How to Plan for a Stress-Free Christmas Promotion
For retailers, and many other clients, Christmas is the season that brings the most commercial success. No wonder that you need and want a Christmas promotion that draws in the crowds. But during such a busy time, how can you minimise stress but maximise returns?
The stress-free Christmas promotion – here’s how…
- Review – what went well? What didn’t?
Take a leaf from major retailers like M&S and John Lewis by reviewing the Christmas promotion within days of its ending. Essentially, you want to plan your Christmas promotion well in advance with everything in place so that when the time comes, you can concentrate on the most important thing: delivering what you have promised.
Leave it too long, however, and your review will be through rose-tinted glasses and you’ll have forgotten some of the smaller niggling details. And so set aside time after the Christmas rush when you review objectives and goals, but also what worked and what didn’t. You also need to be asking why things worked and didn’t.
- Read the signs
Planning in advance is all well and good but attitudes and opinions of society change so make sure you are not thundering ahead with a tone-deaf Christmas promotion that ticks all the wrong boxes.
Read the signs and listen to conversations – social media is a great listening device.
- Plan a year ahead
To enjoy a stress-free Christmas promotion that really delivers, you need a strong strategy but you also need to plan a year ahead.
Larger retailers, M&S included, have their Christmas promotion signed off and ready to go by the end of summer at the latest.
This is not just the promotional campaign and the making of the tear-jerking advert but looking at products and suppliers, considering packaging and so much more.
Your planning may not be as involved as this but putting time aside now to plan your Christmas promotion will deliver in the end. And by getting your products ordered and marketing material designed in the summer, all the major tools of your promo campaign is ready!
- Hire a Santa early
Christmas is a season most of us enjoy and for parents, carers and grandparents, they will actively look for attractions and events where Santa will be making an appearance.
But parents and grandparents, along with their children, can be a hard group to please. You only have to look at some scathing social media reviews of Christmas events to see that their expectations of festive events are high.
And that includes Santa. Asking your elderly neighbour to dress up in a cheap suit is not what people expect from a retailer like yours.
Why compromise? Hire a Santa well in advance and you get to choose the cream of the crop. We have amazing professional Santas, all of whom are trained and DBS checked so you have peace of mind that they will always act appropriately and professionally.
Early planning, a clear strategy and hiring Santa and sourcing products in advance of the Christmas rush are the steps that will see you enjoy a stress-free Christmas promotion.
