Successful marketing ideas for holidays

There's no denying that the holiday shopping season is important for retailers. You can and should market your business year-round, but what you do in the months and weeks leading up to the holidays can make a big difference in your sales for the entire year.

One mistake that many small businesses make is that they focus their marketing efforts on these few months instead of making an effort to continuously engage with their customers. Here are some ideas you can use to boost your Christmas sales.

Use Your social media accounts full

out. Despite the fact that a large percentage of shoppers follow brands on Facebook, small businesses are lagging behind in utilising social media for their advertising. When you use social media effectively, you have the opportunity to engage with your customers on a regular basis. For example, you can use social media to announce the arrival of new products in your shop. Offering special offers to your followers on social media is another great way to boost sales.

Don't forget mobile advertising

Text messages have a much higher open rate than emails and can be a great and cost-effective way to encourage customers to visit your shop. For example, you can send your mobile customers a voucher code that they can only redeem in your shop. Even people who don't have access to a computer often have a mobile device, so you can reach a wider audience with mobile marketing than just internet marketing.

Create and publish videos.

Video content is always popular. In fact, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google. There are many ways to use videos to promote Christmas sales in particular. For example, you could introduce a new product or film yourself unboxing a product. You could also offer your customers a behind-the-scenes look at how your products are made.

Also consider paid advertising on social media.

When you advertise on Google, you end up paying based on how much competition there is for your chosen search terms. Advertising on social media is affordable and easy to manage. Facebook advertising, for example, gives you access to demographic information (such as age, gender and geographic location) and psychographic information (hobbies and interests).

This means that you can target your adverts to the people who are most likely to be in the market for what you are selling. It's also very easy to set a budget for social media marketing. Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites allow you to set a daily budget so you always know in advance how much you're going to spend.

Make the payment process as simple as possible.

If you have an online shop, you need to give your customers the option to pay by credit card or PayPal. You should also seriously consider enabling mobile payments so that customers can shop with their mobile phones.

Use local advertising to attract customers to your shop.

to attract customers. Local newspapers and radio programmes are a good (and often inexpensive) way to get in touch with customers. Don't make the mistake of assuming that people know you just because someone lives nearby.

Consider teaming up with other local businesses to offer special offers and promotions.

For example, the owner of a clothing shop could team up with the owner of a shoe shop to jointly promote their shops when customers are looking for gifts. You can do everything from running adverts and informing customers about your partner's business to offering cross-promotions and bundle deals. Remember, though, that it's best to partner with shops that offer products or services that complement yours.

In the months leading up to the holidays

Create Christmas gift guides and make them available in your shop and online. Some people have a knack for picking out gifts for the people in their lives, but others may need a little help. You can create separate guides for teachers, relatives, significant others and children. Even if your product doesn't lend itself to this type of promotion, you can get creative and come up with something special. A discounted membership or service - even if it's more suitable for the summer - could persuade people to give your product as a gift.

Forget the Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

As a small business owner, you may think it's pointless to compete with big retailers and their Black Friday deals. The good news is that you don't have to offer the same deals they do - and you don't have to go to work on Thanksgiving Day, either. There are many customers who prefer small and local shops for their Christmas shopping. So why not give them a reason to shop at your shop?

You don't have to open in the middle of the night, but you should think about extending your opening hours to make it easier for customers to shop. There's research that shows customers are more likely to respond to an offer that gives them a percentage off everything in the shop rather than selected items, so think about that too. And if you don't have a brick-and-mortar shop, you don't have to exclude yourself. You can still take part.

Many online retailers offer special deals on Cyber Monday - that's the Monday after Thanksgiving. Whatever you choose, you can promote it on your social media pages and with local and mobile advertising.

Find new ways to promote products

. Many products have multiple uses, and by demonstrating them to your customers, you can increase sales. For example, if you own a clothing shop, you could show your customers how they can wear a simple garment in different ways. The more versatile you make an item of clothing appear, the more value customers will place on it. You need to market your business all year round, but that doesn't mean you can't - and shouldn't - make a special effort to boost your Christmas sales. Many people start their Christmas shopping in November or even October.

If you make full use of the resources at your disposal and give customers a reason to visit your shop, you will increase the likelihood that they will do their Christmas shopping with you. And the efforts you make now to promote your business will also make a difference to customers who wait until the last minute.