‘Tis (almost) the season to be jolly which means that it is almost time for one of the busiest periods this year – Christmas. Christmas shopping in particular is a hectic time for us all, regardless of whether or not we started our Christmas shopping earlier than last year.
For businesses, it is crucial that they leverage this busy time as consumers are more active than ever during the festive season! So how can your brand capture the attention of busy Christmas shoppers?
What the Christmas season means for footfall
Christmas means spending time with family and friends, giving and receiving presents, feasting delicious food, and celebrating merrily with drinks and Christmas songs. However, before this, we must do some shopping. Christmas shopping is exciting and stressful at the same time, but businesses can capitalize on this by modeling their marketing campaigns to appeal to Christmas shoppers.
Christmas sales declined from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic but hit its peak in 2021 with £84.17 billion spent on Christmas. With Christmas coming up, you can expect some chaos like with any normal Christmas pre-pandemic, which brings the question – can brands even capture our attention?
Tips for catching the attention of Christmas shoppers
Attention is not so easily held in an era where everything is begging for our attention. With Christmas especially with the glitz and glamour of the most wonderful time of the year, how do brands make themselves stand out?
The following lists some ways in which brands can grab the attention of Christmas consumers this year:
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Offering discounts –
Despite the current cost of living crisis, this will not stop Christmas shoppers from purchasing Christmas gifts this season, but one sure way that will catch their attention? Reduced costs. Discounts or sales on products will grab any customer’s attention, especially if they typically buy many presents during Christmas.
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Personalizing the message –
During the busy Christmas season, there will be numerous brands attempting to ‘talk’ to customers, but whether customers listen and respond depends on their marketing strategy. The ‘cocktail effect’ explains how a personalized message is more likely to be effective than a general one as people tend to tune in to conversations even in noisy environments when they are mentioned. As a result, if sending emails to potential customers, for example, it would be worthwhile personalizing them by directly using their name.
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Offline shopping –
Although online shopping will no doubt be popular during Christmas, you should not overlook supermarket advertising as many customers will unquestionably be present here, especially for any last-minute Christmas shopping. This can range from visual ads showing on kiosks or even banners or standing posters inside supermarkets themselves. Add some billboards alongside bus stop ads, and you have got yourself ads that will definitely be seen by the general public.
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Remove purchasing barriers –
This means that you must make the purchasing decision for customers easier by enabling instant buys, pay-later schemes, and easy-to-understand policies on returns and refunds. When Christmas shopping, customers want to purchase items to arrive before Christmas – so ensure that you have stated when the cut-off is for products to arrive prior to Christmas day.
And there you have it – just a few ways your brand can catch the attention of busy Christmas shoppers.