While it can certainly be confusing why some businesses appear to skip Thanksgiving and go straight into Christmas preparations, there seems to be a good reason for this. Preparing your business for the upcoming holidays is a time-intensive task, and since Christmas is one of the biggest holidays out of the entire year, it makes sense to start these preparations as soon as possible and get a lot of your strategies underway. Some would even argue that it’s a little late to begin your holiday prep, but on the other hand, any holiday prep is beneficial and it’s best to start as soon as you can. While starting today might be considered late by some, it’s still plenty of time to do some great work.

7 Ways to Prepare Your Online Business for the Holidays!

Obviously there are many ways you can prepare your online business for the upcoming holidays, so be sure to spend some deliberate time brainstorming and creating strategies specific to your unique niche, brand, and market. You’re sure to come up with some remarkable ideas that could specifically benefit you and your customers. However, if you’re needing inspiration or lacking some creative juices, check out these ideas:

1. Offer a holiday discount. Specific holiday-themed discounts can help you get your products or services in front of people already looking to spend money. This is also a great way to get current customers talking to friends and family who have been looking for the things you provide. If your business is selling products but you don’t wish to discount your merchandise, then an excellent discount to offer is free-shipping, or even a discounted next-day-delivery price. People love to avoid shipping costs, so seeing a “free shipping” discount is a really great way to get them to buy from your online store.
2. Write a festive newsletter. This can be used to bring your customers up to date on current offers, products, services, or more during the holiday time period. This is one of the best ways to reach past customers without a huge amount of effort or money. Newsletters can easily be themed for a holiday, and making sure it looks clean and professional is a great way to get customers to purchase from you.
3. Write a holiday-themed blog post. Not all of us are writers, but even making an attempt at engaging with your customers can help you exponentially. You could write about practically anything during the holidays, such as your current holiday offers, a list of great present ideas (that include your products or services!), what’s going on at your business during the holidays, or anything else that you think your specific customers and audience will find interesting or beneficial. When writing a blog post, however, always keep in mind the promotions you are trying to offer this holiday season and do your best to make sure your posts are SEO friendly to help drive the right traffic.
4. Use your social media properly. Your business should always have an active and relevant social media presence, but during the holiday season it is crucial to keep your content relevant in order to get the results you want. There are different ways to use social media depending on what platform you have. Twitter, for instance, is an excellent way to keep your customers up-to-date on latest offers or upcoming events. Facebook is great for actually scheduling events, offering information, and making networking connections. Instagram is perfect if you’re looking to showcase seasonal images of your products, brand, or services. Understanding your social media platform of choice is the best way to use it properly throughout the holidays.
5. If you have the option, offer to gift-wrap before shipping. It’s possible that this idea won’t apply to your specific business, but if there is any way you can include this option during the holiday season then you should do it. Gift wrapping is festive, exciting, and helpful, so not only is it fun for your customers to receive pre-wrapped presents, but it’s possible that they’re terrible at wrapping presents and want someone else to do it for them anyway! This will also interest the people who are far too busy to gift wrap all of their presents themselves and will greatly appreciate some help.
6. Do a holiday redesign. Update your social media profile and background photos to holiday-themed pictures. Add holiday banners to your website. Utilize a temporary logo-update that includes holiday themes. Not only will this be a fun change for a little while, but the people visiting your site, social media, sales page, and more will be impressed by your organization and likely be encouraged to purchase from you.
7. Don’t forget about New Year. New Year’s is right around the corner and there will be a lot of resolutions kicking in along with January 1st. Consider how you can make your business better for the year, but also how you can make it more serviceable and beneficial to your current and potential customers

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Have a great day!!

Robyn Bennett