The Golden Quarter is coming back around and, if you haven’t already, it’s high time to get your marketing plan into shape.

We’ll be taking you through the key dates you need to know about and how to prepare for them.

Get your set-up right

Know what you want. As with any planning, know what your goals are for these events. Of course you want to increase sales, but do you also want more leads, more social media followers, or something else altogether?

Get your assets (messaging, imagery, video) sorted. Remember assets such as countdown clocks and social media polls to bring some pizzazz to your marketing.

Take stock (as it were): Check that you have the stock to meet demand, especially if they’re being heavily discounted or are part of a wider offer.

Flow through your journey: Send a test email to yourself to ensure everything works. Click through the links and trial the payment process and any post-sale communications run smoothly. Ensure your website can withstand extra traffic when the holiday floodgates open. Now, do it again via your social media channels!

Keep your customers in the know: Update your Google Business Profile if you need to. Update your website with those crucial Christmas and New Year opening times. Any changes you need to make to your delivery times and charges, make it obvious to the customer.

Revisit previous campaigns: Even if they’re not Q4 campaigns, suss out what went well and what could be done better, on all fronts.

Prep your display assets and decorations: Now for the fun bit. Design your Christmas look for your website, get your decorations out of storage (or out of a shop, if you don’t have any), and put them in your window. For those who haven’t already, order your Christmassy packaging, donned with images of holly, robins, Christmas trees and Santa.

Key dates to know about

Pop these in your calendar, with enough time to reel in your audience.

Black Friday deals begin on Amazon (expected)

Thanksgiving in the USA

Small Business Saturday (UK)

Sometimes being more flexible and reactive pays off. “Whilst it’s of course important to have as much photography, video footage, key messaging as possible, leaving some flexibility allows businesses to respond to customer feedback, emerging themes and unexpected bestsellers,” said Hannah Bartlett, founder of The Christmas Insider.

Bennett has inspired us to stretch our imagination and think beyond the obvious dates and sales pitches. Events like Giving Tuesday and Christmas Jumper Day all offer opportunities to connect with customers beyond product promotions. “Sharing behind-the-scenes moments, personal Christmas traditions and helpful ideas make emails more than just a sales pitch, giving subscribers more reasons to open and engage with them,” she told Small Business.

Timeline for Q4 marketing campaign

Try out your messaging on social to see how it performs. Start to drum up awareness of your campaigns. Get your assets on display in-store and online.

Start your paid campaigns and check that your customer journey runs smoothly.

Your online systems should be able to cope with extra traffic. Have someone on hand in case your systems go down. Read more at How to prepare your website for Black Friday traffic.

The rest of November: Analyse your data and try to figure out obstacles that might have prevented customers from buying, such as mandatory account creation, high hidden shipping costs or slow page loading speeds. Take these lessons forward and line up your Christmas marketing.

Send out Christmas offers on products and services (e.g. getting hair done for the work Christmas party). It’s wise to push out gift cards in the later parts of December for last-minute or forgotten Christmas presents.

If you run a business in health and fitness, this is your time to shine. Businesses dealing in yoga challenges, workout programmes, smoothie makers and fruit and veg boxes, your marketing should be long ready by now. This applies to other businesses that are tied to New Years’ resolutions, such as taking care of your finances, passing your driving test or, to be terribly self-referential, starting your own small business.

Budget split

This is all fine to say, but how do you divide your marketing budget over Q4?

“I wouldn’t recommend a blanket percentage split between Black Friday and Christmas,” said Rebecca Berry, founder of Berrykin Marketing. “I tell my clients to look at previous campaign results and buying patterns and the business’ ability to fulfil orders. When you have all this data, we decide where best to put the spend.”

It makes sense to focus most of your spend in November, with budget to entice last-minute Christmas gift buyers in December. In November, not only will shoppers be thinking about Christmas presents they can buy more cheaply in the Black Friday sales, but also purchases for them that they’ve had their peepers on. Electrical goods are particularly popular around this time.

