You may think it a little extreme writing about Christmas in the first week of September, but I need to warn you that there are only 113 days left until the fat guy invades your home. I choose the word “warn” carefully because if you are a business hoping to maximise your turnover and profitability over the Christmas period, you need to start planning your strategy now.
Sleigh Bells Ring…
Many retail businesses depend on the month of December over any other month of the year. Even the big boys start salivating about now as they hope to break last years figures; and you can see why. According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), a record amount of online shopping was done last December. Internet purchases grew over 19% over the previous year and was the fastest increase in four years.
Are You Listening…
So what does this mean? Quite simply if you’re not selling on the internet you are going to be very fortunate indeed to increase your turnover and don’t be surprised if your figures actually slump over this time of year. Remember Morrisons last Christmas? Like for like sales in the six weeks up to the 5th January 2013 fell 5.6% due to the supermarket chains lack of online presence. On the flip side, stores such as John Lewis and Next reported a big jump in online sales. This year the total online spend for UK shoppers is estimated at £107bn. Who wouldn’t want a slice of that?
Christmas Tree…Oh Christmas Tree…
There is no excuse in this day and age for any business not to be selling their products or services online. If you do fall in this category of non believers though, it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon as long as you get cracking now. You probably have a website (surely) and many of you are no doubt thinking “Thats fine and dandy but it’s not uprooting any (Christmas) trees”. If thats the case, you need to look at your internet marketing.
Joy to the World…
So, the options are SEO which I’ll call Search Engine Optimisation, because thats what it means, and Pay per Click (PPC) the most popular of which is Google Adwords. Usually, any strategy that you devise for your business will consist of both of these methods. SEO is a long term strategy and takes time to deliver results. PPC can, in the right hands, deliver those results much quicker.
Oh Come all ye Faithful…
Yes, you can learn about PPC yourself, but if you really want to cash in over Christmas you need to forget the learning curve and engage a reputable online marketing agency who is a Google Partner to implement and run your campaign. That way you may have the best Christmas ever and sleigh your competition.
Joyful and Triumphant…
It’s snow good procrastinating, if you’re hoping for your own little Miracle on 34th Street you need to be prepared to start now, this instant, because if you don’t, someone else will. Remember, 113 days and counting!
Happy Christmas.
