During the holiday season, there are some types of businesses that tend to thrive and others that struggle. Generally speaking, the attention of the standard consumer shifts during the month of December from ordinary spending to holiday spending. Instead of actively seeking out goods and services that are more geared towards daily life, many consumers decide to spend their money on holiday-related items and experiences.
Unless your business falls into a category that is easy to market over the holiday season, you might be wondering just what you can do to avoid a dip in sales during this time of the year. While you can likely sustain a bit of a drop in business, you don’t want things to get too out of hand.
If you are looking to generate a bit more business this Christmas, there are a few different tactics that you can consider that would help you to keep things profitable throughout the holiday season. Here are a few such suggestions that can help you to give your business the boost you need.
Hold a Sweepstake
Competitions are a tried and trusted way in which to get additional customers through the door. They provide a sense of competition that many consumers enjoy and can give your target audience just enough incentive to bring business through the door.
As you are structuring your content, consider running a sweepstake of sorts. You can model yours after successful competitions such as the popular Valpak Sweepstakes. Even though you might think that offering up some of your products and services as prizes is a good call, a cash prize is something that is universal and will appeal to a wider audience.
Encourage Gift Card Purchases
Even though you obviously want to encourage the purchase of your products and services over the holiday period, it is much more lucrative in the short term to sell a substantial number of gift cards.
Gift cards essentially provide you with money upfront for products that might not actually leave your shelves for many weeks. Such a scenario can really help you to get through the dip in business that you are anticipating this Christmas.
Make sure that whenever a customer of yours decides to make a purchase you do what you can to encourage them to purchase a gift card or two as a holiday gift for friends and family.
Create Gift Sets
Since Christmas is the time of giving, you can help to clear your shelves of products that aren’t moving very quickly by packaging them up with other items and selling them as gift sets. By combining multiple products into one set, you can give your customers a bit of a discount that results in more sales for you in the long run.
Make sure that the packaging you opt for is festive and bright. This will help your customers see your products as ideal presents for anyone on their holiday shopping list this year.