christmas shortages9

Strategies for Small Businesses to Avoid Christmas Order Shortages

Christmas is a busy time of the year for every business which is the main reason why preparing your marketing plan and strategy for the holiday period in advance is important, but there are many other factors that contribute to this. This article will cover why you should have your Christmas marketing plan ready, the importance of knowing what you are going to do over the Christmas period, and why it’s not too late if you haven’t prepared yet!

Preparing for Christmas is something people either love or hate. Even if you don’t like the festive season it’s something your business needs to plan for. This doesn’t have to be a concrete day-to-day plan, however, it should cover what you are going to do to try and increase sales over the Christmas period and how your business will achieve this. A few things this could include which I will go into more detail about later in the blog are planning things such as special Christmas offers, having unique Christmas marketing content, well-designed Christmas menus, having the right budget for seasonal marketing and advertising, and much more. Whatever your business specializes in there are many ways in which you can prepare for the busy period. We will be revealing some tips you can use for your business’s Christmas marketing by understanding what Kenyans will be ordering this year!

Also Read:

  1. 8 Tips for a Successful Family Business.
  2.  Financial survival Tips now that Corona destroyed your savings.
  3. 6 Tips for Business Success this Christmas.

 

As a small business, 2021 has been quite tough on you. From several government cuts and the consequential effects of Covid-19? Nothing is left in despair. What is to be expected later in the year is the fact that previous hypes and fun will not exist as they used to be. There would be a relaxed shortage of some items, which on the other end many Kenyans will be having a high demand for them. The equilibrium balance between supply and demand will shift the negatives to supply, causing discomfort in the economy. As early as this speculating what Kenyans will be ordering this Christmas, and next year, a concrete plan needs to be drawn. Let’s start here;

Why should you prepare for Christmas now?

  1. Let your customers know!

One reason why your business should plan is so that customers are aware of what you are doing over the Christmas period before your competitors. This is important for many sectors of business for example if you are a restaurant or bar and are having a special event or different menus over the Christmas period, it is important to let people know about this as soon as possible. This is so that you get the upper hand over competitors and people start to think about coming to your facilities over Christmas. Whereas if people are waiting for your menus to be revealed they may see other menus and events from competition and book with them rather than your restaurants. This could mean that your business would miss out on potential bookings and have a decrease in sales.

This is a valid point especially if your business is a niche and works effectively in the holiday season, like e-commerce businesses, restaurants, and other businesses that have high demand over the busy period. Preparing early ensures that people who are looking for presents or to book Christmas parties will clearly be able to see what you have to offer.

  1. More time to concentrate on other jobs.

If you don’t prepare for the Christmas period early, then it means that when the time comes you will be stressed about everything that you have to do for the buy time of year. So preparing in advance and having a plan of action will mean that you and your business will have more time to concentrate on other things like making sure customer service is at a high standard and other important factors. It is also important to plan and take time to look at last year’s results, firstly to try and improve on these so that your business can grow. But also, reviewing the previous year’s Christmas period will ensure you have enough stock for an influx of sales. Planning this will reduce stress and save you time in the future.

What you can do to stand out this Christmas?

After planning well, knowing the tastes and preferences of your markets, it’s good to make your business stand out.

Here are some hints and tips to make your business stand out over the Christmas period and ways you can start to prepare for the festive season now!

  • Have an effective email marketing newsletter. Use your email marketing list to your advantage and send an effective newsletter over the festive period, you can do this by having information about your business and what you will be doing over Christmas as well as a small offer in the email. This will be effective because people are always looking for offers over Christmas and if you have an effective email marketing campaign that offers a discount for a free gift this will generate more clicks to your website and prompt people to spend money with you. This is also one of the best ways to reach as many customers as possible over Christmas as social media feeds are clogged up with hundreds of posts it will be hard for your organic posts to get viewed without spending a huge amount of money. So, email marketing is an effective way to reach customers without having a huge budget. Another effective technique that you can start planning now is having a theme to your content through the Christmas period. This can be something as simple as adding a different color to your posts or an icon on your logo, something that people will identify when they see your posts. This will mean that you will have a consistent theme running through your brand’s social posts and advertising through December and will stand out as people will be intrigued by what you are doing.

 

  • Run an intriguing social media campaign. Having a social media campaign in the run-up to Christmas that people want to see more of will be effective for businesses as it will drive traffic and engagement to your social media which will result in more traffic on your website. Using an enticing campaign running up to Christmas means that people will be intrigued and will want to view your content, therefore you won’t have to boost these posts to gain engagement. This could be something like having a social advent calendar which could reveal something every day such as tips, discounts, facts, and more as this is all stuff that people want to see or have a unique countdown to Christmas on your social media so that people will follow your page and remember your business.

Also Read:

  1. How Business owners can leverage their networks to compete in the New Market. 
  2. Building Trust Within Your Organization- SMEs
  3. Why MSMEs are still winning in the Kenyan Economy.

  • Use effectively designed content. This is important to make your business stand out as you obviously always want your business to stand out but especially over Christmas. As a result of everything being so busy over Christmas so is social media and any advertising space, because of the buzz there will be more content on all platforms throughout December than any other time of the year. It is worth investing in something unique and effective design to make your business stand out.

Christmas is a busy period in all aspects of life, to make sure that your business is prepared.

Do you need Christmas marketing material designing? If you would like any more advice on planning your business strategy for Christmas and other tips and tricks like choosing when and where to advertise, producing Christmas brand voices, having Christmas branding and considering a Christmas redesign, and much more, get in touch we would love to help you!

Mombasa, Kenya.

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