Michael Epps Utley 
The holidays are fast approaching. Now is the time to plan for how you can generate more sales before the end of the year.
This article explains marketing tactics you can use to sell more during December.
1. Set Holiday Sales Goals
If you don't set goals, how will you know if you have a financially successful holiday?
Take time before the Christmas selling season to determine how much you want to sell between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
Perhaps it could be a percentage over what you sold during November. Or you could set a dollar amount based on last December’s sales adjusted for current economic conditions and holiday sales forecasts.
Whatever you decide, all your promotional tactics during the month should contribute to reaching your goal.
2. Ensure Your Most Popular Goods and Services are Available
Before you become too focused on selling more this Christmas season, ensure you can keep up with demand. Double-check that you have plenty of inventory and can supply services as required.
If you think you might be facing shortage issues related to a December promotion, take steps to order more inventory or staff up to ensure you don’t disappoint buyers. If you do, they may not return or could leave a negative online rating or review, significantly harming your business.
3. Take Advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday (BF) and Cyber Monday (CM) are critical to launching a successful holiday promotional season. The same goes for Small Business Saturday.
Many people associate the start of holiday shopping with these commercial events, and you want your business to be front and center, no matter what it sells.
Get creative about promoting your business at the launch of the holiday season.
Retailers can offer discounts and holiday-themed items.
Healthcare practitioners can promote wellness services and holiday stress relief at the launch of the season.
Even financial advisors, tax specialists, and legal professionals can join the fray and offer year-end tune-ups or fresh perspectives.
Small businesses can highlight their community involvement with specials on Small Business Saturday.
Beyond merely offering discounts for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which often results in a race to the bottom and reduced profits, consider ways to provide added value, which can be a great way to delight consumers and still realize a decent profit margin.
4. Extend Your Brand to Reflect the Holidays
You’ve likely spent much time and energy building your brand image. As polished and locked-in as this branding may be, it can be a good idea to treat or evolve it to reflect the holidays.
For example, you might update your logo to include a holiday element, such as a holly berry, snowflake, or ornament. Or explore ways to transition your imagery to reflect the season, perhaps by using a seasonal duotone.
Whatever you decide, consider applying it to your website, social media, email, digital advertising, and other marketing tactics so your company tells a complete, end-to-end, branded holiday story.
5. Offer Free Shipping, Delivery, or Service Charges
If you place additional charges on the goods or services you sell, it’s a sure way to drive prospective customers to your competitors during the holidays. People are constantly on the lookout for hidden fees today, especially when shopping online, and are likely to move on rather than buy from a business that seems to be charging more for goods and services than the posted prices.
You will likely need to do some math to ensure your online costs do not include additional charges. You may have to increase your prices and cut spending elsewhere to avoid hidden fees. Still, pricing transparency sends a better message to consumers than a lack of it.
6. Leverage Seasonal Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Keywords
If you want your business to be found online during the holidays, adding seasonal keywords to your Google Ads Campaigns is a smart idea. For instance, your restaurant or catering business might do perfectly well all year long with keywords like “dinner” or “catering for parties.” However, during December, it could make sense to include terms like “Christmas dinner” or “catering for holiday parties” to your mix to ensure your business gets found by people seeking holiday variations of the goods and services you sell.
7. Develop a Gift Guide
If you offer a wide enough array of products and services, consider developing an online gift guide. This can be a great way to show off your selection for different audiences. You can get people to purchase additional things for a single person or explore options for other people. Putting a little effort into developing a guide could go a long way toward generating a lot of additional sales.
Marketing for the Holidays: The Bottom Line
Leverage the information in this guide to help you set holiday sales goals and generate additional sales. December is your last chance in 2024 to create extra income and increase your bottom-line business results for the year. You owe it to yourself, your employees, and the success of your business to make this holiday season the best ever.
