How to get your business ready for the holiday shopping season - 10 tips and tricks

All businesses look forward to the holiday shopping season. They’re the best time of the year to celebrate the past year’s successes, generate even more business before the year ends, and foster meaningful relationships with clients and customers.

People generally flock to local stores and businesses during the Holidays, whether to find supplies and gifts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or New Year's Eve. As such, all businesses can boost their revenue during the peak holiday season, but only if they’re prepared.

If you’re not adequately prepared for the Holiday season, and if you don’t find creative ways to stay at the forefront of your customers’ minds, your competitors may get the upper hand. Right now you can get up to 50 percent off gifts using the promo code HOLIDAY, so it's a great time to shop. Below, we offer 10 tips and tricks to get ready for the holiday season and keep your brand on the top of everyone's minds!

Send holiday sale postcards to your customers

People often save a bulk of their shopping needs for the holiday season because most stores and businesses offer attractive sales and discounts. If you’re like most businesses, you probably have a few sales lined up already. There’s no better way to promote those sales, events, offerings, and promotions than with personalized postcards. You can design custom postcards in the holiday theme to attract the right customers to your store, all while spreading holiday cheer!

Release a brochure with holiday specials

Holidays are the time to go beyond your store’s general offerings and try new things. Starbucks, for example, always has a selection of holiday-special drinks, such as the Pumpkin Spice Latte, during the holidays. And if one of your holiday-themed ideas is a success, you can also integrate it into your general offerings!

If you’re a spa, for example, you can offer some special winter-themed rejuvenation packages to attract customers. Or, if you’re a clothing store, you can introduce some holiday-themed outfits. Whatever your holiday specials are, you can mail them to potential customers in the form of attractive display brochures!

Thank your customers with personalized mugs

All businesses send holiday cards, and most of them are summarily thrown away by the recipients. If you truly want to make a unique impression on your customer, send personalized mugs instead. Everyone loves a good coffee mug, so it’s more likely to fill them with warmth for your business. Furthermore, since coffee mugs are used regularly, they’re more likely to be reminded of your business every morning as they brew a cup of coffee!

Encourage your customers to wear your brand

Do you know what’s better than a customer who appreciates your gifts? A customer who appreciates your gifts so much that they advertise your brand to everyone! One of the easiest ways to extend your brand’s marketing and draw even more customers is to send personalized t-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags, and other wearables to your existing customers.

While designing personalized shirts and sweaters, make sure they’re attractive enough for your customers to wear them outdoors. The item should also bear your brand’s logo. As such, wherever your customers go, they’ll carry a prominent reminder of your brand. This is the best way to make the customer feel connected to your brand while promoting yourself.

Provide flyers with post-holiday discounts

You will probably receive a lot of new customers and clients during the holiday season that can be converted into regulars. You can do that by offering incentives, promotions, and discounts for the post-holiday period. Whenever a customer shops at your store, offer them a seasonal flyer with information about post-holiday discounts. This will encourage them to re-visit your store after the holiday rush and possibly become regular customers.

Ensure your customers remember you throughout the next year with personalized calendars

Personalized calendars are the best way to stay on top of your customers’ minds. You can design attractive calendars that your customers will want to display in high-traffic areas, such as their living room or bedroom. You should ideally keep the branding small and focus more on aesthetics so they’re more incentivized to use the calendar.

You can mark the calendar with important dates for your business — dates when you’re most likely to host events or promotions. As such, whenever your customers consult the calendar, they’ll be reminded of your business and potential sales opportunities. A carefully designed and strategized calendar can help you maintain traffic throughout the year!

Encourage your customers to shop while working with personalized mousepads

If you truly want to get creative, you can offer personalized mousepads to your customers and clients. Since most people work from computers these days, they’re sure to need a strong supply of mousepads. You can offer attractive mousepads featuring your brand’s logo and website, thus staying at the forefront of their minds, especially when they’re already at the computer.

Send engraved pens to your customers 

Everyone loves signing their names with premium, engraved pens. The act of signing off with an attractive pen can offer a sense of power. And if you can get your customers to use your engraved pens, that sense of power can be transmitted to your brand. You can send high-quality, premium, engraved pens to your most loyal customers, thus generating a positive relationship with them.

Hang posters and banners around your store

As mentioned before, customers love sales, promotions, and discounts, especially during the holiday season. You can print attractive posters and banners that you can hang around your store and neighbourhood. This is sure to catch the right eyes, helping you gain foot traffic and new customers. Posters and banners can also encourage customers to purchase items they didn’t know they needed.

Offer personalized gift baskets to customers

Everyone loves free gift baskets. As you get into the spirit of the holidays, you can prepare unique gift baskets for your most cherished customers. The gift basket can include personalized pens, notebooks, mousepads, t-shirts, sweatshirts, or any number of the other things mentioned previously. Not only will your customers be thrilled to receive the gift, but they’ll be actively reminded of your business whenever they use the products.

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