The run-up to Christmas is a crazy time for a lot of B2C businesses, but is often a quiet period for B2B companies. For many B2B businesses, the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas and the ‘Twixtmas’ time between Christmas and New Year marks the end of the year and an opportunity for some well-earned downtime and mince pies.
However, it’s not just retailers that stand to profit from Christmas. There are several ways in which B2B businesses can use the festive season to plan new campaigns, create new content, and focus on their company culture and value proposition. This can help lay the foundations for New Year sales and marketing campaigns, and set the tone for the coming year – without taking too much time away from your office fuddle.
A lot of your customers will be in the same position as you. While winding down around Christmas, they also have one eye on the New Year, and some businesses run their budgets from January to December. To capitalise on this, put together a Christmas offer – either a discount, vouchers, or value-added service – for anyone who finalises the deal and gets set up before the New Year. Depending on the length of your sales cycle, we recommend launching this several months in advance.
Christmas is the perfect time to connect with your customers as people. Send them a short Christmas email, pick up the phone, or send them a small gift. Thank them for their business and the role they have played in your story over the past 12 months. Nothing salesy or over branded, and no strings attached, just time invested in strengthening and maintaining your human relationships.
Even if your line of work isn’t directly Christmas -related, you can still adapt your marketing strategy and content to resonate with the festive mood. In particular, you could use your blog, YouTube channel, and social media to highlight how your services or products can solve your customers’ year end challenges, or help prepare businesses for the opportunities of the New Year. On a lighter note, you might choose to ‘humanise’ your content at this time of year, focusing not so much on sales as on the personal aspect of your business. Talk candidly about your journey over the past year, shedding a spotlight on your staff, enjoyable projects, and your plans for growth and development in the coming year. It’s also a good time to showcase your top five case studies from the past year.
Social media and Christmas go together like turkey and gravy, so use your social platforms in the run-up to Christmas to dive deep into the festive spirit. There are plenty of ways you can use social media at Christmas to enhance your business visibility without explicitly pushing sales. You could, for instance, promote a chosen charity, using content to draw awareness to their cause, encouraging donations, and maybe featuring your staff taking part in sponsored events. You could also share candid pictures from your office Christmas Jumper Day, daring customers and contacts to post pictures of themselves wearing a Christmas jumper. Incentives, shares, or small gifts – e.g. downloadable content – could be available for people who pose in a Christmas jumper on social media with your chosen campaign hashtag. Keep it light-hearted and fun. It’s easy for businesses to lose momentum over the Christmas shutdown, so keeping in touch with your customers in this way will help keep your company front of mind when they return to business as usual after the holidays.
Get in touch with JDR today to find out more about Christmas B2B marketing and how you can use the festive season to increase brand awareness and drive sales.
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