However you decide to divvy up your cash, Berry reminds us that your budget needs to consider the whole campaign: planning, creative, email, website updates, and any paid promotion.

“For smaller businesses, I’d concentrate spending on the audiences and channels already generating profitable sales, with a smaller amount reserved for testing,” she added. “Keep some budget available to respond once results come in, and judge performance on sales and margin, rather than just opens and clicks alone.”

It’s been a tough few years for businesses. Just know that you don’t even need to knock money off everything you’re trying to sell. For some businesses, gift wrapping or free delivery can give customers a reason to buy,” said Berry.

Email ideas

How you structure your emails is very much dependent on your business, your audience and what period of Q4 you’re in. The timing of your campaign is just as important as the content. “You want to get in early enough to be considered, but not so early that customers aren’t ready to buy,” said Berry.

In the first part of the season, Bennett suggests focuses on sharing stories and keeping the selling soft while consumers gather inspiration, research brands and plan their purchases. B2B businesses absolutely shouldn’t be neglected here. Service providers could be targeting clients for Christmas/New Year sales, or some practical advice for the season. Bennett, who helps businesses with their Christmas marketing, shares an example from a previous campaign betwixt Black Friday and Christmas.

Once you’ve drawn subscribers into your story, ramp up your strategy. Now is the time to offer exclusive email subscriber discounts or make them aware of events you have coming up, especially if you work in a service-based business. Hone in on your key selling point. Say you’re selling advent calendars this year and there are no repeats. Focus on that as a headline.

Partner up with a local small business that has values similar to yours. You could arrange a giveaway combining your products or services for a mega prize. Say you’re a bakery and you team up with a local masseuse to offer a pampering and afternoon tea prize. You could target two sets of customers and broaden your base, all while supporting a fellow business owner. Just remember with marketing that you must remain GDPR compliant. Make the terms and conditions clear, giving email recipients the option to opt out at any time. If you want to run it on social media, ask followers to follow your accounts and tag a friend in the post to enter.

The tail-end of your campaign will intensify a notch: “As Christmas approaches, decision-making speeds up and emails can shift towards the practicalities: last order dates, delivery details, gift recommendations, and last-minute solutions,” said Bennett.

Berry advised readers to build each email around one clear message, with a subject line that accurately reflects the offer and a clear call to action. Oh, and make the price, product details, and delivery costs easy to find. “People are busy and often just scanning the emails, so it’s important for the key details to be clearly accessible,” she said.

This example from The Glee Club makes it clear what the offer is, encouraging recipients to get a move on by using a limited time offer and a call to action button.

Perhaps you want to go in a different direction and share why you’re not participating in Black Friday. “Small businesses shouldn’t feel pressured to compete with big retailers on blanket discounts,” said Bennett. She added that free delivery, exclusive bundles, gift with purchase or discounts on selected lines may be more appropriate. “Whether it’s Black Friday, Colour Friday, Green Friday or opting out altogether, having a clear position and explaining the thinking behind it can help reinforce the business’ values.”

Merry People, a company specialising in short boots, doesn’t participate in any sales at all. The business has made a real point of this on its website, saying it wants to give customers consistency.

Going beyond Q4

As we’ve already alluded to, your marketing doesn’t stop in the new year. Keep contact with your customers, but keep it respectful.

“Give people a reason to come back in the new year,” said Bennett. “Perhaps that’s a January discount or upsell, but post-Christmas emails can also maintain that connection through a heartfelt thank you, useful advice on caring for or repurposing products, or a sneak peek at what’s coming next. The aim is to build relationships that last beyond the festive rush.”

There doesn’t even need to be any marketing, at least not in the conventional sense. Some smaller companies, like accountants, will send a season’s greetings email that specifies Christmas shutdowns and opening hours. Customers working with you will appreciate the clarity. This email from a small estate agent last year will give you an idea of what to include.

It’s a frantic time for businesses across the UK, so make sure you’re taking time to relax and enjoy the festivities, too. Happy Holidays!