It's few days to Christmas --- and that can be a frightening thought if you're the one cooking the jollof rice this year :) . On the other hand, if you're a business owner, there's plenty to be merry about. Now's the time to think about Christmas sales ideas that can help you capture the attention of your target audience over the festive season.
Without doubt, Christmas online shopping in Nigeria has increased over last year. So, a well-targeted, well-planned Christmas campaign could help boost your sales by attracting new customers and encouraging existing customers to spend more.
Below are some offline and online Christmas marketing tips and ideas you can implement to have a Christmas season as profitable as last year's season or even better.
If you want to find new customers, you should consider setting up Christmas campaigns using Facebook ads, Google Ads or AdDynamo. Such campaigns are guaranteed to boost your brand awareness which might attract new customers to your business. Placing ads on popular Nigerian blogs will also make some sense.
With so many people using Google to search for Christmas gift ideas and sites offering Christmas offers, if you opt in for search engine advertising when setting up your Google ads campaign, there is no way you won't get new customers. Just ensure you include keywords that your audience might use to find your products, when setting up your Google Ad campaign.
You can read how to use Google Adwords to advertise your business and you can get started with Facebook ads at the Facebook advertising page. If you choose to advertise your business on Ogbongeblog, new Nigerian customers are guaranteed and you will have access to full reports of your ad campaign because ads on the blog are now served using a powerful ad-serving network.
If you want existing customers to spend more this festive season, you should consider email or bulksms campaigns and loyalty program.
Loyalty programs are marketing efforts that reward customers. Such programs may offer prizes, discounts and other incentives designed to keep customers coming back and doing repeat business with you.
If you keep a database of emails and phone numbers of your customers, you can send mass mails or use bulk sms to inform them of your Loyalty programs or Christmas clearance sales.
You can send bulkSMS at NairaForSMS.com and if you need to send emails to thousands of email addresses in your database, you can contact me.
Majority of Nigerian Facebook users “like” at least one company. Facebook page that communicate with their Facebook followers on an emotional level often receive the most 'likes' and comments. One funny trend I even noticed recently is that Pages that pray for their fans get "Likes" and comments easily. :)
If you communicate everyday with your fans and run a contest to reward them this festive season, you will definitely attract new customers and get existing customers to spend more.
Some businesses run photo contests on their Facebook Pages and you too can try something similar, eg asking people to share photos from a childhood Christmas, or something that represents the true meaning of Christmas to them. Then, you reward customers whose photos get the highest number of "Likes". Such will definitely make your business go viral.
If you own a big store, you can try a '10 days of Christmas' promo which you can use to give out one gift or deal every day to new and existing customers.
You can create flyers that feature a calendar of the month of December with a different special for 10 days. If you utilize a web site, posting the calendar on your site provides you with additional exposure to customers.
The calendar on the flyers or your website should be able to let customers know about the full selection of merchandise in your store, and provide a coupon which will further entice customers to make the trip to your store.
There are some eateries in my neighborhood that utilize this idea. They mount big speakers at the entrance and keep blasting latest Nigerian musics whenever they open for business during this festive season.
You can also hire comedians, local dancers, magicians etc to entertain your customers and passers by this Christmas period. Such will definitely boost your sales.
Look for last minute specials in advertising from local radio and television stations. You may find a station hunting for a sponsor for their end of the year event, willing to provide you with a special price for the advertising time. This possible opportunity can boost your brand awareness and increase your sales this festive season.
Let's assume you run a cyber cafe business, sell Laptops and computer accessories and offer computer training in your shop.
You can give a 50% discount on your computer training registration to customers that buy Laptops from you during the festive season. You can give free browsing time to customers that buy computer accessories too.
You can also set aside a special day during the festive season, to offer a special FREE computer training to people that come to your Cyber cafe with their laptops.
The training might be on how to set up money-making websites etc During the free training, you will ensure you tell them about the laptop accessories you sell and probably the softwares you have in store that you think they must buy to get the best out of their laptops. This will be easier if you have supporting staff and if you limit the number of people that can benefit from the offer .
This will provide you with the opportunity of introducing all the products you sell and might help in keeping your customers coming back after Chrtistmas.
You can contact local churches offering to help them raise money if they make use of Church bulletins. A church bulletin is a Weekly Newsletter distributed in church services free of charge. It contains the message of the week, articles plus news and events.
The Church that agrees will have to inform their members that they will get discount and freebies if they shop at your store. all they just need to do is to bring the current church bulletin along with them whenever they want to shop at your store during the festive season.
When they make a purchase, the cashier would take the bulletin and write on the cover, the total amount of the purchase. The store would then total the purchases made through each church, and donate 10% of the purchases to the church. As a store owner, you could easily tell which churches promoted their participation,from the donations you will make to them.
Try some of the ideas above if not all and then document what the results are and write down how you think you could improve for next year. With so many businesses competing for customers over the festive season, putting an original, well-timed and planned Christmas campaign into action could make you sell more than your competitors.
Do you have other Christmas marketing ideas you think can increase sales during this festive season, please let me hear from you.
Cheers!
Without doubt, Christmas online shopping in Nigeria has increased over last year. So, a well-targeted, well-planned Christmas campaign could help boost your sales by attracting new customers and encouraging existing customers to spend more.
Below are some offline and online Christmas marketing tips and ideas you can implement to have a Christmas season as profitable as last year's season or even better.
