Operation Ho Ho Ho: Christmas Marketing Campaign for Your Website
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year,” — the famous Christmas song lyrics go. Time for pleasures of puzzling over Xmas presents and enjoying the festive vibe swooping in with holiday illumination from everywhere. However, it seems to only be the most wonderful time of year for customers. Marketers, in their turn, rack their brains over tailoring their websites, offers, and strategies for Christmas sales.
This article will shed some light on Christmas sales and tricks on how to attract customers to your Christmas offers. Let’s go!
Inside Christmas marketing stats
Compared to previous years, the well-known pandemics skyrocketed online sales in 2020, making store-based retail sales falter a bit. However, according to the 2021 forecast, 52.45% of customers will flock back to shops, leaving 32.26% of users still doing their Christmas shopping online.
Online and store-based retail sales during the Christmas season from 2017 to 2020. Source: Statista
One cold hard fact rings true: offline or online, people shop for Christmas. To say more, the National Retail Federation concluded that within the 2020’s Christmas season, retail sales grew by 8.3% — all despite the pandemics. After such a challenging year, customers simply wanted to cheer up their friends and families and uplift the overall spirit.
And in 2021, 41% of users are planning to spend more online than last year. So missing out on adding some Christmas spirit to your marketing might mean reduced sales. 13Chats brings you tips on how to step into the Christmas season fully armed with some festive strategies up your sleeve.
How to prepare your website for Christmas sales
Take a look at some basic steps to have your website and the team ready for a merry little Christmas.
Catch up with your last year’s trends
Check how many chats you had at this time last year, what the main queries were about, when was the busiest time, and whether the audience found your support useful at all. By doing so, you will be able to estimate how many support agents you’ll need — for A-class customer support and high customer satisfaction.
13Chats allows you to check the statistical data for specific periods of time.
Project statistics in 13Chats
Moreover, you can segment the contacts you got within a certain period and add them to your upcoming Christmas chatbot campaign.
Contact segmentation in 13Chats based on the date
Decorate your website for Christmas and personalize your offers
Breathe some Christmasy vibes into your website to keep visitors’ eyes glued to your one-of-a-kind offers. There are multiple ways to do that — using themed sticky bars, pop-ups, overlays. You can also try video pop-ups to engage your visitors in more ways.
A themed video pop-up made with 13Chats
Sign up with 13Chats to check out everything it stores for Christmas. Isn’t this lovely pop-up a perfect way to gather leads and contacts for your Xmas sales?
A Christmas pop-up template from 13Chats
Remember to place a themed welcome message to your live chat for everyone who enters your website — this way, you can personalize your communication and hook visitors instantly.
Themed pop-ups to anyone’s liking
Visit the 13Chats template gallery to craft eye-catching pop-ups with your Christmas offers!
Set up a Christmas chatbot
It’s natural for gift hunters to doubt their choice or ask for product recommendations. This is the perfect time for a chatbot to step into the game. Use a chatbot if your
- financial opportunities to hire a support agent are tight;
- time is limited, or you tend to get support requests during business hours;
- inbox is full of the same questions.
If any of these points brings you pain or at least sounds familiar, you for sure need a good ole chatbot. A lot has been said about what chatbots are used for, but the most critical takeaway is — chatbots save time and money, automate communication, and allow your support team to concentrate on more urgent tasks. Work on your holiday copywriting, prepare some special offers, set up the message flows in your chatbot, test it, and you’re all set to use it and thus relieve your support team’s workload.
Like all of us, you are dreaming of taking a Xmas break. The bad news is that your website can’t do that. It will have to receive and process the incoming messages 24/7. If the user messages your live chat when all of your human employees are offline, a chatbot will ask for the user’s phone number or email address so you don’t lose precious prospects.
Use 13Chats to try its almost endless options for message-building — from multiple flow variations to generous options for flow scenarios.
Prepare your support team
As we mentioned, online shopping might not beat in-person shopping, but it isn’t going anywhere either. In 2020, retail shops received 18% more messages from users within November-December. This means you should also be ready for an even more drastic increase in users’ activity in your live chat at Christmas this year.
The more questions your team resolves each day, the more tired it becomes, and the chance of making a mistake escalates. Chatbots, in turn, don’t sleep, don’t get mad, and don’t make mistakes. Hand all of your FAQs to your chatbot and let your team respond to more crucial questions.
Make sure you are using your messaging platform to the fullest, and it can relieve your support team’s stress. 13Chats offers an option to assign roles in a team, set a specific chat to a particular operator, and create saved replies. You can also add notes to chats to get the chat highlights if they are new to the conversation.
Creating notes with 13Chats
Now that we’re done with the tech details, let’s peek into some engaging ideas companies come up with for Christmas.
A scoop of Christmas inspiration
Free delivery, huge discounts, themed landings — this is all worn out. Is there anything else to Christmas marketing? Let’s take a tour through some old but gold ideas you may use and not look boring at Christmas.
Create a chatbot with Christmas ideas
Since we’ve mentioned chatbots for automated communication, why don’t you use them outside the FAQ section? There are multiple options to be handy for your customers using a chatbot. Come up with ideas on what to cook, wear, or do on Christmas. You can use chatbot technology to create a digital advent calendar or anything your creativity prompts you to.
In 2017, Marks & Spencer decided to gear up its Facebook audience with some Christmas inspiration and created a chatbot for multiple Christmas tips and jokes — a lovely method to get your users stuck in your chatbot. 🙂
A chatbot sending Christmas recipes. Source: Manychat
Use themed copywriting
Catch your users’ attention by transforming famous song lyrics and showing your wit and creativity while marketing Christmas to your customers. This will put a smile on users’ faces and evoke emotions. And we all know creating an emotional bond with your audience is a bulletproof way to win its trust.
Lume, a deodorant company, replaced a word in the song lyrics “Your Days Will Be Merry and Bright” and made the copywriting fall in line with their tone of voice. Follow the source link and find out this year’s lyrics Lume has masked! 😉
An example of themed copywriting. Source: Lume
Create a Christmas gift guide
Okay, you might have heard about creating a gift guide, but in some cases, it’s absolutely crucial to give your audience straightforward product suggestions. Sometimes users might not be acquainted with your product range or holiday specials. Sometimes they just can’t make up their minds. Relieve their shopping stress and serve a gift guide, as Lego did.
The company introduced a Gift Bot named Ralph that suggests gift ideas after a couple of quick questions. I have two nephews, so I would appreciate such assistance as a user.
An example of a chatbot gift guide. Source: Lego Facebook
Add a shopping timer
Fuel up your customers’ FOMO and add a countdown timer on your website or simply indicate the remaining shopping time before day X arrives. Early Learning Centre used this trick in their email campaign during the Christmas season and encouraged users to hurry up with their holiday shopping.
An email with shopping deadlines from ELC
Involve various communication channels
Sending an email or an SMS with your Christmas special offers, discounts, free shipping notices is standard. However, remember you can use these channels to promote and sell, as well as show your non-marketing side. Simply drop a couple of non-marketing lines to your audience. It can and will help you stand out among the other brands bombarding your customers’ inboxes.
An email with a Christmas greeting from Ann Taylor
Inhale and exhale, fellow marketer! We know that managing Christmas marketing is a pain in the neck, but it’s much easier with some thought-out tools. Use 13Chats to build a chatbot, access a comfy live chat, get leads on your website through pop-ups and video pop-ups, make bank, and, of course, have yourself a merry little Christmas! Cheers 🙂
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