Your Last Minute Christmas Marketing Checklist

When it comes to the final few weeks of the year, things can feel quite overwhelming. From Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Christmas to preparing to make 2024 “your best year yet” the pressure seems to mount. Some brands have been planning for months, but don't worry, it's not too late to get on the bandwagon now. Lean in, this could be your BIGGEST promotional opportunity yet.

The goal of this email is to make things simple for you, and as stress-free as possible.

Here’s our 6-point holiday checklist to give you clarity when it comes to promoting your brand during the holidays.

1) Focus on one specific offering

Instead of using a generic message like "Christmas promo 25% off!" on your website, restructure your marketing to make it more concise and interesting for the customer.

First, identify your top offering. If you have multiple services, focus on 1-3 of them and fully support them. In a crowded online market, customers often suffer from decision fatigue. They are overwhelmed by endless promotional emails that all say the same thing. To combat this, narrow down your offerings and concentrate on one area.

Consider what has sold well in the past or what has been highly requested, and create a seasonal variation of that. It could be a new colorway or a unique combination of your best-selling products. Take inspiration from successful designers like Virgil Abloh, who make minor tweaks to create innovative contributions.

“a creative only has to add a three per cent tweak to a pre-existing concept in order to generate a cultural contribution deemed innovative – for instance, a DJ only needs to make small edits to innovate a song. Likewise, a designer would only need to add holes to an iconic handbag to leave his mark.”

Instead of trying to push your least popular products during the Christmas season, focus on building on your successes. Be selective and don't try to do everything. Even large marketing teams follow this strategy.

For example, Trigwell Cosmetics (below) showcased their dedicated festive-themed "Trigmas" powder puffs at a recent beauty event that we was invited to, hosted by TikTok. These powder puffs function the same as their bestselling ones but have an updated festive colour palette, creating fresh excitement for customers.

People love something that feels both familiar and new at the same time. That's a sweet spot. Next, concentrate on your content.

2) Tell different stories associated with your offer

Instead of saying “Christmas sale, 25% off!” (as I've mentioned before, you can see that I have a big problem with that), give your audience some more detail that’s connected to their dreams, ideals, aspirations and/or goals.

For example, you could say, “Don't let the cold weather get in the way of your favourite look”, if you're a clothing brand, or “This is a service that will take the stress out of the holidays” targeted at leaders of the family. That way, you're talking about the fact that you can still look good while wrapped up, before presenting them with your specific offer.

We’ve chosen the word ‘offer’ because your Christmas promotion doesn't — and shouldn’t — always have to be an obvious discount. Instead, you could give them a more premium service for the price they pay, or add in a bonus product or service.

So much of the time, it's not just about what the product is, but the stories and the aspirations, the fears and the desires that are embedded in there as well. In the next newsletter, we’ll delve into Number 3: Amplification.

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