5 Holiday Marketing Ideas To Boost Your Small Business Sales

It’s now the holiday season! As a small business owner, December is a wonderful month to connect with your customers, spread holiday joy, and increase sales. But let’s be real; everyone wants attention during this festive period. How can you stand out? The answer is creative holiday marketing ideas that focus on your customers.

So, how do you stand out during festive promotions? Creating unique experiences for your customers that instill a sense of importance is crucial. To get you started, here are five fun and useful holiday marketing ideas that will get people’s attention and make them feel positive about the season. These tips will help your small business shine and spread joy during the holidays!

Why Every Business Should Offer Holiday Sales

Holiday sales benefit both small businesses and their customers.

These events give businesses a chance to:

• Provide a discount when people are more likely to buy.
• Create a sense of urgency by connecting the sales deadline to the holidays.
• Increase sales in a short amount of time, especially during slow periods.
• Fill your schedule with work that can be paid for or sell off any extra items you have.
• Offer discounts on big bundles or expensive things that people will want to buy.
• Increase brand awareness
• Encourage previous customers to make repeat purchases.

The holidays are a good time for sales because customers:

• Take some time off for the holiday to shop.
• They are in the holiday spirit and want to buy something nice for themselves.
• They search for discounts to reduce the cost of items they desire.

The tried-and-true deals in this guide can be used for any holiday, such as

• President’s Day, July 4, Labour Day, and Christmas are some of the most important national holidays.
• There are holidays, such as Friendsgiving and Galentine’s Day, where adoption is small but growing.
• Holidays for business (Black Friday, Cyber Monday)
• Customized holidays (such as the birthday or business anniversary of your founder).
• Appreciation Days (National Coffee Appreciation Day and School Supply Shopping Day)

Any occasion can provide an opportunity for a considerate and creative promotional campaign.

Five Holiday Marketing Ideas for Small Business Sales

The holiday season is an excellent opportunity for small businesses to increase sales and get visibility. With the right marketing strategies, you can get new customers and keep the ones you already have coming back for more. How can you make the most of the holiday spirit? Here are five fun and efficient holiday marketing ideas to help your business shine this season. Let’s get creative and spread holiday cheer while increasing sales and connections.

1. Create Special Offers

Optimize your holiday marketing ideas with special offers to increase sales and spread holiday cheer. Here are four effective ideas that you can incorporate into your holiday marketing strategy:

A. Free Shipping 

Offering free delivery is one of the most effective strategies to attract customers, especially during the holidays. People are frequently persuaded to complete their purchases because they value the convenience and the savings. Who doesn’t enjoy avoiding those annoying shipping costs, after all?

Free delivery can also inspire customers to spend more, especially if you set a minimum purchase value. For instance, “Get free shipping on orders over $50” encourages buyers to spend a bit more money while simultaneously removing the barrier of shipping costs.

By adding free shipping into your holiday marketing idea strategy, you are not only increasing sales but also providing your customers with a more seamless and delightful purchasing experience. And this is the type of gesture that keeps people coming back!

B. Buy One, Get One (BOGO)

Buy One, Get One (BOGO) is a popular promotion that allows customers to receive a second item of equal or lesser value for free when they buy one. Customers love these deals because they save them a lot of money, but business owners need to find a balance. To make BOGO work without hurting your bottom line, you could limit the number of items customers can claim, use the deal to show existing customers new goods, or only offer BOGO on items that you have extra of.

For Instances:

• A coach looking to fill their schedule can offer, “Get two months of coaching for the price of one—limited to the first 10 sign-ups!” 
• In the same way, an author could tell people, “Buy my best-selling book and get my second book free—perfect for gifts!” 
• A marketing consultant might try to get clients by saying, “Sign up for our SEO consulting package and get free access to the mastermind for 6 months. But hurry, this offer ends Monday at midnight, and there are only 10 spots left!”

These examples show how BOGO deals can create a sense of urgency and excitement while also increasing sales.

