December Marketing Ideas: Drive Growth This Christmas

December is the busiest month on the calendar for just about every business.

With everyone promoting their products and offers just in time for Christmas, it can be hard to make your brand stand out.

That's why we've come up with 5 brilliant ideas to set yourself apart from your competition and ensure your Christmas and New Year's campaigns grab everyone's attention and drive sales.

A classic Christmas sweepstakes is not only a fun way to get into the holiday spirit, but it’s also a powerful tool for driving valuable actions like mailing list sign-ups, social media follows, referrals, and more.

A sweepstakes is a type of giveaway where users complete actions to earn entries, and winners are selected randomly for a chance to win a prize.

By offering the right prize, you can generate a lot of interest and engagement which will make it it easier to connect with your audience and expand your reach.

You can offer Christmas-themed prizes, like gift cards for Christmas presents, festive hampers filled with seasonal goodies, a holiday shopping spree, or a bundle of your top-selling products.

These types of prizes are perfect for getting people excited about your Christmas giveaway and increasing participation.

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Running this type of giveaway is incredibly easy.

All you have to do is customise this template, promote it across all your channels, social media, email newsletters, and your website, and let your audience know they’ll be in for a chance to win an awesome prize when if complete the entry requirements.

Not only will you spread holiday cheer, but you’ll also see a boost in engagement, leads, and brand visibility just in time for the busy holiday season. This is all great in making it easier to sell your Christmas products and get ahead of your competition.

To switch it up a little from a classic sweepstakes where users enter and one person is drawn to win the grand prize at the end, you could try something different like a 12 days of Christmas giveaway campaign.

This works the same way as a sweepstakes, but you then pick a winner every day for 12 days. It’s a fun way to tap into the Christmas tradition of advent calendars. It keeps the excitement and buzz going as participants return daily to enter or check the latest winner, which builds anticipation all the way up to Christmas.

Plus, picking a daily winner can keep them paying close attention to your socials in the lead up to Christmas which will keep you top of mind for last minute shopping.

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On top of that, you can add new bonus entries every day to keep people coming back and completing more valuable actions that will be super beneficial in driving sales.

Instead of tapping into the advent calendar tradition, you could use Secret Santa as a fun twist.

This campaign adds an extra layer of excitement; not only does the winner get a prize, but they also get to gift one to a friend.

Here’s how it works: users enter by completing valuable actions like signing up for your email list, following you on social media, or sharing your posts. They then also nominate a friend who could win a prize as well.

This way, you're not only engaging your current audience, but also reaching new potential customers through the nominations.

It's a fun way to spread Christmas cheer while increasing brand awareness, increasing your reach and visibility, and driving customer growth.

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Christmas is a time when people are taking photos of their beautiful festive decorations, Christmas trees, and holiday jumpers.

So it's a great way to capitalise on that excitement and creativity and get people to submit photos of their creations.

This is a brilliant way incentivise users to submit user-generated content which you can use as fresh content for your social media, in galleries on your website, and in your future marketing efforts.

You can check out here how to use user-generated content in your marketing and how to create stunning galleries on your website with Gleam.

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Another great occasion you need to ramp up your marketing strategy for is New Year.

Everyone is spending so much at Christmas, sales can slow down in New Year. So it's a good idea to build up your line communication with customers so you can keep in contact with them after the buzz dies down.

A New Year's sweepstakes is the perfect way to do this. It helps you engage your audience, build excitement, and maintain interest in your brand. You can also try offering prizes that align with the fresh start mindset of New Year, like gym trials, planners and organisers, or healthy meal kits.

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