I know that a lot of small businesses have already started their Christmas campaigns on social media, and during any holiday period, especially in the lead up to Christmas social media will be alive with engagement. This is because that’s where consumers find products they want, promotions that give them a discount and ultimately make their purchases.

Having a good social media strategy will drive success in your business up to Christmas, and with 4.8 billion users on social media, promotions during this time is crucial. Having said that, it is a challenge to come up with different ways to catch your audience’s attention, especially with the amount of competition out there.

The steps to creating a successful campaign or strategy.

Depending on the kind of business you have, you may choose different approaches – some may choose humour to spread laughter; others may go for the traditional look, whilst some may turn to nostalgia. No matter which way you want to approach your Christmas campaign, you will want it to feel magical, evoke an emotional or inspirational response so that you build a stronger relationship with your audience and strengthen your brand.

Step 1 – Look at what you did last year.

Look at what you did last year – what worked and what didn’t work? Of course, what worked last year might not work this year, so you need to be aware of your specific audience and customers, so you need to look at what they like and want from you.

What social media platforms worked for you last year? Did you sell more on Facebook or Instagram, or maybe through your website or online shop? A lot of you will also have a TikTok account this year, so that might be another way for you to develop your campaign.

Look at the type of posts you put out last year. What gave you the most engagement…and what posts brought you in orders? 

Step 2 – Set SMART goals or objectives.

Set objectives (or goals) and think of a catchy concept. In other words what do you want to achieve through your Christmas campaign? Here are some ideas…

• Increase my sales by xx% in the month of December.
• Increase sales for a specific product.
• Get more traffic to my website shop/online shop.
• Get new customers.

Make sure that you don’t have too many goals – one or two is enough. Make sure each of your goals is SMART… Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

Once you have your goal(s) in place, you can look at your catchy concept – what is going to draw customers and potential customers in? This is about making your social media pages attractive and maybe having a specific hook. Examples of specific concepts could be:

• You sell candles that you make and decorate with festive designs. As well as this, you could source some plain LED candles (for those who have small children or worry about having lit candles at Christmas with all the decorations) – and decorate them with your festive designs. This opens you up to a whole new market.
• If you make biscuits, give ideas on how they can be used to create different Christmas themed sweets – maybe a kit so people can paint or create their own designs.
• You make hanging decorations for Christmas trees – you could include a range of decorations for other events at Christmas, such as ‘Baby’s First Christmas 2023’, ‘First Christmas in our new home 2023’, ‘Happy Christmas Birthday’ or ‘First Married Christmas’. You could offer further personalisation on these such as names or date/year.

You just need to put your thinking cap on and try and come up with a unique idea.

Step 3 – Understand your audience.

This might seem really obvious, but take a moment to think about your customers and followers – who are you aiming your Christmas social media posts at? To reach your goals, you need to understand what your audience wants, what they like and don’t like…and when they are active on social media, so you are posting at the optimum time to tempt them in.

For example, your audience might prefer videos of your products instead of images. You might get more sales from a ‘live’ event showing your audience your products or a small range of them.

This harkens back to looking at what worked last year – try out the type of post that was most successful last year and see what happens. It’s worth trying a range of posts to see which ones work for your particular audience.

As part of understanding your audience you also need to create engaging captions. Your posts need to be visually appealing, with captions that you’re your audience in so that your posts lead to great engagement and convert to leads or sales. You know your audience best, so write for your specific audience – looking at previous posts and what was the most popular (from your insights) will help you understand what your audience best reacts to. 

Step 4 – Create a content calendar.

To me, this is one of the most important aspects of your campaign. Once you know the kind of messages you need to create, know what your goals are and who your audience are, you need to decide which social media platforms you’re going to use. For me, that’s simple as I only really use Facebook and Instagram.

Now you can create your calendar – you can do this online or on paper. I always plan mine out on paper. Start by writing down each day – from where you want to start your campaign to Christmas Day (or beyond if you’re planning on a post-Christmas sale.

Then decide what you will be posting each day, including the content, the images you’ll use and post type (whether it be single post, multiple images, carousel, reel, ‘live’ video or recorded video etc). Then jot a couple of notes next to it about the caption and don’t forget a list of at least 5 hashtags per post.

Step 5 – Create your posts.   

Once you have your content calendar or plan, you can start creating your posts. If you’re going to video once a week, film them all in one go, with outfit changes.

Batch create posts using a tool such as Canva.

You don’t have to make them all at once for the whole month – I usually make mine a week in advance.

Then schedule your posts. These will form the bulk of your campaign, and once scheduled you can concentrate on replying to comments, sorting out orders and postage. There will always be time to react to something or add further posts is you want to but get your main post ideas ready.

Step 6 – Adjust your branding. 

Make sure your posts are all themed for Christmas – redo your Facebook cover to show a festive theme, or maybe create 4-5 new Facebook covers showcasing different products or any offers you have on – and change your Facebook cover every week in December. 

Some people also adapt their logos for Christmas too.

Don’t just use your social media to get your products/services out there. Make your email or newsletter festive and if you have a blog, you could write about a specific process you use in making your products or just highlight a couple of your products each week (making your blog look Christmassy) and telling your audience about the benefits of your products/services.

Conclusion

Christmas is one of the most busy and intensive times of year for small businesses and their marketing. Competition is fierce, so you need to think of new and innovative ways to stand out from your competition.

By planning ahead, you are going to be in the best position to reach your goals and make your sales. You’ll feel better being organised and knowing what you’re going to concentrate on selling each week – and you’ll know what posts you need to have to encourage those sales. Having your social media posts planned and even some of them done, means you don’t have to quickly react or be sitting at your desk or with your device in hand trying to think what the hell do I post today?

For a list of ideas for fun and engaging Christmas posts, sign up to my newsletter. You will receive 102 general social media post ideas to start with – and in my next email, which goes out at the end of the October, you will receive a list of fun and engaging Christmas post ideas. Click on the link below to sign up!