5 Things Every Ecommerce Business Should Do To Prepare Their Marketing For Christmas
Every Christmas season, I’m blown away by the number of businesses making the same mistakes again and again. To help you prepare your marketing for Christmas and do it better this year, here’s 5 tips that you can use easily to level-up what you’re doing immediately and ensure a successful ‘golden quarter’:
1. Spring Cleaning Isn’t Just For Homes – Clean Your Email Database!
One of the things I hate seeing the most in email marketing? Sending emails to unengaged contacts.
They’re not opening your emails, and continuing to spam them with them only tarnishes your reputation. It’s time for a digital declutter. Take these contacts out of your main newsletter campaigns and craft a tailored email marketing strategy to engage them separately. Not sure how to maintain an effective email marketing strategy? Check out our comprehensive guide on ensuring your email marketing is compliant and 10 ways to elevate your email marketing game.
2. Procrastination Is Your Enemy – Craft Your Content Plan, STAT!
Back when I was deep in the corporate brand land, we’d have our festive content strategies ready by mid-year. If you’re still contemplating, stop procrastinating.
Advanced scheduling is not just a lifesaver but a sanity-preserver, especially during the chaotic festive season. Just don’t forget, in order to be able to effectively forward plan and prepare your content marketing for Christmas you’ll need to get your product and campaign photography done early and you’ll need foresight of your stock levels and availability dates.
3. User Experience Is Key – Test Your Website
I can’t stress this enough: test your website.
Ensure that your checkout process is as perfect as freshly fallen snow and your product pages load faster than Santa’s sleigh. The more straightforward and intuitive you make the buying process, the more sales you’ll see.
If your customers are left guessing about shipping costs, return policies, or delivery times, they’re likely to abandon their carts. Remember: this is the one time of the year when they really do need it delivered by a certain date, so they’ll want to know this information up front.
4. Cover All Bases – Ensure Your Legal Policies Are Legit
Before you launch that jaw-dropping promo, have your terms and conditions outlined clearly on your website. And if you’re sending out emails (which you should be!), you absolutely need a robust privacy policy in place.
Prepare your business for Christmas returns, difficult customers and last minute orders by making your policies explicit on your website.
Not sure where to start? Teams like Brisbane-based Foundd Legal are great for affordable legal templates with kits for businesses like yours.
Don’t let a Karen ruin your day, get the legals in place to be able to back yourself when she asks to speak to the manager.
5. Your Secret Weapon – Build and Refine Your Email Database
Your email list is pure gold. If you’re not already cultivating it, you’re missing out on a treasure trove of potential sales. And remember, size isn’t everything – quality matters. A trimmed, engaged list is infinitely more valuable than a sprawling database filled with inactive contacts.
So there you have it. These easy, actionable steps will sort you out for Christmas season success in your business.
If you need a hand getting through the to-do list consider our outsourced marketing packages or if the festive rush feels damn overwhelming, remembery you can book an hour with our Director, Charlie, and get answers to all your marketing questions and gain the confidence to do it better this year.