Christmas is the busiest time of year for those who work in e-commerce, and getting your marketing strategy in place can help generate leads which convert to sales. In fact, the Christmas selling period online is also one of the best times to attract new customers and retain them throughout the year. This could be the best Christmas gift you get, as these newly gained customers can provide you with all year round sales and purchases.

So, what are the 6 best Christmas marketing ideas for the festive period? Read on to discover how you too can generate leads, gain repeat customers and make the most of the online shopping frenzy.

1 – Social Media Giveaways

Social media has a reach to more than 1 billion potential customers. The problem is, how do you get your Christmas marketing campaign in the limelight? The answer is simple. The most successful campaigns on Facebook involve a competition where one or two lucky winners will receive a prize for participating.

First, come up with an eye-catching image, which is relevant to your e-store and what you sell. Keep it as festive as possible. Next, write a short caption with the store URL, and then add in the terms of the competition. A simple ‘Like our page, share this post, and comment with a hashtag’ is sufficient to gain popularity.

Ensure you push the campaign and offer some great prizes. Every day you can add a few links to the comments section to further boost traffic to your sales pages and hopefully increase your customer base.

2 – Fresh Blog Content

While site SEO is important, one of the best ways to draw attention to your e-commerce store during the festive season is by posting daily content on your blogs and website highlighting your Christmas items and promotions. Blogs and articles can be written with SEO and are one of the best, if not the best way to draw people to your store.

The thing to remember when it comes to Christmas marketing with articles and blogs are the 3 C’s ‘Creative-Custom-Content’. If you are not a fan of writing yourself, you can look to hire an article writing company to produce your creative custom content for you. It’s important to get your thoughts and ideas across and then leave it to the professionals to do the rest on your behalf.

Try to focus your creative custom content on the festive season. Think along the lines of gift buying guides, product reviews, and the history of products or how they are made. If you have in-house writers, ensure that their article writing & proofreading is top notch. The absolute main point to take home is that you need content, content, content, and lot’s of it every day.

3 – Email Christmas Marketing Campaigns

If you have a newsletter Signup button on your e-commerce site then you can begin to send out a weekly Christmas marketing newsletter. Your newsletter can feature your current Christmas stock, any sales that are upcoming, and discount codes for purchases over the festive period.

A newsletter is also a great way to send out a call to action, and getting people to forward and refer their friends and family can be a brilliant way to boost leads and sales. No matter what it is you decide to write in your email newsletter, keep it to the point and friendly and ensure you highlight your main sales areas. Lastly, always include several URL’s to your site and keep the content festive and cheery.

4 – Opt For Paid Media

If you want to make an impact on the amount of traffic you get to your site, then paid media is the way to go. Paid media consists of Ads, which can be run across several platforms at once. The biggest site for Ads is Facebook, where an Ad can go viral and end up drawing in thousands more people than you had hoped for.

When coming up with an Ad, there are target words which act as a call to action and really seem to work, especially over the Christmas period when people are more likely to purchase goods than at any other time of the year. Keywords for Ads can be ‘Act Now’ ‘Last Day Of Sale’ ‘Christmas Bargains For 24 Hours’.

5 – Website Referrals

This is a great way to further boost your site’s visibility and get it out to a broader audience. The best way to find websites to provide referrals for you is to either find a paid referral service or direct email the company yourself. You can offer to refer them in exchange for them referring you. This not only allows you to target a wider audience, but it also helps build your backlinks and improves your site’s visibility in the search engine results.

6- Offer On-site Flash Sales Promotions – Then Share

If you are looking at generating sales leads this Christmas, then the final fantastic way of doing so is by providing ‘flash sales’ and then using a little bit of social media magic. A great example is by creating a flash sale at 3 pm every day for 1 hour only. You can use old stock in the flash sale and knock prices down by 50% or more.

Once you have your sale set, put together an eye-catching image advertising it and place in your e-stores URL. Show a teaser item if possible and make it clear about the huge discount. Then all you need to do is post it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and let the magic happen. The thing is that even if people don’t want the item on sale, the rest of your store can be used to cross-promote items and help generate a huge increase in leads and conversions.

Final Thought

So, there you have it. Six fantastic ways to improve your Christmas Marketing campaign and improve leads and sales. Why not give them a go and watch as your sales go through the roof, right before Santa comes down the chimney.