1. Pay Per Click Advertising
If you want to find new customers, you should consider setting up Christmas campaigns using Facebook ads, Google Ads or AdDynamo. Such campaigns are guaranteed to boost your brand awareness which might attract new customers to your business. Placing ads on popular Nigerian blogs will also make some sense.
With so many people using Google to search for Christmas gift ideas and sites offering Christmas offers, if you opt in for search engine advertising when setting up your Google ads campaign, there is no way you won't get new customers. Just ensure you include keywords that your audience might use to find your products, when setting up your Google Ad campaign.
You can read how to use Google Adwords to advertise your business and you can get started with Facebook ads at the Facebook advertising page. If you choose to advertise your business on Ogbongeblog, new Nigerian customers are guaranteed and you will have access to full reports of your ad campaign because ads on the blog are now served using a powerful ad-serving network.
2. Email/Bulk SMS Campaigns and Loyalty Programs
If you want existing customers to spend more this festive season, you should consider email or bulksms campaigns and loyalty program.
Loyalty programs are marketing efforts that reward customers. Such programs may offer prizes, discounts and other incentives designed to keep customers coming back and doing repeat business with you.
If you keep a database of emails and phone numbers of your customers, you can send mass mails or use bulk sms to inform them of your Loyalty programs or Christmas clearance sales.
You can send bulkSMS at NairaForSMS.com and if you need to send emails to thousands of email addresses in your database, you can contact me.
3. Social Media Contests
Majority of Nigerian Facebook users “like” at least one company. Facebook page that communicate with their Facebook followers on an emotional level often receive the most 'likes' and comments. One funny trend I even noticed recently is that Pages that pray for their fans get "Likes" and comments easily. :)
If you communicate everyday with your fans and run a contest to reward them this festive season, you will definitely attract new customers and get existing customers to spend more.
Some businesses run photo contests on their Facebook Pages and you too can try something similar, eg asking people to share photos from a childhood Christmas, or something that represents the true meaning of Christmas to them. Then, you reward customers whose photos get the highest number of "Likes". Such will definitely make your business go viral.
4. '10 days of Christmas' Business Promotion
If you own a big store, you can try a '10 days of Christmas' promo which you can use to give out one gift or deal every day to new and existing customers.
You can create flyers that feature a calendar of the month of December with a different special for 10 days. If you utilize a web site, posting the calendar on your site provides you with additional exposure to customers.
The calendar on the flyers or your website should be able to let customers know about the full selection of merchandise in your store, and provide a coupon which will further entice customers to make the trip to your store.
5. Entertain Your Customers.
There are some eateries in my neighborhood that utilize this idea. They mount big speakers at the entrance and keep blasting latest Nigerian musics whenever they open for business during this festive season.
You can also hire comedians, local dancers, magicians etc to entertain your customers and passers by this Christmas period. Such will definitely boost your sales.
6. Radio and TV Advertising
Look for last minute specials in advertising from local radio and television stations. You may find a station hunting for a sponsor for their end of the year event, willing to provide you with a special price for the advertising time. This possible opportunity can boost your brand awareness and increase your sales this festive season.
7. Special Offers
Let's assume you run a cyber cafe business, sell Laptops and computer accessories and offer computer training in your shop.
You can give a 50% discount on your computer training registration to customers that buy Laptops from you during the festive season. You can give free browsing time to customers that buy computer accessories too.
You can also set aside a special day during the festive season, to offer a special FREE computer training to people that come to your Cyber cafe with their laptops.
The training might be on how to set up money-making websites etc During the free training, you will ensure you tell them about the laptop accessories you sell and probably the softwares you have in store that you think they must buy to get the best out of their laptops. This will be easier if you have supporting staff and if you limit the number of people that can benefit from the offer .
This will provide you with the opportunity of introducing all the products you sell and might help in keeping your customers coming back after Chrtistmas.
8. Help a Church to Raise Funds
You can contact local churches offering to help them raise money if they make use of Church bulletins. A church bulletin is a Weekly Newsletter distributed in church services free of charge. It contains the message of the week, articles plus news and events.
The Church that agrees will have to inform their members that they will get discount and freebies if they shop at your store. all they just need to do is to bring the current church bulletin along with them whenever they want to shop at your store during the festive season.
When they make a purchase, the cashier would take the bulletin and write on the cover, the total amount of the purchase. The store would then total the purchases made through each church, and donate 10% of the purchases to the church. As a store owner, you could easily tell which churches promoted their participation,from the donations you will make to them.
Try some of the ideas above if not all and then document what the results are and write down how you think you could improve for next year. With so many businesses competing for customers over the festive season, putting an original, well-timed and planned Christmas campaign into action could make you sell more than your competitors.
Do you have other Christmas marketing ideas you think can increase sales during this festive season, please let me hear from you.
Cheers!
well said Mr Jide, i totally agree with all what you have listed here
ReplyDeleteYou said it all.. You need to spend money to make money & gain attraction.. Thanks boss.
ReplyDeleteIDon't have a product yet but I'm forwarding this to my entrepreneur friend. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteNicely said, I also recently listed 10, some kinda similar to yours, but mainly to bloggers. U can check it here It's the Seasons- My 10 Laws of Seasonal Blogging
ReplyDeleteGood Advice for start over. Thanks for the tips.
ReplyDeleteNice post, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete