

Customers view gift vouchers as money, 

and research shows that customers 

who redeem a voucher tend to 

spend around 20% more than 

its face value. 

For 

example, 

offer a £5 

voucher 

for every 

£50 spent 

with you in 

a single 

transaction!

5. Collecting for 

Christmas! 

No – not dressing up as Santa and 

shaking a bucket… I’m talking about 

using Endowed Progress. 

Endowed progress is a technique you 

have probably seen in action before 

without realising how powerful it 

actually is. 

When a customer makes a purchase, or 

signs up for your list, give them a loyalty 

card with ten place markers for stickers 

to go. You can do this electronically if 

you are web based. 



Make sure they understand that once 

they have collected ten stickers, they 

win a prize! 

Let them know what that prize is, for 

instance a £5 discount off their next 

purchase or a cup of coffee and slice of 

cake! 

The trick with endowed progress is to 

have ALREADY PUT STICKERS on the first 

two spaces – This REALLY WORKS, and 

here’s why… 

People love patterns and 

subconsciously want to complete 

sequences, furthermore, if a customer 

has already made progress towards a

goal, research has shown that they will 

consciously take steps to reach the 

desired outcome, ie., getting their prize! 

The added bonus to the business is that 

once they are in the habit of purchasing 

from you on a regular basis, they are 

really likely to continue doing so in the 

future. 



6. Promote early 

and often 

People start to shop earlier every year 

so don’t be afraid to start building your 

campaign early to catch them. 

Leaving your Christmas campaign 

launch until December is far too late 

(we think just after Halloween is about 

right)

7. Don’t forget 

Black Friday 

It’s the biggest shopping 

day of the year! 

Black Friday has become 

huge in the USA but for 

those of you who are not 

familiar with it, it’s the first 

shopping day after 

Thanksgiving and 

companies in the 

USA go all out with 

each other to offer 

the best deals. 

This year (2015) it falls 

on Friday 27 th November. 



For us in the UK, Black Friday is also 

becoming more important because of 

the way the internet shopping 

community has embraced it. 

If you do business with 

customers from America, 

and you think your 

business could benefit 

from Black Friday, 

we recommend you 

try a two stage 

seasonal campaign 

starting with pushing 

your Black Friday deals, 

and then smoothly 

turning up the 

festivities and 

merrymaking 

for Christmas!

8. Offer ‘Wish Lists’ 

Why not compile some ‘wish lists’ for all 

of the various people that your 

customers need to buy for, highlighting 

your products as gift ideas and saying 

why they would be ideal choices? 

You could do a list for Mums, Dads, 

Grans, Grandads, Aunties, Teachers, 

Teenagers (sub-divide this category), 

Girls, Boys, Toddlers, Babies and even 

Pets! 

Send them out to your mailing list and 

perhaps offer a bonus, such as free 

wrapping paper for orders over a 

certain amount. 



9. Hold an Event – or not… 

If you are considering holding a 

Christmassy event, before you start to 

plan it (and spend money), do consider 

whether it will actually bring in more 

paying customers. 

If not, don’t do it unless you have a 

longer term marketing strategy in place. 

For instance, hold an early fun event 

relevant to your business, such as a 

mince pie Jenga competition with the 

express intention of filming it to put on 

Youtube and social media as part of 

your campaign build.

10. Use seasonal 

keywords 

Yes they are everywhere, but these are 

the search terms customers will be 

using so you need to use them too. 

Think about EXACTLY who 

your target customer is – 

that is, the person who is 

going to be BUYING the 

gift not receiving it, 

(eg. Grandparents 

of teenagers), and 

use the keywords 

THEY will be 

searching with. 



11. Pester Power! 

Children have a huge amount of power at 

Christmas time and if you can tap into this 

you have a huge market at your 

fingertips. 

A great way of doing this is to advertise 

REALLY BIG , something kids want at the 

same time as making it really easy for the 

adults to say yes to it. 

An example could be a FREE Santa cookie 

and colouring sheet for every kids’ drink 

purchased in your seated café area. 

The kids get entertained and mum gets to 

sit down and look through your 

strategically placed catalogue!

12. Don’t Forget Your 

Existing Customers 

Build on your campaign and offer a 

special something to those customers 

you already have. 

Existing customers are a gold mine, so 

it’s really worth spending time to build a 

sub-campaign just for them. 

Make them feel special 

for being your customer 

and offer them a small 

‘present’ for shopping 

with you during the 

past year and use it as 

an incentive for them to 

visit you again. 



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How to Plan You Christmas Marketing Campaign!

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