The festive season is undeniably one of the busiest times of the year for many businesses, including those in the retail, beauty and hospitality industries. Whilst 2022 might see spend decline due to the ongoing cost of living crisis, consumer data company Statista predict that retail sales over Christmas could still reach £82.2 billion British pounds. Whilst that’s down on last year, it’s an increase from 2016, 17, 18 and 20!
In this blog, we’ll be covering some of the best ways you can promote your business and generate more sales during the festive period.
Offers and Promotions
By now, you’ve probably considered which seasonal offers you’ll be doing. However, just because you’re aware of them, doesn’t mean your customers are. It’s really important that you use every tactic available to promote the incentives you’re running, whether that’s in-store advertising, social media, or using your website. Don’t forget too, having face-to-face conversations with your customers can never be underestimated, word-of-mouth can be a fantastic tool, and it’s free!
Offers and promotions can help your business to stand out from the competition and if they’re only available for a limited time, people won’t want to miss out.
Vouchers
Another thing to consider is whether you want to create vouchers that can be gifted and used post-Christmas.
Vouchers are not only a great present idea, they also help you too! One of the hardest parts of owning a business comes from getting people through the door, especially if there’s a lot of direct competition close by. However, with vouchers, you know you’re getting a guaranteed visit in the future, and once a customer sees all your amazing products, they’ll probably be tempted to spend some of their own cash too!
They also reduce the chance of unwanted presents being brought back and returned for money, helping you to keep a strong post-Christmas cash flow!
You could market small-value vouchers as stocking fillers. If you own a cafe for example, why not put a poster up saying something along these lines:
“Treat your loved one to a warming post-Christmas coffee and cake. The perfect January treat!
Our vouchers range from £5 – £15 and are a great Christmas stocking filler.”
Social Media
In regard to social media, make sure you’re posting regularly on each account that you have. Not only does the technology within the platforms favour this, but it also means you’ll be more visible to your audience. To make posting easier and more manageable, there’s several free software’s that you can use to plan and schedule your messages. These websites often connect to multiple social accounts so your posts can go out across all of them at once. It saves time and effort, which is especially important during the busy festive period.
If you’re not the most tech savvy, don’t forget that many of the younger generation are! Lean on your staff members, they’ll probably jump at the experience, especially if they’re interested in marketing and advertising. Giving them the opportunity to earn some extra money will also be a huge incentive during this time of the year.
Another quick tip on social media is to keep things visual! When people consume information via these platforms, they’re going to really take notice of the posts that jump out. You can make sure yours do this by using colour, humour, videos and showing your products in an interesting way. Keep written posts to a minimum and shine through your imagery. It doesn’t need to be anything too professional either, phone cameras and editing apps have come a long way in recent years!
- If you’re in the hospitality sector, take images of your mouth-watering festive dishes or do a video explaining how you make your most-popular Christmas cocktail
- If you’re in the beauty industry, demonstrate your skills by sharing customer photos and creating step-by-step guides, show your viewers how you achieved the look and display your talent
- If you’re in the retail industry, show off your new festive stock and include details of any deals or offers available
One more thing to consider on social media are the community groups. They’re becoming ever more popular and there’s so many different types, from hobbies, health, cleaning, shopping or learning. Join your local groups, and any groups that relate to your industry or the products you sell. Some allocate a day each week where business owners can promote their services, so keep note of when this is. As mentioned previously, if you’re strapped for time, see if one of your employees can take this task on for you! It’s definitely an opportunity not to be missed. It’s free and you’re getting in front of an audience which is typically in the thousands. Plus, you’re piggybacking off a following that someone else has spent a long-time building.
Your Best Sellers
Whilst it’s always exciting choosing new stock, don’t forget to look back at your sales from previous years. You might start to notice a pattern of popular items that are in demand every Christmas. You can use your data to predict how much you’re likely to need, so that you don’t leave your customers disappointed. It’s also important to make sure you’re putting in any stock orders early, so that you’re not left disappointed either. The same applies to January, start looking into your annual New Year best sellers now.
There are a multitude of Governmental bodies and trade organisations that can help you make your first steps on the exporting journey. Below are a selection who have dedicated resources and advisors to help:
The Department for International Trade (DIT) is the government department that works with UK businesses to help them export.
The DIT and its sister organisation, Exporting is Great, provide support on the whole process, from advice on creating export plans and finding export markets, to preparing to finding opportunities and preparing to do business overseas.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) provides advice and support to businesses covering all areas of international trade.
The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) advises small businesses on how to capitalise from opportunities available in the EU.
Hiring Staff
During the festive period, getting your staffing right is crucial. Chances are, you’re going to need more people working than usual, and you’ll also probably be dealing with extra holiday requests! Those two things don’t exactly go hand in hand. To make things easier, ask people to submit their availability early, before you do the festive rota, so that you can take their preferences into account. If you release the rota in good time and people have objections, or need to move their days around, you have chance to figure it out.
It’s also good to ask around and see which people would be happy to work overtime. Over the festive period, people tend to want all the money they can get, so you might find you have a few willing staff members!
If you’ve hired new employees, you should give them adequate training as they’re likely to be thrown in at the deep end during a busy festive period. They should understand your customer service expectations and have someone they can turn to if they need support or have questions. It’s also good to put on some incentives to keep morale up, it can be challenging and somewhat exhausting working during busy times, so make sure your staff are rewarded and that their hard work is acknowledged.
That leads me onto the final point…
Take care of yourself too!
Owning a seasonal business can be full-on, so make sure you take regular breaks so that you can recharge and reset, ready to start the New Year with a bang.
If you’ve got exciting plans this Christmas but need a boost in funds to achieve them, Capify could provide you with anywhere from £5,000 – £3,000,000.
Check to see if you’re eligible for one of our loans with our online eligibility checker. Or, if you’d prefer to talk to a member of our team, we’d be happy to guide you through the process. Give us a call today on 0800 151 0980.
