3 Hacks For Startups To Grow Christmas Sales Revenue

Yes, it’s that time of the year where consumers from the Netherlands to Austria, from the UK to Germany and France and pretty much everywhere in between spend like crazy and open their wallets! In other words, it’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas! For startups, it can also be the most profitable time of the year but in order to take advantage of the crowds, you need to start marketing and getting your strategy ready now.

We have put together the three things you can still do now to get the Christmas love coming through your tills.

#1 Decide On A Promo To Draw Customers To You

A promo is a great way of catching the attention of a customer and even better if the customer thinks they will get a great deal by buying something from you as opposed to someone else. So, the first thing is to decide on what kind of promos you can run in the lead up to December 24th and you don’t have to limit yourself to just one. If you are in a position to have a daily deal then do so or, at the least, make sure you have a weekly promo. Decide on the price based on your cost of sale and make sure to include a margin to ensure the promo will still be profitable for your business.

The promo could be a stand-alone product or you could go with a bundle where you combine some things together. When it comes to bundling think of the Christmas Hamper (which plays well with consumers) concept where a whole lot of things can be put into the same basket. Consumers love little bundles of goodies. Once you have decided what the promo will move ahead to…..

#2 The Promotional Material

Always ensure that your promotion has some kind of marketing material behind it and no, you do not need to have mailbox brochures alone. What you want is a combination of both traditional and non-traditional marketing so yes, something that could possibly be put into someone’s letterbox but then also something that can be emailed to your customer database and used on social media. The latter is very important if you are also running an online store. Make sure that any marketing material you use online carries a link to the product where someone can buy it straight away. Of course, online-sales have a lower cost and higher margin potential. You may also want to use a tracking code to test the performance of each promotion and you don’t have to be entirely tech savvy to do it. It may be as simple as using the first three letters of your business name followed by three numbers. That will help you identify the promo (if you are running more than one) and what has the best uptake. Always keep it simple by showing the product, the sale price, the price after discount and where to buy it from. Try and time limit each promo on your marketing material because this will create a sense of buying urgency! Also, consider using a sales tag similar to the ones below – it just adds a little more of a Christmas call to arms!

#3 Mail Drop Campaigns / Customer Databases

Research tells us that if you run a brick and mortar shop then 80% of your customers will come from within a one-mile radius of your location. If you are lucky to be surrounded by office blocks and apartment towers then that is a great opportunity. Also, a percentage of your business should be coming from repeat customers. So, now that you have decided on your promotion and have the marketing material ready to go there are two ways to get the promos out there. The first is the traditional mail drop campaign. Try and focus your energies where there is a volume population of potential consumers such as office towers and apartment blocks. If you don’t have those near you then go for high-density housing around your local area. Don’t be tempted to have your primary focus more than a mile out from where you are and try and focus on those consumers who are closest to you.

Secondly, you should have a customer database and or a social media following. For the customer database make sure you email them with specials but be careful not to flood them with too many emails. Of course, social media is different and the best time to post is in the mornings between 7 am and 9 am, at lunchtime between midday and 2 pm and early evening from 5 pm to 8 pm. To explain, these are times when people are mostly using social media – every other time in between they are likely at work!

Those three tips should get you going and the creative juices flowing but, in reality, there are things that you should or could be doing throughout the year such as taking advantage of holidays or special days that could boost your sales income. One of the best things to do at the beginning of any new year is to sit down and work out a calendar of events and what they could mean to your business. Then, build and plan some promos around those days so as to have them ready well in advance. The actual promo could change in the lead up to an event and that’s okay – the secret is to have the process and the planning in place.

Happy Christmas everyone and I hope these tips help to get your startup that little bit extra this year in sales!

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