C. Holiday Bundles

Offering holiday-themed product bundles makes shopping for gifts easier for your website viewers and raises the value of the items, making them ideal for creative holiday marketing ideas.

For a BOGO deal, you usually get two of the same or very similar items. With a bundle deal, you can bundle a bigger range of items in a wider range of quantities. Take a look at the examples below.

Examples of Holiday Bundles

• For a trainer who uses a book and workbook as a starting point for more expensive packages: 

“Get the accompanying workbook for free when you purchase my best-selling book.

Quick: The sale ends this weekend!”

• For a business consultant who is offering a series of sales training courses:

“You can get three courses for the price of two! You can save a lot of money right now if you buy the Sales Booster Bundle.”

D. Exclusive Holiday Discounts

Provide flash sales and limited-time gift discounts to create urgency. Advertise these holiday sales via email and social media contests to increase immediate traffic and sales while improving the overall customer experience.

Examples of Holiday Discounts

• For a consultant offering a package:

“Take $250 off of a consultation package that costs $850.”

Act now: This deal expires on Monday.

• For an author looking to increase sales of a physical book while covering hard copy costs:

“Purchase my book for a $10 discount.”

For a limited time, the price is $5.99 instead of $15.99.

2. Give Your Customers a Free Gift

The holidays are an ideal season for giving gifts, and providing a free gift to your consumers is one of the most effective methods to gain their favor. This does not have to be an expensive proposition. With a little creativity, you can provide your customers with something smart and unique that is affordable to make. Refrigerator magnets, keychain laser lights, and paperweight decorations are all options for reinforcing your branding and displaying your contact information boldly.

Online businesses can also benefit from this form of marketing. Include a small gift or free product sample with each purchase you ship, and your mailing costs will be minimal.

3. Create a Holiday Gift Guide

Consumers who are short on time and need ideas will appreciate a useful gift guide. And the broader their list of friends and family, the more likely they are to use it.

To make the guide as useful as possible, divide it into categories: for the women in your life, special gifts for the kids, Secret Santa crowd pleasers, and for the man who has everything.

These are just a few of the many ways to group your goods to target different market segments. After you’ve built your guide, make sure to promote it in your customer newsletters and social media campaigns.

4. Launch a Holiday-Themed Email/Social Media Campaign

Create a holiday-themed email and social media campaign to promote your business and share joy. Use this chance to highlight holiday sales, end-of-year deals, and other special offers, but they should also explain why your product is so relevant at this time of the year.

• Is it a holiday classic that brings back warm memories? 
• Is it a seasonal treat that everyone looks forward to? 
• Is it a service that will make your customer’s lives easier during the busy holiday season? 

Your email and social media content should highlight these characteristics, as well as positive customer feedback.

5. Run Paid Ads

Running paid ads is one of the most popular holiday marketing ideas, especially when it comes to Christmas and New Year’s marketing. Naturally, it aligns with your budget and brand.

Let’s look closer at the types of ads you can use over the holidays:

• Search engine advertisements: When people search for products your store offers, they’ll often see shopping or text ads in the search results. Google Ads is the most common example of this, helping you connect with customers right when they’re looking for what you sell.
• Social media advertisements: When people scroll through social media, they often come across ads in their feeds—whether it’s an image, video, carousel, or story. It’s a great way to connect with potential customers, especially during the holiday season.
• Display advertisements: These are banner and native ads that appear on your store’s page. They work well with the rest of the content and highlight your special deals.
• Video advertisements: Promote your products via videos and streaming. Display them before, during, and after promoting your store’s outstanding features, deals, and discounts.

Wrapping it up

Preparing for the holiday season can be difficult for small businesses, but don’t be scared. While the stakes are high and the task is extensive, initiating early will greatly boost your chances of success. And by applying the above-mentioned tips to your company’s specific demands using an e-commerce platform, you can ensure a very festive selling season.

Happy holidays from TechDella!