Holidays are just as important for businesses as they are for consumers.  Holidays are the best times of the year for your company to drive up sales and customer engagement.  Not quite sure about how to do this?  Have no fear!  This article will discuss the importance of holidays for businesses and how to best prepare for and make the most out of any given holiday.

The importance of holidays for businesses

The common thread between most, if not all common holidays is that they are the times of the year that people will be buying the most.  Whether it’s food or candy, gifts, or even decorations, it’s almost guaranteed that people will head to any store en masse, digital or physical.  Most businesses understand the importance of holiday sales spikes and the massive influx of customers, so they do their best to prepare for the holidays in whatever way they can.

How to prep your business for the holidays

While this article is meant to be centered around digital businesses, most of these tips can be used for anyone running a business during the holidays.   Now, here are a few things that you can do for your business around the holidays:

1. Understanding the major holidays: Before you do anything, make sure you have a good understanding of what each of the major holidays are like.  You need to take note of things like what’s actually celebrated, what color schemes or aesthetics are most commonly associated with the holidays, and the emotions and tones that people usually feel around those holidays.  For example, Christmas, arguably one of the most important times of the year for any business, is associated with gift giving, joy and merriment, and the colors red, white and green.  This may seem pretty obvious for those who actually celebrate the holidays themselves, but understanding the simple and obvious things will  help make your seasonal marketing or advertising seem more natural and less corporate.  Knowing as much as you can about the holidays will help you incorporate those colors, aesthetics, colors, emotions, etc., temporarily into your brand around the holidays.  Make it seem like your company is celebrating the holidays alongside your customers.  It should be a fun time for everyone involved, not just your business.
2. Incorporate the holidays into your ads: As mentioned above, your holiday performance can only be as good as your seasonal advertisements.  This is your opportunity to make your seasonal deals and plans known to your consumer base, so you need to make that announcement as memorable as possible.  Taking the first step into consideration will be a good start, but you also need to give the people something to get excited over like you would with any other advertisement.  You need to give them something during the holidays that they can’t get at any other time.  Ideas for this will be discussed in the next few steps.
3. Seasonal product variation: Most companies sell a seasonal variation of their already existing product once the holidays roll around.  Once you have a good understanding of what the holidays are about, you can incorporate some of those elements into your seasonal products.  You can essentially “sell” your consumers the holiday through these kinds of products.  Some good examples of seasonal products are Sprite Cranberry (sold around Christmas), McDonalds’ Shamrock Shake (sold around St. Patrick’s Day), and the multitude of seasonal shapes that Reese’s has to offer.  If your seasonal product is popular enough, it will become something that consumers will look forward to once that time of year rolls around again.
4. Run a sale: People already shop like it’s the end of the world around the holidays, so why not give them an incentive to do so?  Like seasonal products, sales are almost synonymous with the holidays.  This is the time where your sales can go through the roof, so you have to give your consumers a good reason to buy your product.  Give your product the lowest price it’s even been sold at around the holidays, especially around Black Friday or Christmas.  Show your customers a deal that they can not refuse.
5. Start early: Walk into any big name drug/convenience store or grocery store around or after Thanksgiving, and it’s almost guaranteed that they already have their Christmas decorations up and their seasonal products on full display.  Most consumers always wonder why these companies are quick to rush this when they have plenty of time, but from a marketing point of view, it makes sense.  These companies are planting the seeds in your head about your next holiday, and by extension your next purchase(s).  They are generating hype and fervor for the next big event, and subtly reminding their customers to keep their company in mind once shopping time comes around.  Early preparation doesn’t stop at the next immediate holiday.  Once a new year begins, any company could benefit from a general game plan for how they are going to tackle every holiday for the year, so they aren’t scrambling to get things done like their customers scrambling to find a gift last minute.

There are many great tips to help prep your business for the holidays, digitally and otherwise, but these few general suggestions are the most common and the most effective.  Think of them as a guideline to build off of once the holidays start rolling around.

Specific digital preparations

Now that the basics have been covered, it’s time to get digital.  If you’re running a website, an online marketplace,or a social media page, here are a few ways to manage a potentially larger-than-anticipated online audience:

1. Secure your website: The most important thing you need to consider for the holidays is the large influx of online traffic that could be headed to your website.  Either you or a tech expert needs to make sure that your website can still run smoothly and stable with a bunch of people trying to use it at the same time.  The last thing you want to happen is your website crashing while a large mass of customers are trying to buy things at once.  That would potentially ruin the holidays for everyone involved.  Make sure that you stabilize your website or marketplace ahead of time so you can avoid a disaster.
2. Make your site or page festive: As mentioned earlier, your online presence should get festive to match the upcoming holiday.  Once you’ve taken notes of the aspects of any given holiday, inject them into your online presence and aesthetics.  Do a festive recoloring of your logo and/or profile picture.  Litter some festive elements around your website.  Get some holiday related ads up if you have any seasonal products to push.  Hint at some relevant upcoming sales.  Just like physical stores, you want to get your “decorations” up early.  Since it should cost you nothing to get them up, however, you have some time to spare.  You can afford to implement these changes closer to the next holiday, instead of a month in advance.  Just make sure it gets done on time.
3. Get your sale(s) ready: If your online shop or marketplace is hosting a holiday sale, make sure that sale is going to be implemented properly ahead of time.  The site, for whatever reason, may glitch out and accidentally charge someone full price when it’s listed as 70% off.  You or your tech expert needs to make sure that this does not happen.  If your company’s site is no stranger to running online sales, then this might not be an issue for you.  If it’s your first time hosting a sale, however, then make sure that everything is going to run smoothly during the purchasing process.

The general idea behind all of these tips is planning early and insurance of stability.  Your site or social media page is going to go through some potentially big changes, and they potentially have to handle more online traffic then you’ve seen all year.  You need to make sure that everything is going to run smoothly, and ensure that your customers or social media followers have a great holiday when they interact with your business.

Conclusion

The holidays can be a stressful time for everyone.  You can avoid a lot of that stress if you plan out your next moves ahead of time, and make sure any changes that you make are implemented properly and smoothly to avoid any mid-holiday panic.  That way, you can relax and enjoy yourself a bit, while you continue to provide quality service and/or products to your loyal consumer base.  It is the holidays, after all.  It’s the time of year where you’re allowed to relax a little bit, the time when you can drop the corporate veil a little bit and connect with your customers on a more human level, so make sure no problems pop up that would prevent that.  It should be a celebration for everyone involved, so make sure nothing rains on your parade ahead of time.