How to market Christmas through a pandemic
With Christmas fast approaching, we need to make sure that our marketing strategies for Christmas are ready to sparkle and delight. With Christmas 2020 going to be like no other in so many aspects, as marketers, we are ready to assist in promoting your business to your target audience.
How to market Christmas through a pandemic
Social Media Executive
Tuesday 2nd December 2020
With Christmas fast approaching, we need to make sure that our marketing strategies for Christmas are ready to sparkle and delight. With Christmas 2020 going to be like no other in so many aspects, as marketers, we are ready to assist in promoting your business to your target audience.
So, how can you market your business in a pandemic?
It’s simple. Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle and start by creating a step by step strategic plan on how to market your business. Start by asking yourself questions such as:
How is your offering different from other similar products or business’?
What is your key messaging?
Who is your target audience?
Should you use traditional marketing, digital marketing or a combination of both?
These sample questions will assist you in creating a simple strategic plan, that will stop you from getting your tinsel in a tangle this Christmas.
A main concern for consumers this Christmas is going to be safety, so it is important to include this as a key factor when creating a marketing plan to ensure that your customers feel safe and comfortable. With face masks, washing your hands and social distancing being key safety measures during the pandemic (even Santa will be keeping a safe distance this year), it’s important to incorporate this into your marketing plan through a tone of voice that works for your business.
We created the following acronym to assist in conveying the safety measure across to your customers:
Social distance yourselves, a 2m string of Christmas lights to be exact.
Aline your key marketing message while maintaining customer safety.
Festive face masks must be worn, no elfish behaviour allowed.
Entertain, excite and spread festive cheer this Christmas.
Communication is key.
Communication has always been an important factor in marketing, however how you communicate with your customer has completely changed and transformed in 2020. So how has communication changed? With traditional marketing taking a back seat during Covid due to leaflets, brochures and newspapers being utilised less due to additional touch points for customers, the growth of digital marketing soared.
Social media usage grew by 33.8% in 18-44 year olds especially, and e-commerce activity increased by 30.7% within 25-34 year olds, which portrays the importance of how your business needs to be online and advertising through key digital marketing platforms.
Promote the shop local support local message.
With more people wanting to stay within their local area, this is an audience that you should build an emotional connection with to create a loyal audience. If you want your community to support local by shopping local, then you need to give back to the community. There are so many ways that you can do this through methods such as volunteering, running a competition, working with local community based projects, offering special promotions, creating and sharing fun and engaging content on social media that your customers can relate to, and so much more!
It is important to understand that if you want your local community to support your business, then you need to show how you can support them too. Building a relationship with your customer is paramount in order to gain brand trust and loyalty. Don’t do the hard sell as this is not what your customers want and in turn, it will immediately turn them off your product.
What to do if your business has to close for a duration of weeks.
The most important thing that we can say at this stage is to keep being social. While you may not be able to be social to your customers in person, it is vital to be social with them through social media. So, how can you do this when your business is closed? Offer fun festive ideas, keep the conversation going about your business and more importantly build an emotional connection with your customer.
Whether this is creating a bit of nostalgia on what their favourite Christmas memory, movie or song is, or whether it is sharing your favourite Christmas recipe, make it relevant to your audience while giving back to your customers.
