Most people like Christmas, some even enjoy it. It is one of those holidays that appeals to the adults, the big kids and the real kids too. But there should not be anything childlike about your Christmas campaign; it has to sparkle and it has to appeal to the right demographic. You have to make the people who earn the money sit up and take notice. After all, those are the people you’re aiming to reach, because you cannot influence the wants of a child with an online marketing campaign.
‘Call to action’ techniques are very important on this; connecting multiple campaigns for a higher conversion and improving brand awareness is important all year round. But let us focus on the Christmas campaign for now, because if you can crack that, then the rest of the year will be like a piece of cake.
Basic motivational copy for your website
Click here – Sounds simple! It’s a classic piece of motivational copy needed for your website. If you have anything else motivational to put on that achieves the same thing; go for it. What motivates you WILL NOT necessarily excite someone else, so be creative and be thoughtful.
Click here for more details – Stretching a classic. You might be pointing out the obvious, but a lot of consumers will be glad for the plain speaking.
Download here – Another simple one but make sure you’re a trusted source or no one will download! Consumers like things immediately, so make sure it doesn’t take a long time to download too.
Join now – Great if your product requires access to a forum or other newsletter. If you don’t want to use such an obvious button, then a tick box at sign up will work just as well.
Get a free trial and/or …. – Something for nothing and allows you to tempt your consumer further with free goodies. Try before you buy works in the supermarket so why not online?
Click here for immediate Christmas delivery! – Don’t forget the exclamation mark because it captures attention and hits home that if they want this in time for Christmas not to delay.
Click here for priority Christmas delivery! – A variation of the above, with the added bonus of your consumer being ‘the priority’.
Limited availability – No on-one wants to feel like they are going to miss out on the important Christmas gift so this is a perfect piece of motivational copy.
Persuade your consumer with evocative phrases such as these for instant hits on your site for Christmas as well as follow up hits in the future. You just have to make sure you deliver your promises!
Step it up a notch – What you can offer
The golden piece of motivational copy for your website is this:
In a hurry/for faster service call, email etc
Even if these channels are no quicker than the website it gives the impression of a faster service and efficiency. People like to deal with people and as long as you reply in the specified time frame, you really are Jingle all the way to the bank with sales
Guaranteeing satisfaction is a risky one, but if you can deliver satisfaction then plaster those promises from your website right through to Face book and LinkedIn because consumers love satisfaction. Guarantee them money back and you will go even higher up in their estimations
Free shipping to the UK will stand you in good form if you are a company based in the US and vice versa. If this isn’t viable then encourage them to spend over a certain value to claim free shipping. Either way you need to offer postage deals as this is a big deal for most Internet shoppers. Don’t forget to add in the small print to this that any tax incurred at Customs isn’t your responsibility or they will be calling your satisfaction guaranteed clause!
Direct your customers to your Facebook page; especially if there are hundreds of glowing recommendations from other people just like them. Reviews are very important for you all year round, so look after the little people. Just don’t get drawn into large debates because you could end up with egg-nog on your face if you put your foot in it.
Finally and most importantly; Make the special deal really special. If you’re offering once in a lifetime Christmas deals they need to be just that. You’ve guaranteed them satisfaction after all, and they will call you on it.
The beauty of being an online entity is you can employ all these little tactics, so embrace it and accept the things that can go wrong and rectify them with little to no fuss and word will spread.
Hopefully Santa has some large profit margins for you this Christmas, it depends if you have been naughty or nice!
This is a guest post by Andras, an occasional guest-blogger and a full-time online marketing consultant. He currently works for Jangomail, a great mass email service provider.
Checklist For A Great Christmas Campaign
