It is no secret that the marketing world becomes particularly cluttered during the Christmas season, with every business and brand trying to stand out and yield those big holiday season sales.

The competition can seem particularly daunting for small businesses trying to stand out among the crowded sea of competitors. While it will take some meticulous planning and savvy know how, it is possible for small businesses to successfully navigate the competitive Christmas season.

Here are a few tips.

Focus on the Customer Experience

As the saying goes, “people may forget what you say and do, but they will never forget how you made them feel”.

All too often the customer experience can be bland, boring or downright awful. An easy way to set your business apart is to offer your customers an exceptional experience.

A few simple ways to do this include:

• Get to know your customers on a first name basis and understand why they have sought you out.
• Do you have a database with your customers’ birthdays or business anniversaries? Send birthday greetings in an email or personalize your social media interaction by sending birthday shout-outs to your best customers.
• Incorporate a short welcome video or a demo video for a particular product or service.
• Create a loyalty program that rewards long-standing customers in small ways from special discounts, birthday specials, etc.

Be a Targeted Specialist

If you serve everyone, then you serve no one. There is a high demand for businesses that provide laser focus service or products that meet specific customers’ needs.

SEM or search engine marketing targets specific groups of customers based on their interests. Streamline and run targeted ads and see where you should focus your energies.

New customers are easier to acquire because you solve a specific problem and the upside is you can charge a bit more for specialized expertise. So instead of being a chef or catering service that cooks for everyone, be the chef that targets vegetarians or vegans. 

Run a Display Campaign

Having a well-placed banner advertisement on a website is like having prime real estate on a beachfront property. Also known as display ads, banner ads can work magic when selling online.

The key to any successful banner ad of course is to place them in relevant websites. For instance, if you are selling baby formula, you wouldn’t display on a hardware products website.

Also, get creative with your wording and graphics. You only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention online. Make them count. Here are a few more key factors to remember when running a display campaign:

• Positioning – Where your ad is positioned on a website is very important to the likelihood of it being seen, much less remembered. The most appealing position for most display ads is the top of the page, as most individuals’ eyes tend to be drawn to the top of a page first.
• Effective Call to Action – You’ve gotten an individual’s attention with your catchy, colourful and prime positioned display ad. It’s now time to tell them what action you want them to take. Whether it’s to click a link to download something, sign up for something, etc., this must be communicated as clearly and concisely as possible in your ad. It also helps to create a sense of urgency with your call to action to increase one’s desire to click. For example, saying the promotion will only last for 24 hours.
• Quality Landing Page – Once someone clicks on your display ad and responds to your call to action, they should be directed to a quality-landing page. This means ensuring that the page is simple and easy to navigate, fully functional, quick to load and not too cluttered.

These are just a few of the many ways your small business can increase business sales this Christmas season.

Get more digital marketing tips to make your Holiday Season campaigns shine, in our free eBook. Click to download.