The Christmas season is just around the corner again. For most people this is the most wonderful time of the year, and for businesses often the busiest! 

Almost a third of all sales, occur between Black Friday and Christmas. It is also the period that consumers look forward to and live for the most. ‘The moment to be there as a brand’ in other words. So start rolling out your thoughtful marketing strategy sooner rather than later. 

This article goes over with you some tips & tricks to make a success story out of your gifting marketing strategy! 

6 gifting marketing tips for your business

1. Analyze the results of previous gifting marketing campaigns

The foundation of any good marketing campaign is data. Chances are you also ran a gifting campaign last year. What worked well then? What didn’t work as well? What did you learn last year that you can take away to further optimize your gifting marketing campaign this year? Analyze your previous marketing results and base your strategy for this year on them.  In addition, it is also very important to still make room for new ideas so that you can test them. To do this, it is always interesting to check what your competitors are doing for inspiration.

2. Diversify your marketing tactics

Today, shopping experiences are anything but linear. Search engines, social media platforms, mailing, physical stores, word of mouth are all crucial to consumers’ search for the ideal gifts.

Consequently, the majority of consumers (72%) still plan to purchase their gifts both online and offline. What is important here is that you can also make an impact on your offline sales with your online campaigns.

Keep this in mind when drawing up your gifting marketing strategy and diversify across channels. 

3. Start as early as possible

It is a common misconception that gifts are only purchased around and near the date of Christmas.

In fact, since the beginning of November, we have seen a positive trend in searches for gifts in Belgium.

So based on this, we strongly recommend starting gifting campaigns as early as possible and also preparing them well. 

Make sure you are well prepared so that your content for ads, social media templates, newsletters are all already ready to go. 

“So exactly how early should I get started?” is probably the question on your mind right now. Our answer here: sooner rather than later! There isn’t really a best practice, but ideally you should start before Black Friday since that’s when many people try to score their Christmas purchases at a lower price. Also be sure to check out our article to make a success of your Black Friday strategy.

4. Make strong use of email marketing

E-mail is a good channel to communicate your marketing promotions to a lot of existing customers. 

Here are some ideas that you can use in your mailing to drive additional traffic and sales to your website. 

1. Gift guides: help people make a choice. List your most popular products and divide them into categories. Here you can create a gift guide for men, women, kids or partners. Of course you can go as far in this as you like. Here it can also always be good to take a look at your competitors for some extra inspiration. We also definitely recommend going through the following article from Shopify to get the most out of your gift guide.
2. Giveaways: Give your subscribers an incentive to engage in a particular contest on a different channel. For example, have every every customer post their favorite product that’s at the top of their wishlist on their story on Instagram tagging your brand. The winner gets a $100 gift card. 
3. Subscriber-only flash sale: Differentiate yourself during this busy promotional period by offering exclusive discounts, flash sales, or discount codes to your loyal email database.

5. Offer free shipping

Lower price is one of the main drivers for consumers to purchase from a store they do not know. This points to the fact that price matters a lot even when buying gifts. 

One way to turn this learning to your advantage is by offering free shipping, among other things. A quarter of online shoppers also expect free shipping. That’s why it’s a good idea to temporarily drop the minimum order value for free shipping.

If free shipping is not feasible for you, it is also strong to add a condition – like e.g. free shipping from orders of €50. This way you nudge people to spend more and avoid paying high shipping costs for a €5 order.

Also look at other options, such as ‘buy online, shop in-store’ for stores with a physical store. This way you make it possible for your consumer to get the item earlier for last minute gift shoppers. They don’t have to wait for delivery, and you don’t have to send the package yourself. 

6. Appeal to emotions

Gifting season is a very emotionally charged period. It is the period in the year when we spend the most with our families and think about those who are no longer with us. 

So online businesses can start applying this emotion in their gifting marketing campaigns as well. Whether generating a sense of nostalgia or just a feeling of pure happiness, encourage your consumer to make an emotional purchase – according to research, these also happen 3,000 times faster than rational purchases. 

7. Provide solutions for last-minute shoppers

We’ve all experienced it before. Just a little too late ordering a gift online and no time to go to the store. The solution? Offer an online gift voucher on your website, providing a solution for last minute gifting purchases!

Get started with these tips & tricks and make your gifting marketing campaigns a success! 

Should you need help with anything, don’t hesitate to contact The Dotters so we can support you where needed. 

For some extra tips, you can always check out our article with tips & tricks for the holiday season in 2021 ;-)